sales training
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Sales Excellence Studies Propagate Mediocrity
- February 26, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you conduct a Google search for “sales excellence studies”, you’ll find more than 20,000 results. I’m sure that some results point to surveys which were conducted by others, but either way, that’s a lot of studies on sales excellence. If any of those studies were actually ground-breaking, insightful or truly representative of sales excellence, there would probably be fewer than a dozen. But there are not. There are many reasons why these studies are so lame, but let’s name just a few:
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View From the Top – When Salespeople Call on Purchasing
- February 19, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The single question that salespeople ask more than any other is, “When I’m with Purchasing, they don’t seem to have a compelling reason to buy and don’t care about our value-add. What can I do?” I’ll answer that question shortly. First, I have an analogy to help you see it from my perspective.
Take an elevator up at least 20 floors in Manhattan and immediately you’ll notice that the view from the top is mostly yellow – a sea of taxis mixed in with some limos and buses. From high above Manhattan, I saw these comparisons:
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To Salespeople, Demos and Presentations are Like Snack Food
- February 11, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Prior to learning about healthy eating, I believed a bagel was a healthy alternative to a donut. After I was shown that a carbohydrate converts to sugar in the blood and there wasn’t much difference between bread, bagels or rolls; and donuts, cake or pie, I changed the way that I ate.
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Top 5 Insights From Latest Sales Organization Studies
- February 7, 2013
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The folks over at IKO Systems were nice enough to send me a collection of infographics which they call 66 Crazy Sales Figures. I finally had a chance to read through it and found 5 sales figures which, after I combined them, are quite interesting:
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Top 10 Problems with Veteran Salespeople
- January 28, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For companies who want to grow revenue, veteran salespeople cause more problems than any other factor. After all, if you have a young, energetic group, there’s nowhere to go but up and everyone knows that they need to improve. On the other hand, veteran salespeople believe that they know everything and everyone and probably could lead the sales training class.
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Why Accidental Sales Training Works More Effectively
- January 15, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We stopped in a parking lot adjacent to a busy highway and when I opened the car door, she leaped out and ran toward the oncoming traffic. In a panic, we began screaming. What does all that have to do with sales and sales training?
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Sales Incentives, Awards, Lead Follow-Up and Sales Effectiveness
- December 19, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In the case of appointment setters, as in the email above, training them to be more effective with the appointment-setting conversation will pay dividends too. Not only will the appointments be more qualified, there will actually be more, better-qualified appointments!
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Top 10 Lies Your Salespeople Hear and What to Do About it
- November 15, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you know who else thinks we are morons? Prospects.
How many of your salespeople have been told any of the following lies?
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Top 5 Reasons Why Sales Cold Calls Are So Awful
- November 12, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Today I listened to voicemails from three salespeople who cold called me.
The good news is that three people actually made cold calls! The bad news is that not much has changed. Despite the tools, training, coaching, video, audio and reading that are available, all three calls were as bad as I’ve ever heard.
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10 Keys to Solving the Sales Performance Issue
- October 22, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Your kids won’t eat their vegetables, your parents won’t listen to you, your suppliers won’t provide customer service excellence, the President (as of 10-22-2012) of the United States can’t get the economy going, your football team isn’t winning enough games and the majority of your salespeople are underperforming. You have no control over the football team or the economy, you may have given up on your kids and parents, you can switch suppliers, but what can you do about your salespeople?