Understanding the Sales Force

Where do your best accounts come from?

A couple of days ago I posted this article on Kurlan’s Law of Sales Effectiveness.  It had my formula, E=AS for sales force effectivness. Later the same day, I wrote this article at my Baseline Selling web site, with the formula for Personal Sales Effectiveness. 

One of the things I pay attention to is the day each year that leaves appear on the trees. In Central Massachusetts, where I live, it usually occurs right around May 11. This year, thanks to some unusually prolonged warm weather, the buds have popped, the fruit trees have flowered and there are leaves appearing on the trees. They’re not full-size yet but will be in a matter of days. May 11 came early.

Prospects and customers have become more resilient to salespeople, while sale cycles are taking longer.

Introducing my Rule of Conflicting Sales Realities: Weak sales organizations have little awareness of their ineffectiveness which instills a false sense of greatness.  I believe that this is why generally ineffective sales forces remain that way.

Selling to a major company, as in large, multi-site, Billion Dollar plus accounts, is very different from selling to a small or medium sized company.  Among the many differences you will find, the biggest difference is the myth of calling at the top. 

Salesperson number one shows up, fails to develop a relationship, assumes he (or she) knows everything, makes a presentation that the prospect doesn’t care about and leaves, believing he did a good job.  The prospect has eliminated this salesperson.