sales training
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Why Salespeople Fail to Make Needed Changes
- September 3, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I recently paid a visit to the men’s restroom (more comfortable in that one) where I saw Steve, our building maintenance man, on the floor repairing the sensor that automatically turns the water on and off. About 90 minutes later (right on schedule), I was back and shocked to see Steve still down there on the floor. I asked what was taking so long and he said, “Well it works just fine when it’s not connected to the faucet but when I reconnect it the darn thing stays broken!”
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Top 10 CEO Reactions to My Comments About Their Sales Forces
- August 23, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Just like the salespeople who work for them, CEO’s come in all different sizes, shapes, styles and flavors. As you can imagine, those variances influence the outcomes of sales force evaluations, sales infrastructure, sales and sales management development and sales recruiting. Here is a sampling of how some of the CEO’s react to what I tell them about their sales force:
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Secrets of Effective Sales Development
- March 29, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
“I’ve heard it all before.”
That comment applies to the music AND it can be attributed to some veteran salespeople after reacting to their first day of sales training. No matter what you read about selling, not much has changed in the last 40 years. Even my book, Baseline Selling, is based on concepts that go back as far as 1935. Did I improve on those concepts? Yes! But Selling itself is not a new concept.
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What Are Reasonable Sales Management Expectations?
- March 12, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I am often asked which of the various services we provide to companies can be done in-house, by the executive team. Fair question. Answer: All of them.
So why would companies use us or others with our expertise? Answer: Because when they try to do it in-house they aren’t able to get most of it right:
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Mastering Sales and Sales Management
- February 16, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We’re talking about Mastery of things you have a passion for.
Do you and your salespeople have a passion for sales? What is the thing you do that is equal to repeated listening, watching or practicing? What do you do to know your material cold? Do you attend training as often as you attend concerts, theater or movies? Do you listen to sales training as often as you listen to music? You should be getting exposed to the artist (sales expert) at least twice monthly and listening to their recordings (archives or supplemental material) even more often. In addition, you should be practicing (role playing like our son does) at least 30 minutes per day!
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Sales and Selling – Which Has Evolved More?
- January 19, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Let’s compare the evolution of selling to the evolution of salespeople.
Which do you think has evolved more? After all, both have been around since there has been anything to sell.
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Born to Sell? Give me a Break!
- December 18, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We all have what we believe are better methodologies, strategies and tactics. But there are some topics that are just begging for data – not opinion – and the author I seem to target more than any other just wrote one such article on whether great sales pros are born that way. All opinion. But based on what? He doesn’t really say. He simply uses his two kids as comparison. The problem is, he is dead wrong and the data says so.
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Your Sales and Sales Management Questions Answered Part I
- December 15, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In an article last week, I provided the post to a sales competency contest. The final question in that survey asked the participants for any sales issues they needed help with. Today I’ll answer the first four of those questions below:
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Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions – What’s Missing?
- December 9, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I was asked a really good question yesterday. Why wasn’t the Sales Force Evaluation or the Sales Candidate Assessments part of my series on the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions?
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13 Most Important Tools for Coaching Salespeople
- November 11, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This is the 1st in the series of the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.
#1 – COACHING
In its simplest form, sales coaching consists of the following two activities: