Search Results
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The Biblical Sales Force Part 2 – On Boarding and Coaching Salespeople
- October 14, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
As I wrote in September, I’m reading the Bible from beginning to end for the first time. In my first article using an analogy from the Bible, I wrote about scaling, hiring and firing salespeople, based on what I read in Genesis. Today’s article is about on boarding and coaching salespeople, and is an analogy from Exodus.
Early in Exodus, we are introduced to Moses, whose people have been slaves to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for hundreds of years. God appears to Moses and commands him to approach Pharaoh and persuade him to release the Israelites so they can freely worship their God. Moses lacks confidence in his ability to articulate the request, and questions God’s direction. He wonders if there might be someone better to handle this important assignment.
God had to build Moses’ confidence, and properly prepare him for the conversation he will have with Pharaoh. This is the equivalent to pre-call strategizing, one of several methods for coaching salespeople. God needed to provide Moses with talking points sufficient to give him gravitas with Pharaoh, so he provided Moses the God-like ability to turn his brother Aaron’s staff into a snake. We accomplish the same thing when we prepare a salesperson with powerful messaging and talking points.
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Finally! Science Reveals the Actual Impact of Sales Coaching
- September 7, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You must have heard the joke that 73.6% of statistics are made up!
I have read and even reported that sales leaders who coach their salespeople see a boost in revenue of around 27%. It sounds like a realistic number but I have not seen any science to back it up. Until now. Check this out!
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How to Simplify Coaching Salespeople
- May 19, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When you take sales coaching, baseball, watching video and put it all together, what do you get?
You get the post-call debrief – the most powerful tool for great sales coaching.
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Sales Coaching and the Challenges of Different Types of Salespeople
- February 8, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Recently a reader directed me to a video on the Harvard Business Review site. They rarely have accurate, relevant sales-specific information there, so I clicked over with great anticipation.
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The Secret to Coaching Salespeople and Why It’s So Scary
- September 21, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I learned that the way in which sales leaders react to the exact same material differs exponentially in accordance with the time we have to discuss it.
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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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Top Kurlan Articles on Sales Coaching
- December 11, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I present my Top Articles on Coaching Salespeople
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Sales Coaching Lessons from the Baseball Files
- May 24, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This sequence of analysis and tweaking works in exactly the same way when coaching salespeople. You should be able to immediately identify what went wrong, when it went wrong, how it went wrong and demonstrate how to prevent and fix it. The last two steps must take place through role-play. Are you doing that effectively?
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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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The Difference Between Good and Bad Sales Coaching Questions
- February 17, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When it comes to coaching salespeople, there are both good and bad questions that sales managers can ask to get the conversation started. Here are some examples: