Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

You and your salespeople have made dozens of horrible, embarrassing calls to prospects and companies. While you and your salespeople remember your act of extreme failing, the prospects don't. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan They wouldn't remember you, your salespeople or your horrible attempts if their lives depended on it.

Call-back 186

Call-back ACT Pipeline Course 186

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 30, 2012

Translated for selling: "The pessimist complains about the prospect. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan The optimist expects him to buy. The realist adjusts the sales strategy.". Let's look at these three points a little more closely, shall we? How about your sales force? (c)

Decision Maker 245

Decision Maker Proposal Sales Cycle Exact 245

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 2, 2012

If the salesperson says that their solution is only $5,000 per person, the prospect immediately views this as an expense - and a costly one at that. The obstacle is that your salespeople may not be learning what the compelling reason is for their prospects to spend the money. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Comparison 251

Comparison Closing Retention Examples 251

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 14, 2012

In sales, the elite 6% don't care what prospects and customers think about them, as long as they are thinking about them. These are behaviors that the bottom 74% of salespeople aren't able to do because they care so much about what their prospects and customers think about them. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Sports 241

Sports Competition Sales Prospecting 241

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 21, 2012

If awful is how your salespeople feel then do you really believe that NOW is the ideal time to get them prospecting? c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan If the pipeline is nearly empty today, your salespeople are feeling scared, stressed, discouraged and demotivated. Will they do it?

Pipeline 222

Pipeline Motivation Positioning Opportunity 222

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 11, 2012

Software Advice – Do Your Salespeople Have to Give Up Control to Their Prospects? (c) c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Harvard Business Review – What Customers Expect From Your Salespeople and More. Selling Power – Article Hits Then Misses the Mark on Sales.

Study 173

Study Quota Software Software 173

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

In a sales call, no matter how slowly it may be going or how difficult a prospective client may be, I have the patience of a saint. To make matters worse, your prospects want your salespeople to present and conduct demos. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan They want prices and proposals and your salespeople are too willing to oblige.

Travel 191

Travel Consultative Selling Proposal Exact 191

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 4, 2012

your prospects answer the questions you ask and not a question you didn't ask. you ask if the conversation was productive for your prospect. you prevent your prospect from rambling. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Those adjustments, in no particular order, include being sure that: you don't have happy ears.

Consultative Selling 203

Consultative Selling Up-Sell Conversion Prospecting 203

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 20, 2012

A salesperson's follow-up questions should nearly always be derived from a prospect's most recent response and that's where the challenge usually begins. Until salespeople can focus on someone else, they won't hear all of what their prospects are really telling them. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Consultative Selling 231

Consultative Selling Call-back Proposal Follow-up 231

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 26, 2012

We worked on time management, scheduling a specific date and time with a prospect for the follow-up call, identifying the strongest opportunties and not wasting time on the weaker opportunities, being more effective at qualifying, blocking out time in his calendar to make follow up calls, etc. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Follow-up 243

Follow-up Face-to-face Sales Cycle Up-Sell 243

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Everybody has a comfort zone with money - businesses, non-profits, salespeople, clients, customers, donors and prospects. If you have salespeople asking for amounts that are comfortable for them, but uncomfortable for your prospects, you need to question your target audience and do a better job training your salespeople to sell value.

Up-Sell 173

Up-Sell Prospecting Sales Training 173

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 31, 2012

I'm talking about a greater competition - your actual prospects - who are sometimes competing directly with you! In other cases, you must overcome your prospect's resistance; to talk with you, meet with you, answer your questions, and move the process forward. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan They will be there!

Sports 180

Sports Competition ACT Up-Sell 180

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 2, 2012

If the salesperson says that their solution is only $5,000 per person the prospect immediately views this as an expense - and a costly one at that. The obstacle is that your salespeople may not be learning what the compelling reason is for their prospects to spend the money. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Comparison 169

Comparison Closing Retention Examples 169

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 12, 2012

It prevents salespeople from asking a lot of questions, tough questions, pushing back and challenging their prospects. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan For example, Need for Approval (the need to be liked) has tremendous power to hold back salespeople in North America, where 63% of all salespeople are burdoned with it.

Comparison 263

Comparison Exact Sales Examples 263

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 9, 2012

By contrast, today it's unusual when a prospect returns one of your first 5 voice mail messages! c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Five years ago, Passive Rejection wouldn't have been an article topic because back then, it was rare to not get your repeated calls returned. Let's take a deeper look into Passive Rejection.

Call-back 203

Call-back Prospecting Meeting Conversion 203

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Which opportunities (from prospects or qualified) need to be moved forward? And the answer must take the form of: I need to add n prospects. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan While sales processes have varying multiple steps, the Pipeline must have exactly 4 stages. Which opportunities (from closable) need to be closed?

Pipeline 214

Pipeline Call-back Follow-up Exact 214

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

In a sales call, no matter how slowly it may be going or how difficult a prospective client may be, I have the patience of a saint. To make matters worse, your prospects want your salespeople to present and conduct demos, they want prices and proposals and your salespeople too willing to oblige. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Travel 136

Travel Consultative Selling Proposal Exact 136

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 20, 2012

Understanding - He always knew what was important - their compelling reason to buy - to his prospect and was able to leverage it, and get people excited about the opportunity to work with him. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Creating Trust - Jobs got people to believe in him and his vision.

Microsoft 292

Microsoft Negotiation Up-Sell Sales 292

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

Your prospects may stop listening to you too if you slam your competitor! c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Was Obama discredited by his attacks? Probably not. By the 11th hour of the campaign, most people were so sick of the attacks from both candidates that they had stopped listening. Sales Manager: "What happened?".

