Understanding the Sales Force

  • The Impact of Coaching Salespeople and Sales Managers

    • October 7, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I thought back to my childhood and thought about the the coaching I had then, and later in life, and the impact it had on my success.

    read more

  • Tale of Two Clients – Sales Training:) versus SAAAlesTraining:(

    • October 6, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Strong CEO’s see all the flaws their people have and are committed to developing them or upgrading.  Weak CEO’s see beauty, and flowers, and blue skies – yes, that’s the ticket – blue skies through rose colored glasses.

    read more

  • New Tools Make it Easier to Book Sales Meetings

    • October 4, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Tools are becoming a more important part of the sales infrastructure and there is no shortage of them.  With so many sales tools available and such a big percentage of them being new, how do you know which ones to use and whether they are any good?

    read more

  • Top 10 Reasons Consultative Sellers Outsell Everyone Else

    • October 1, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Have you ever worked with salespeople that were so bad you thought, “She couldn’t close a door!”?  And have you ever worked with salespeople that were so good that you thought, “She could sell white to rice!”?

    There’s a good chance that the difference has less to do with their closing skills and much more to do with their ability to build a late stage relationship in the earliest stage of the sales process – the first meeting.

    So what do they do?  Here are the top ten things they do:

    read more

  • Why the Relationship is So Important to the Sales Outcome

    • September 30, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Unfortunately, in order to ask those questions and have those discussions, a relationship must be established.  And this is where the double edged sword comes into play.  The discussion I’m talking about is a first meeting discussion.  But the relationship that requires is often a 2nd or 3rd meeting relationship.  So the problem I present is, how does one develop a late-stage relationship in an early stage meeting?

    read more

  • The Single Biggest Mistake that Salespeople Make

    • September 28, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Ask 10 people and you’ll get 10 different answers about the biggest mistake that salespeople make. Ask the question a bit differently and I will give you a different answer too. But ask the question in the title – “What is the single biggest mistake that salespeople make?”, with the key word being mistake – something they do incorrectly rather than something they do because of a weakness – and I can provide data to back it up. There are actually 3 mistakes that are almost always made but 2 of them occur as a result of the single biggest mistake.

    read more

  • How Obama, Dan Pink, The Heaths, Steinbrenner and Kurlan Might Prepare Your Sales Force for Change

    • September 24, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    read more

  • Preparing for Sales Training – Becoming Change Ready

    • September 23, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I just took a talented group of salespeople through three days of training. Perhaps you’ve been in a situation just like that at some point. There are several ways this group can approach integration, application and execution at the end of the training.

    read more

  • Do Your Salespeople Have to Give Up Control to Their Prospects?

    • September 17, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I disagree with his article when he implies that we should be resigned to the fact that there isn’t much to be done except building trust until the prospect is ready to engage. 

    read more

  • 10 Sales Personalities and How to Manage Them

    • September 16, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    There are diverse individuals that you will have to manage and they aren’t really personalities as much as they are characteristics.  You might call them one or two word descriptions of people instead of characterizing them as personalities.  Following are 10 Sales Characters and how you can manage them more effectively.

    read more