Understanding the Sales Force

  • Non-Salespeople – Assets or Liabilities When They Face Customers?

    • May 21, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is a tremendous example, and not the least bit unusual, of how non-selling, customer-facing employees, sell.  Despite two effective customer-facing people doing their part on selling us to return, one was horrible and not so subtly sold us on not returning.

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  • Are Sales Leaders More Receptive to Training Than Salespeople?

    • May 16, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When a room full of sales leaders arrive for two days of intensive training, there are many things that can and do happen.  Here are ten of them:

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  • Basketball and the Difference Between Sales Studs and Sales Duds

    • May 14, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I heard former NBA all-star and current ESPN basketball analyst, Bruce Bowen, talking about Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics.  He characterized Garnett as one of the toughest competitors on the court, unlike some younger, very talented players who aren’t as competitive and don’t know how to close out games.  He said the difference is that Garnett is trying to win while the less competitive players are trying to make friends.

    I’ve been talking about Need for Approval being one difference between the elite 6% of salespeople and the bottom 74% of salespeople for years, but this is the first time I have heard of the affliction as a differentiator in sports.  In one of my books – it was probably Baseline Selling – I discussed how it would play out if the pitcher had need for approval from the batter and vice versa.

    Why is Need for Approval such a differentiator?

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  • The Other Rejection – How Salespeople Struggle to Cope

    • May 9, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I gave this some thought and identified the following 10 reactions to Passive Rejection:

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  • Do Chain Reactions Like This Really Occur When Selling?

    • May 8, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Mary always succeeded in finding new opportunities, but her weaknesses, especially her Need for Approval, Discomfort Talking About Money, and Tendency to Become Emotionally Involved, would usually interfere with her ability to gain traction and close the sale.  During the past year, she has improved enough so that she is not only finding new business, but closing it too.  But she isn’t out of the woods yet.

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  • The #1 Top Key to Keeping Salespeople Motivated Revealed Here

    • May 7, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Over the years, you have worked with many salespeople and oftentimes their success, or lack thereof, didn’t correlate as much to their skills as it did to their Desire or Motivation for sales success.  Desire is how badly one wants to succeed, and Motivation is what drives them to success.  I’ve written many articles about Sales Motivation, but let’s take a slightly different path today.

    What is actually behind sales motivation?

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  • Top 5 Keys to Effective Sales Coaching and Results

    • May 2, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One confusing component of effective sales management is that great sales management skills don’t always translate into great sales results.  This phenomenon is most obvious when a company hires a terrific, new sales manager, who possesses all the desired skills, and the manager fails to have an immediate impact.  Worse, in many cases, is when the inherited salespeople rebel!  This scenario also occurs when sales managers go to seminars, watch video clips, read books or blogs, and attempt to extract specific skills and tips but don’t have the luxury of hearing them demonstrated, in context, in a real situation.  When Objective Management Group conducts a sales force evaluation, we often see that sales managers’ skills are much better than the resulting effectiveness of those skills.  Why is that?

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  • Why Do So Many Salespeople Fail to Make Quota?

    • April 26, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The statistics are staggering.  In some sectors, fewer than 25% of all salespeople will make quota. Even best-in-class companies are lucky when fewer than 80% of their salespeople make quota.  Are you OK with it when your own salespeople fail to make quota?  There are a number of possible reasons for this widespread mediocrity and failure and, depending on the company, some or all of them may apply.

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  • Why Most Companies are Struggling to Grow Revenue

    • April 25, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Dan Perry, writing at Sales Benchmark Index’s Sales Force Effectiveness Blog, wrote that “The single biggest problem with sales today is sales reps are mismatched to the buyer.  They think like a sales rep and not like a buyer.”  

    Well, Dan, I don’t agree and I have the statistics to back me up.  

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  • John Robinson’s Secret to Overcoming All Sales Obstacles

    • April 24, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    But when it comes to sales success, I took away an even deeper message.

    He said, “Every obstacle is an opportunity.”  

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