- September 8, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Here’s a quote from an article I wrote that appears now on the SellingPower Blog. It’s an analogy to help you understand why asking questions is so difficult for most salespeople.
“You’ve been driving a car since you were a teenager, but your cars have always had an automatic transmission and you’ve always driven on standard roads. Now we will ask you to drive a much larger car, drive it at faster speeds, on an obstacle course, with people in your way. Oh, and one more thing – for the first time, you’ll be driving a six-speed manual transmission. You might be afraid to take your foot off the clutch and put the car into first gear because, if you’re not careful, you might kill those people standing in front of your car!
“That’s how salespeople sometimes feel when they need to be liked and are expected to ask their prospects some really difficult questions. Salespeople think someone will be killed – and they worry that it might be them!”
Read more of the SellingPower article here.
And this is a quote from an article I wrote that appears on the Membrain Sales blog.
“We would have recommended 6 of their 7 top performers and only 1 of their 9 bottom performers. We would have been correct on 14 out of 16, or 88% which comes within a few percentage points of our usual predictive accuracy of 92%. This is scientific sales selection. It’s a necessary part of an overall scientific approach to sales and the sales force.”
Read more of the Membrain article here.
This is a quote from an article on how to increase your sales by 20% by getting your sales process right, published right here on my Blog while most people were finishing up their summer vacation.
“There is a huge misunderstanding when it comes to sales process. It’s a lot like electrical work. Everyone needs it, but they think that because they know how to change a light bulb they don’t need to call an electrician. Getting your sales process right is a lot more like needing electricity in the middle of a stone wall with no nearby source to tap into. For you? Impossible. For an electrician? It’s all in a day’s work.”
Read more of the article on sales process here.
This is a quote from another article on how to increase your sales by adding a twist to your sales approach.
“Regular readers know that I often champion the cause for a consultative approach to help differentiate and sell value in modern times. But like I said at the outset, everything old is new again and this sales hack brings some presentation skills back to the early stage of the sales process.”
Read more of the article on how to use this “everything old is new again” twist here.
This week’s Top Sales Magazine features an article that I wrote 8 years ago! It explains what integrated sales force development is and this morning, when I saw it in the magazine and reread it I felt that it was ahead of its time in 2007 and extremely applicable in 2015. You can read that article here.
Finally, I’ll be speaking on coaching salespeople at Inside Sales-Boston this Thursday, September 10. If you’re already planning to attend I’ll see you there. Otherwise, if you’re in the Boston area, change your plans and catch the terrific lineup of speakers!