Understanding the Sales Force

  • Everyone Can Sell. Not Really. Top 10 Reasons Why Not

    • May 22, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Dan Pink, Author of To Sell is Human, has been getting a lot of well-deserved exposure.  He wrote a terrific book and most who have read it, really like it.  I don’t have a problem with his book because read in its entirety, it makes sense.  I do have an issue with the people who write about his book and take the concept, that everyone can sell, out of context.  The context is that everyone can sell their ideas.  Agreed.  But out of context, it is suggested that everyone can be a salesperson.  I strongly disagree.

    Forget for a moment all of the data from Objective Management Group showing that 74% of all professional salespeople suck.  When we take the concept from selling an idea (at home, at church, in the neighborhood or internally to coworkers) to professional selling, 10 things change:

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  • Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving

    • May 15, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We talk a lot about the importance of using a consultative approach instead of a transactional approach to better differentiate and sell value instead of price.  When we explain consultative selling, we usually emphasize the importance of listening and questioning.  When we further explain effective listening and questioning, it becomes much more difficult to describe in a paragraph or in the absence of a demonstration or role-play.

    Until today.

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  • Impact of Sales Process Versus Sales Coaching

    • May 14, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    While most sales leaders admit that they must be more effective at coaching, many who said they have some kind of sales process in place didn’t come to the same conclusion.  So, why is it so obvious to sales leaders that they need to improve their coaching, but so elusive that they need to improve their sales process?  

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  • Top 10 Reasons Why Salespeople Let Price Drive the Sale

    • May 10, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Selling value.

    What comes so easily to the top 6% and some of the top 26% is so very difficult for others.

    Most salespeople have little capability to effectively build value. Talking about what your company does better or differently or telling a prospect what your value proposition is does not build value. Instead, value comes from 3 things:

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  • Is the “Lack of Commitment to Sales Success” Finding Predictive?

    • May 7, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    So you have your sales force evaluated and in addition to learning why you are getting the results you are getting, and what you can do to significantly improve those results, you are surprised by some of the individual findings on some of your salespeople.  One of the findings that generates the most push-back is Lack of Commitment to sales success.

    We could hear any of the following comments as push-back to this finding:

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  • When Sales Coaching, Best Practices and Books are Ignored

    • May 6, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Coaching is crucial to the success of any sales force; however, coaching without the context of an effective sales process, pipeline, metrics to drive revenue, motivation and accountability aren’t enough.  So, our events integrate these additional elements to make for a well-rounded, comprehensive two days.

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  • Sales Management Best Practices – Are Top Salespeople Challengers?

    • April 29, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I don’t promote an approach based on either Relationships or Solution Selling, but both must be incorporated into an appropriate sales approach.  Also worth noting, the approach or methodology is only one part of selling.  Without a sales process and a sales model, no methodology will work very well on its own.

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  • The Latest and Greatest in Sales Force Effectiveness

    • April 24, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We have introduced our share of evaluation and assessment tools during the past 23 years, but this introduction was completely different.  My team worked tirelessly for nearly an entire year on our latest gem and our Partners received it, with even more enthusiasm than we felt, when we completed the project just 48 hours earlier.

    Why all the excitement?

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  • Top 5 Reasons Why Salespeople Don’t Qualify Effectively

    • April 17, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last week, I posted this article in reference to an Inc. Magazine article that was way off base about Consultative Selling.  It led to a significant number of comments with one of them being this question:

    “Dave, in your opinion, with all the training that is available and has been delivered to sales people over the years, how come sales people still fail at executing an effective approach to qualifying a prospect. Forget what we want to call the approach. Just basic fundamentals like asking questions. This is known throughout the selling universe but sales people still suck at this. How come?”

    Great question.  Here are my top 6 reasons why:

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