Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

If you haven't been reading the Blog for the last sixteen years you may have missed my previous fourteen take downs. More Junk Sales Science in HBR Blog Now That You Have a Sales Process, Never Mind I s SELLING an Afterthought in Today's Sales Model? Why Do You Think Harvard Business Review Does This When it Comes to Sales?

Selling Skills 257

Selling Skills Hiring Study Sales Process 257

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 11, 2023

There were 2 billion Blog posts last year and on WordPress alone, there are more than 400 million Blogs. With the exception of my Personal Favorite, the results below are based on web analytics of nearly 2 million visits to my Blog, Understanding the Sales Force and my LinkedIn posts. That’s a s**t ton of competition!

Sales Leadership 193

Sales Leadership Hiring Video LinkedIn 193

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 13, 2021

Anyone who has followed this Blog over the past 15 years knows that other than sales, the only thing I write about nearly as much is baseball. A Google search from within the Blog yields 605 results, and a search on my son playing baseball over the past twelve years yields 208 results.

Google 322

Google Consultative Selling Sales Sales Process 322

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 6, 2022

I also found a similar pattern as I did when I searched for "top sales blogs" last month as part of my research for the article, The Top 12 Sales Blogs of 2022 That Make You Think and Sell More. There were lots of articles that had the top 5, 7, 10, 12, and 15 reasons why salespeople leave or quit their jobs.

Retention 193

Retention Customer Hubspot Compensation 193

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 4, 2022

I find ideas and material for this Blog everywhere, especially when I'm not looking for them. Yesterday I received a daily email from a Paul Reddick, a baseball coach who was drumming up some business for his baseball institute. It resonated - not for its baseball coaching - but as sales coaching.

Coaching 295

Coaching Exact Sales Coaching Sales 295

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 14, 2019

Do you remember reading your first Blog article? I read one by Seth Godin , became an early subscriber, and in 2005, became one of the very first sales experts to Blog. This article will be somewhere around #1,750 in the series and since that time my Blog has won 27 awards. You can follow me at linkedin.com/in/davekurlan.

Wireless 292

Wireless Microsoft LinkedIn Channels 292

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

That's better than the options you have with my Blog. I LOVE the menu - they offer EVERYTHING. The downside is that because there are so many items to choose from, it's difficult to decide what to order. Please stay with me - the info on how to become a better closer is coming and if you can't wait, just scroll to the last 4 paragraphs.].

How To 239

How To Closing Sales 239

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 21, 2023

The same is true of this Blog. To be clear, the image above is not a picture of our basement! Maybe you have a similar storage story, although the years of accumulation may be different.

Hiring 156

Hiring Decision Maker Forecasting Face-to-face 156

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 21, 2023

The same is true of this Blog. To be clear, the image above is not a picture of our basement! Maybe you have a similar storage story, although the years of accumulation may be different.

Hiring 156

Hiring Decision Maker Forecasting Face-to-face 156

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 8, 2018

The articles in my Blog typically address these differences with science and data to support to my position. The difference between great salespeople and weak salespeople has been debated for years.

Positioning 243

Positioning Data Sales Pipeline 243

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 13, 2018

In December I have two traditions with my Blog. Many of us love traditions, some of us have rituals or superstitions and most of us find comfort in a routine. Routines are familiar, we don't have to think about it, and it's predictable. I first wrote the Nutcracker article in 2010 and have reposted it for each of the past 8 years.

Sales 274

Sales 274

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 31, 2024

Earlier this week, I was interviewed by John Radkins, for his Sales Machine Blog, and he asked me to explain sales process for those who don’t want to be restricted by sales process.

Sales Process 182

Sales Process Decision Maker Sports Construction 182

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

While I''m always honored to win awards for my Blog, this time around I don''t really deserve it. If you''ve been reading my Blog, then you are probably aware of OMG''s big Sales Force Effectiveness Study that we''ve been working on for the past three months.

Social Selling 256

Social Selling Revenue Inbound Face-to-face 256

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 20, 2016

The judges awarded my Blog, Understanding the Sales Force , with a Bronze medal for Top Sales & Marketing Blog of 2016. That marks the 6th consecutive year that my Blog has earned a medal. In addition, this article won the Bronze for Top Sales & Marketing Blog Post.

Webinar Metrics 120

Webinar Metrics Groups Objections Tools 120

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

For years now, Harvard Business Review and its Blog on hbr.com have been accepting articles on sales that are usually laugh-out-loud wrong. The information is sometimes old and outdated, usually not routed in science, and sometimes simply stupid.

