selling
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When Salespeople Think the Deal is Closed
- April 11, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A salesperson predicts that an opportunity ‘will close’ or, they do close an opportunity only to have the prospect delay or back out. What causes prospects to change their minds? More importantly, how do your salespeople respond when this happens? Do they follow up at the time suggested by the prospect? Do they wish their prospect luck? Do they walk away with their tails between their legs? Or do they recognize that this is merely another challenge to be overcome?
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Not Closing Sales – Sales Management Problem Solving Strategies
- April 7, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When some of your salespeople aren’t closing sales of certain products or services what does it mean? First it helps to identify the possible causes:
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Spamelot and Selling
- April 1, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’m not a proponent of canned presentations – they’re boring. I hate it when prospects ask salespeople to make a capabilities presentation. Your salespeople are expected to do this and as a result of agreeing to do this, they bore their prospects to death.
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When Salespeople are Struggling
- March 21, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are dozens of reasons why performance among salespeople falls short of requirements or expectations. Your salespeople should over achieve, not under achieve.
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What Salespeople Can Learn From Dogs
- March 12, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Many salespeople could learn the art of timing from Bloomie. Back in the days when I was the primary producer for my company, Bloomie would join me in the conference room for every sales call. At the point in time where I had my prospects feeling most uncomfortable with their situations, Bloomie would awaken from her slumber, wiggle her butt in the air, make some hilarious sounds, wait for the prospect to laugh, and then lay down and go back to sleep.
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The Sales Call Gone Bad
- March 9, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When most salespeople talk about calls gone bad they’re often talking about sales horror stories, a trend developed by Dan Seidman at Monster Sales News. I believe that any sales call that fails to move forward (next step, base or stage) is a bad call. When a prospect ‘didn’t hear anything that interested him’, one of two things happened:
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Losing Customers – Who is to Blame?
- March 8, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Most companies experience losing important customers or clients at some point in time and statistics can certainly support a claim that you can’t keep every customer happy. But it’s that justification that usually hides the real problem, a problem that can duplicate itself again and again.
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Closing the Sale
- March 4, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The interesting thing about this list is that most of the topics have little, if anything to do with closing. As a matter of fact, if a salesperson is effectively executing the process of selling, all of these topics are dealt with long before a salesperson determines that an opportunity is even closeable.
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Shorten the Sell Cycle by Slowing Down the Selling Process
- March 3, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Salespeople hear the first examples of what they believe are compelling reasons to buy, get excited, and skip the most important part of the sales call, rushing into a trial close. Well, the salespeople might be ready to close, but the prospect isn’t! Let me give you an example:
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Salespeople – The Urgency of Selling
- February 4, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s likely the time that sales managers and salespeople spend together is valuable however, let’s not assume that it’s really coaching that is taking place.