selling

  • Misleading Statistics and Hiring the Wrong Sales Candidates

    • November 3, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The November issue of Fortune Small Business has an article called Entrepreneurial Myth Busters. FSB has Ken Blanchard (consultant )and Scott Shane (academic) go head to head answering questions about small businesses and entrepreneurship. While Blanchard provides insightful answers based on his years of experience working in, consulting to and writing about business, Shane provides surprising answers based on data. I’m sure that if you read the article you’ll agree that Shane’s data lead to some very misleading conclusions. Academics who haven’t been “out there” can fall in love with their data!

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  • Your Salespeople Call on the Wrong People and Expect Them to Buy

    • October 30, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I speak quite often to groups comprised primarily of CEO’s and Presidents.  Yesterday was a good example of that, with about 100 people in the audience.  There were 35 No-Shows, most of whom did not have the title of President or CEO. 

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  • What Have Your Salespeople Been Listening To?

    • October 28, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    In my position as a sales development thought leader and expert I get to hear what many salespeople in many industries are encountering for resistance. In the last few weeks I’ve heard way too much about deals getting suspended due to spending freezes.  Have your salespeople been hearing this?

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  • Who Are Better Salespeople – Men or Women?

    • October 23, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Tom Peters said women are better salespeople than men.

    I wrote that Objective Management Group’s data proves that a greater percentage of women are stronger than men.

    Here is how that data breaks down:

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  • Management’s Guide to the Top 10 Differences Between Sales Winners and Losers

    • October 19, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Friday I wrote this post and today I wrote this longer article about the Top 10 Differences between Sales Winners and Sales Losers.

    This post is the sales management version of the article referenced above.

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  • Sales Force Motivation – Learn From the Red Sox Miraculous Comeback

    • October 17, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When salespeople have plenty of opportunities and have experienced plenty of difficult sales cycles, it’s not such a big deal when an important opportunity dies.  But if it’s a salesperson that has very few quality opportunities or one who hasn’t experienced very many deals that went sour, they react – badly – by getting quite emotional, discouraged, and upset.

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  • Getting Excited About Sales Metrics

    • October 16, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    As we encourage our clients to do each day, both of my companies have daily huddles for their salespeople.  The purpose of the daily huddle is to keep everyone focused on the measurable activities that drive results.

    During the last couple of weeks, I’ve had our six-year old son in the car for about 6 of these conference calls and it only took one huddle to get him hooked.  He wants to report his numbers – and he has them ready – each time he’s with me.  It makes him proud to participate and he wants to report numbers that are better than theirs.

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  • 10 Types of Sales Advisers and How to Choose the One That’s Best For You

    • October 9, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ll bet you know plenty about agreements, contracts, and legal compliance in your industry. You probably know enough about accounting, taxes and audits to get by too.  And I bet you know your way around insurance, investments and real estate.

    Despite all of that knowledge, I’m certain you have a great corporate attorney, corporate accountant, insurance advisers for commercial, benefits and personal lines, and a Realtor.  Some of these people may even sit on your board.

    Do you have a sales expert on your board? On retainer? Working with your sales team?  Your sales management team? On your sales infrastructure? On compensation and incentives?

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  • Top 10 Reasons Why Opportunities Die

    • September 4, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve provided examples before of bringing seemingly lost opportunities back from the dead.  That may be the reason a client asked me to help bring one of his company’s deals back from what might be a near death experience.

    I’m not going to reveal the details of this opportunity (yet) but opportunities like this usually have some common themes.

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  • Obama and Friends On Stage – Implications for the Sales Force

    • August 28, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Back to Denver. Why would those presentations close all of their prospects?

    It met all of the rules for a Baseline Selling presentation:

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