Search Results

  • New Data: Top Salespeople are 7562% Better at Winning RFPs

    • March 13, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    mission critical

    RFPs aren’t going away, and there are two ways that salespeople can approach them, the companies that write them, and the people associated with them:

    Passively – in this capacity, they are nothing more than facilitators, waiting for an RFP to drop in their inbox, so they can get it off to the folks who write the proposals.  When complete, they email the proposal back to procurement and hope to win.
    Proactively – in this capacity, they regularly meet and develop relationships with the appropriate CxO’s and Sr VP’s of manufacturing, engineering, design, IT, IS, Finance, Marketing, HR, R&D, Operations, Facilities, Fulfillment, Distribution, Sales, Learning and Development, Enablement, and any other organizational head they might possibly sell to.  They become a resource, an asset, a partner and not only help to write the specifications of the next RFP, but write the specs in such a way that they are the only company that can win the business.

    It seems obvious, doesn’t it?  Option 1 is stupid and Option 2 is brilliant.  But if option 2 is so brilliant and obvious, then why do so many salespeople become so defensive and dug in to option 1?

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  • Top Salespeople are 8600% Better at This Than Weak Salespeople

    • January 20, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    As you can see from the table above right, the top 5% of all salespeople are 56% stronger at qualifying than strong salespeople, 452% stronger than serviceable salespeople, and 8600% stronger than the bottom 50%.  8600% Stronger!!!!  Who says qualifying isn’t important?  See how your industry/salespeople compare.

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  • 10 Sales Attributes That Don’t Differentiate Top Salespeople from Bottom Salespeople

    • September 12, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve written several articles (same as always) about OMG (Objective Management Group) Tailored Fits/Proofs of Concept where I analyze the differences between a company’s top producers and bottom producers to identify the findings/scores that differentiate their tops from their bottoms.  That is the science of sales performance and sales selection and the last time I wrote about it was in this article from February of 2022.  For comparison, the most recent example of a blowhard writing junk science without being scientific about what top salespeople do differently can be found in this article from August of 2022.

    Today’s article (new article) will go in the opposite direction and discuss strengths and skills that don’t differentiate tops from bottoms.  

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  • Data – Top Salespeople are 631% More Effective at This Than Weak Salespeople (The Bob Chronicles – Part 3)

    • January 26, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Bob is up to his old tricks.  If you don’t know who Bob is, you can learn about his sales misadventures in this article on not properly selling a trial, and this article about not selling value.  Both articles are of the must-read variety.

    So what did Bob do to piss me off this week? 

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  • New Data Shows That Top Salespeople are 2800% Better at Disrupting the Flow

    • September 18, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Fish, rafts, kayaks, canoes, sailboats and swimmers all find much more success when they are moving with the wind or the current rather than going against it.

    Unfortunately, the same isn’t necessarily true in sales.

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  • How Top Salespeople Anticipate and Manage Resistance

    • May 29, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last week Tom Hopkins shared a post on LinkedIn that resembled what I have said so many times.  He said, “The art of selling involves two jobs: Job One is to reduce sales resistance and the other is to increase sales acceptance.”

    Many readers left comments about the importance of relationships as a means to preventing resistance from going up.

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  • Close More Deals: What’s working for top salespeople today

    • January 21, 2015
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: News

    How do you get a customer to sign on the dotted line? What does it take to make an effective presentation? How can you stand apart from the competition and connect with your prospects? Small businesses face these challenges every day. Some truths—such as focusing on the customer or speaking conversationally to establish rapport—have stood the test of time.

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  • Selecting Top Salespeople: What to look for in the ones that can and will sell

    • December 3, 2014
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: Podcasts & Webinars

    BizTalk Radio Interview on Selecting Top Salespeople

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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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