Health Care 220

Health Care Campaigns Fashion ACT 220

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 10, 2012

You can hire a hybrid company - Companies like ConnectLeader have their own people who do the dialing and get your salespeople through to decision-makers so that they can spend their valuable time actually talking with prospects. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Telemarketing 201

Telemarketing Hiring Outbound Inbound 201

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 8, 2012

Prospect: Sure. Prospect: OK. Prospect: Great. Prospect: It would be very inconvenient and I don't have time to walk it through. Prospect: I understand. Mary: (Trying to recover without getting her prospect upset) I'm supposed to bring the agreement back with a check. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Call-back 180

Call-back Prospecting Closing Opportunity 180

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

When it finally sinks in that this prospect is not returning calls, has gone missing, and won't be buying anything soon from her, it's too late. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan She is so focused on this opportunity that she forgets all about what is up ahead. If you want to attend, skip the online registration and email me directly. (c)

Sales Management 192

Sales Management Proposal ROI Pipeline 192

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 30, 2012

Qualifying Skills (Caliper looks at a willingness to ask questions in general while OMG looks at the specific information a salesperson must identify in order to qualify a prospect. Trust (Caliper looks at general skepticism - an outlook on life, while OMG looks specifically at whether the candidate trusts prospects. Closing Skills.

Hiring 238

Hiring Lead Rank Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Lead 238

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 24, 2012

Sales - Your salespeople must adapt when the existing approach isn't effective with a prospect. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan I accepted that I couldn't see the stiches or the spin of the ball anymore, but I could see the fuzzy little round thing heading in my direction and resolved to just see that and hit that.

Coaching 247

Coaching Sales Coaching Analysis Exact 247

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 9, 2012

One thing, which you surely have noticed about presentations and demos, is that the prospects are given essentially the same ones. Perhaps it has a few slides which you can edit, but doesn’t every prospect get essentially the same message, story, history, value proposition and explanation of capabilities? But enough of what I think.

How To 211

How To Film Channels Networking 211

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

It's responsible for how much money for which they can ask and get, their need to discount, allowing prospects to comparison shop, whether or not they ask the tough questions and so much more. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan It's responsible for the weaknesses which salespeople successfully overcome as well as those that aren't.

Opportunity 188

Opportunity Insurance Insurance Comparison 188

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 11, 2012

Do Prospects Lie to Your Salespeople Like the Airlines Do? 5 Steps to Coaching Your Salespeople Beyond Happy Ears (c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Sales Process - Top 10 Reasons Why Sales are Lost. Tighter Sales Metrics at New Year Leads to Improved Success. Top 20 Kurlan Articles on Sales Coaching.

Sales Coaching 120

Sales Coaching Coaching Airlines Cold Calling 120

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Yes - that's what prospects do when they consider whether to delete, save, return the call or add the caller to their to-do lists. As soon as business prospects hear a telesalesperson reading a script they have already heard more than they care to hear. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Am I judging? Register. (c)

Cold Calling 191

Cold Calling Call-back Hiring Decision Maker 191

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 20, 2012

I wrote an article about this around 4 years ago and believe it's a much better approach to utilizing people inside the prospect's organization. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan The authors settled on the term "mobilizers" to refer to a group of skeptics, go-getters and teachers with whom salespeople should align themselves.

Face-to-face 169

Face-to-face Solutions Selling Discount Consultative Selling 169

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Yes - that's what prospects do when they consider whether to delete, save, return the call or add the caller to their to-do lists. As soon as business prospects hear a telesalesperson reading a script they have already heard more than they care to hear. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Am I judging? Register. (c)

Cold Calling 156

Cold Calling Hiring Call-back Decision Maker 156

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

So while the economy isn''t creating a confidence-fest, it shouldn''t be having any more of an impact than it has in the years 2011-2012. Your prospects are making the very same decisions about your demos and if your demo isn''t creating reaction #1 above, then the quotes and proposals that follow are sure to create.losses.

Travel 251

Travel Decision Maker Insurance Insurance 251

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 16, 2012

When the day arrives when your prospects don't need any help being convinced that they should do business with your company and buy your products or services, even if: you are new, you are more expensive, you have a new technology, you aren't the market leader, you don't have the best product, or. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Decision Maker 215

Decision Maker Influencer Competition Sales Cycle 215

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Getting Your Prospects' Attention. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan As long as we are talking about books on selling, these are links to articles on my Baseline Selling site that provide instructions for making your cold calls more effective : Saying Hello. Getting Through. First Impressions. Getting More Appointments. The Ugly Truth.

Cold Calling 236

Cold Calling Oracle How To Maximizer 236

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 29, 2014

When those teenagers entered sales, I can assure you that no prospect ever wondered, "What if he doesn''t call?" Sure, a prospect on the receiving end of a cold call could hang up or say, "Not interested", rejecting the caller. In 2012, his 9-year-old and under (9u) All-Star team lost in the semi-finals and he cried for 2 days.

Cold Calling 247

Cold Calling Call-back Top of Funnel Licensing 247

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Getting Your Prospects' Attention. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan As long as we are talking about books on selling, these are links to articles on my Baseline Selling site which provide instructions for making more effective cold calls : Saying Hello. Getting Through. First Impressions. Getting More Appointments. The Ugly Truth.

Cold Calling 218

Cold Calling Oracle Maximizer Study 218

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Know that what you see is what you'll get and his inability to quickly develop a relationship will prevent him from making prospects comfortable enough to answer the types of good, tough, timely questions that are the hallmark of effective Consultative Selling. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan Obviously, you'll want to follow option #2.

Consultative Selling 205

Consultative Selling Follow-up Course Up-Sell 205

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 26, 2012

In some sectors, fewer than 25% of all salespeople will make quota in 2012. Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan The statistics are staggering. 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?

Quota 216

Quota Territories Compensation Sales Cycle 216