sales training

  • Top 10 Reasons Salespeople Struggle to Get Decisions

    • March 7, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you were to remove the easy “yes” and “no” decisions that your salespeople hear during the course of the year, 80% of the opportunities that have been stalled in your pipeline would still be there.  Why is it so difficult for your salespeople to get decisions made on those opportunities?

    The simple answer, the one you already know, is that those prospects aren’t ready to buy.  Here are ten reasons why your salespeople have them in the pipeline:

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  • Top 7 Reasons Why Ineffective Salespeople Get By

    • February 14, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    the typical salesperson receives, on average, 3 days of sales training in their entire career.  I’ve interviewed thousands of salespeople (the good ones who have been recommended by the Assessment and performed well on a phone interview) and most of them have never had a single day of professional sales training.  And practice?  I can tell you that in the past 26 years, there has not been a single client whose salespeople had been practicing the art and science of selling before I required them to start practicing.

    Why aren’t salespeople getting enough professional training before and during their employment?

    Why aren’t they getting coached the way they should?

    Why aren’t they practicing?

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  • Get Your Sales Force to Perform Magic and Make Sales Appear!

    • January 5, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We don’t talk about it much but sales has a lot of magic to it.

    We disguise the magic and call it art, but when people are unable to describe how it actually works it must be magic.  Want an example?

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  • Must Read – Accenture / CSO Insights Sales Optimization Study

    • December 2, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    In their latest study (thanks to Charlie for sending it to me) – Accenture reported on the 2000 companies worldwide that CSO Insights surveyed. I identified some very interesting findings and if there was a big surprise it was that nothing surprised me!  In fact, it supports everything I’ve written about here for the past 5 years.  Consider the following:

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  • The Biggest Mistake That Salespeople Make at Year End

    • November 30, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Your actions can not be dictated by the time of year.  Your actions must be dictated by where you are in the sales process and the step or stage that must occur next.

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  • Sales Pipeline – Reality vs. What Your Salespeople Know and Think

    • November 28, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What your salespeople think or believe – not a data point.  

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  • Top 7 Things That Consultative Sellers Do

    • November 14, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A small group of experts, especially those that lack this competency themselves, believe that using this competency for selling is manipulative and counters being customer-centric.  They are as entitled to their opinion as I am to mine.  But remember, you simply can’t argue with science, data and results.

    So which competency am I referring to?

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  • The Lion King – Watching a Movie Again Improves Sales Effectiveness

    • November 2, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You can watch a movie you haven’t seen for a while and appreciate the things you missed before.  Your sales force will experience the exact same benefits from rereading the book, having refresher training, and focusing on the areas they didn’t apply and execute the first time around.

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  • Sales Process is to Religion as Sales Methodology is to Prayer

    • October 24, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Whether you have or are a salesperson yourself, if you don’t have BOTH an effective sales process that you follow – religiously – and a sales methodology that you practice – faithfully – you must – convert!  

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  • Top 10 Ways to Increase Sales

    • October 3, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ll bet that every CEO, President, Director, VP of Sales and Sales Manager asks the “how can we increase sales?” question on a regular basis.  Do you?

    There are as many answers to this question as there are politicians running for US President in 2012.  They include but aren’t limited to:

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