Understanding the Sales Force

  • How I Realized That Selling is Just a Bunch of Crap

    • October 31, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Those are strong words and probably quite surprising coming out of my mouth but I’ll explain it all.  Earlier this week I was leading another Sales Leadership Intensive and during a break it came to me.  

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  • Examples of How Salespeople Lose Credibility with Their Prospects

    • October 29, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You probably thought I would write a world series article but there wasn’t much tension or anxiety in this series as the Sox dominated.  So instead of an epic baseball related article, you’re going to read about trust and credibility.

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  • Golden Nuggets from the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study

    • October 25, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I had a chance to review the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study and extracted some fascinating data.  I thought it might be interesting to take their data, overlay some of Objective Management Group’s (OMG) data, and see what we can take away from that.

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  • New Data Shows that You Can Double Revenue by Overcoming This One Sales Weakness

    • October 22, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    My article revealed that salespeople who are burdened with the need to be liked are far less effective at selling than those who don’t have that weakness.  The biggest insight of all was that these salespeople were 47% less effective reaching decision makers!

    This article will take the same approach and use the same data from Objective Management Group’s (OMG) evaluations of 2,064,425 salespeople to look at salespeople who are uncomfortable having a financial conversation with their prospects and customers.  The latest data reveals that 60% of all salespeople have this weakness!  What do you think it will reveal?

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  • Salespeople With This Weakness Score 47% Worse at Reaching Decision Makers

    • October 16, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A lot of the salespeople I coach have a weakness in their Sales DNA – their need to be liked.  Approximately 58% of all salespeople have this weakness and on average, salespeople score 76% in that competency.  Elite salespeople have an average score of 87% and weak salespeople have an average score of 69%.

    What would it look like if we were to pivot this data and look only at the group who have it as a weakness?  When we filter the results by the need to be liked, there are some very interesting scores.  Could it be that the need to be liked – by itself – is a predictor of sales success?  Maybe.  We know that if the salesperson is in an account management role, the need to be liked is an asset.  However, in any kind of producer role, especially in a consultative process or methodology, it will get in the way.  Take a look at this data!

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  • Which 4 Sales Competencies Best Differentiate Top from Bottom Salespeople?

    • October 9, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I reviewed data from nearly 511,000 sales evaluations and assessments from among the that Objective Management Group (OMG) has produced to date.  I compared 21 Sales Core Competencies (you can see much of that data here) of the top 5% (elite) with the bottom 50% of all salespeople.  Then I identified the 4 competencies with the biggest gaps and you can see those in the image below.

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  • Where Can You Find the Best Salespeople?

    • September 28, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Maybe you drink the finest wines, stay at the most luxurious hotels, dine at the best restaurants, purchase the best brands and drive the fanciest cars. Or not.  Either way, you’ll at least want to know where you can find the best salespeople in the world, right?

    To accomplish this I looked at data from the most recent 435,000 sales evaluations and assessments from Objective Management Group (OMG) and broke it down into 6 regions of the world. See the image above.

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  • The Top 12 Factors that Cause Delayed Closings and What to Do About Them

    • September 25, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Delays, delays, delays.  Nearly every coaching call with a salesperson is about a delayed closing.  Nearly every coaching call with a sales manager is about a salesperson with a delayed closing.  Everyone wants to know what to do about the delayed closing but that’s the wrong question.  Everyone should be asking these two questions instead.

    Was it really delayed or were we overly optimistic about if and when this opportunity would close?
    What steps can we take to prevent delayed closings?

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  • Data Shows 1st Year Sales Improvement of 51% in this Competency

    • September 18, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I looked at the before and after scores for eight of the 21 Sales Core Competencies as well as the Reaches Decision Makers, Account Manager and Farmer competencies for a total of 11.  See the table below:

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  • How to Achieve Short-Term Explosive Growth from your Sales Team

    • September 14, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Explosive Growth.  Positive Momentum.  Better Morale. Greater Confidence. Improved Capabilities.

    Wouldn’t you just love using those phrases to describe your sales force?

    We know from the data in this article that according to Objective Management Group (OMG), sales managers who spend at least 50% of their time coaching have salespeople who are 28% more effective.

    We know from OMG’s data in this article that sales managers who are effective at coaching have salespeople who are 16% more effective.

    And we know from the same data that sales managers who spend at least 50% of their time coaching AND are effective at coaching have salespeople who are 49% more effective. 

    That’s 49% more effective!

    So what would a 49% bump mean to you and your company and what will it take to get there?

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