Understanding the Sales Force
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When Do Follow Up Calls Add Value
- July 31, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Salespeople tend to fall into one of three groups when it comes to following up:
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Rainforests and Torn ACL’s Provide Insight into Effective Selling
- July 17, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Only Dave Kurlan can take a torn ACL, rainforests and climate change and use those as analogies for sales effectiveness!
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The Keys To Retaining and Losing Your Customers
- July 10, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s been quite a while since I’ve written an article about the role that customer service plays in the retention and renewal of customers and accounts. In the past few weeks, I have experienced all kinds of customer service, including service you would expect, service that would surprise you, and service that wouldn’t change your mind about anything.
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Resistant Salespeople Can Prevent Consistent, Strong Sales Results
- June 27, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
CEOs and Sales Leaders whose salespeople aren’t responding need to understand that their veteran salespeople are the same as my son when he was thirteen.
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How to Easily Motivate and Incentivize Sales Pipeline Building
- June 20, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Music motivates me to do what I otherwise don’t really want to do. But while everyone is different, I’ve seen music work as a motivator for others too.
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Use Music to Understand the 12 Criteria Prospects Use to Buy from Salespeople
- June 12, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, while watching our son play in a summer collegiate baseball game, I missed a step and tumbled all the way down the bleachers. Isn’t that a great analogy for what happens when you miss, or skip a crucial step in the sales process? More than half of all salespeople are missing and skipping important milestones in the sales process each and every day and their egos get more bruised from failing to close those opportunities than my body got bruised from my not so thrilling adventure to the ground.
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The Problem with Self-Directed Sales Training and its Role in Developing Salespeople
- June 8, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, Andy Miller and I delivered onboarding training to a group of new partners at Objective Management Group (OMG). Andy reached the slide that said “Lunch” at the end of the day, and I spent most of the morning displaying only slide #2 which could have been covered in 10 minutes. The spontaneous, robust discussion that broke out was not planned, but most importantly, it was not discouraged. To the contrary, it was strongly encouraged. The group learned more from that spontaneous two-hour discussion than they ever would have learned from the sterile slides. Are slides bad?
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Sometimes The Biggest Sales Problems Have the Simplest Solutions
- May 30, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are simple, easy, fast and powerful solutions for sales problems too. See my examples below.
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Correlation: Salespeople Strong in This Competency are 2125% More Likely to be Performers
- May 22, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I analyzed performance data and after filtering on salespeople who were not performing (below 80% of quota), only 4% were strong in the Sales Process competency. The opposite of that analysis revealed that of those who were performing, 85% were strong in the Sales Process competency. Salespeople who are strong in Sales Process are 2125% more likely to be performers. That is very strong correlation!
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Grow Revenue During a Recession by Being Counter-Intuitive
- May 10, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We know what doesn’t work in a recession.
The economic crisis of 2008-9, and the Covid lockdowns of 2020-2021 showed us that when companies focus on cost-cutting instead of growing revenue, revenue declines – sharply. Who would have guessed that smart people wouldn’t see that coming?
You know what to do when dry weather conditions aren’t favorable for growing trees, flowers, and shrubs. You don’t pull the plants out of the ground or let them succumb to the dry conditions. You add water. It’s a very simple concept.
Can companies add water to grow revenue when the economic conditions are evaporating? Yes, but it’s counter-intuitive.