Meeting 120

Meeting Sales LinkedIn 120

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 24, 2014

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan The Salesforce Blog published a new article of mine today - Read How to Create Perfect Sales Conditions. Matt Heinz wrote this article for the Hubspot Inbound Sales Blog, asking whether great salespeople are born. Talk about a tool that helps you to be efficient!

Hubspot 221

Hubspot Inbound SalesForce Video 221

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

In addition to my Blog , this article appeared on at least 5 other Web Sites leading to many interesting comments and very strong opinions. Today there are a tremendous number of Blogs on Sales. TopSalesWorld.com lists the Top 50 Sales Blogs. Remember, that was the top 50 Blogs - not the top 50 sales experts. Predictive.

Inbound 209

Inbound Survey Lead Rank Lead Scoring 209

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 16, 2015

Instead, he said, "Did you know that this week is the 10th Anniversary of your Blog?" He also pointed out that I had written and posted 1,236 articles, generated more than 562,000 views directly on my blog and perhaps double or triple that number when you include syndication.

Sales 120

Sales 120

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

This blog was named as one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Blogs for 2013. Learn more and/or Register. I was named as one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers for 2013. I will be hosting our renowned Fall Sales Leadership Intensive in Boston November 14-15.

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Motivation Sales Leadership Influencer Sales Coaching 215

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 15, 2014

Disclosure: Hubspot is a client of both Kurlan and OMG ; This blog is hosted on Hubspot''s terrific blogging and lead-gen platform and I was one of their very first customers back in 2006.]. Hubspot''s VAR''s are all marketing agencies specializing in inbound marketing.

Inbound 264

Inbound Hiring Hubspot Lead Gen 264

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 13, 2016

They want to optimize my website, sell me SEO services, provide me with online marketing tools, sell me the latest SaaS program, provide a guest article for my Blog, buy advertising on my Blog, sell me leads, book appointments for us with prospects, or show me the latest sales enablement tools.

Selling Skills 120

Selling Skills Advertising Advertising Sales Enablement 120

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 6, 2013

And if you love my Blog, I would sure appreciate your vote for Top Sales Blog of 2013. By the way, if you missed the Webinar I hosted earlier this week, it was the Magic of OMG''s Sales Candidate Assessment. It''s very fast-paced, interactive, and runs for about 40 minutes. You can watch the recording here.

Sales Process 302

Sales Process Webinar Metrics Intent Groups 302

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 22, 2014

Check out this series of value selling articles on my Blog. Check out this series of articles on Sales Process from my Blog. Shufflr is great for sharing PowerPoint files with my team as well as quickly and easily building presentations from slides you’ve already used in other presentations. Become a Value Seller.

Face-to-face 275

Face-to-face Commission Exercises Sales Qualified Lead 275

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

As part of getting the work done, you deleted as many emails as you could where a reply wasn''t required and visited fewer websites and blogs. That means you missed a lot of what we were discussing this summer. This series will catch you up in a hurry. Four days, four categories, with related articles. The Selling Articles.

Sales Leadership 208

Sales Leadership Up-Sell Relationals Sales 208

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 20, 2018

The first is about my award-winning Blog. I received two pieces of bad news about some horrible statistics. It seems that readers stay with an article for an average of only one-minute or so. That means that most readers don't finish the article, fail to get to my summary, and often don't read long enough to get my point.

ACT 178

ACT Relationals Opportunity Closing 178

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 11, 2012

HBR Blog – Worst Question for Salespeople to Ask. HBR Blog – Is Selling an Afterthought in Today’s Sales Model? HBR Blog – Post Gets Salespeople Wrong. Harvard Business Review Hit and Then Missed the Mark on Sales. Harvard Business Review Article on Sales Leaves Me with Mixed Feelings.

Study 173

Study Quota Software Software 173

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I loved this short, but perfect post from Seth Godin''s Blog last week. Yesterday, we had an internal conversation about our website, collateral, videos, blog articles, white papers, emails and of course, phone calls and face-to-face visits. It''s about the importance of trust.

Face-to-face 266

Face-to-face Ideal Customer Profile Hiring Collateral 266

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 22, 2015

My final blog post of 2015 is a brag article. Feel free to stop reading now if you don't care about the outcome of the 2015 Top Sales Awards. Before I list the awards, I want to congratulate all of this year's nominees and winners.

Groups 120

Groups Objections Sales Tools 120

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 10, 2012

My most important work doesn't always get posted on my own blog. Such is the case with this article I wrote for the Hubspot Blog on How Sales Has Changed in the Past 5 Years. Similarly, an article, in which I wrote about the Importance of Practicing Sales , was reworked for Gerhard Gschwandter's Selling Power Blog.

Hiring 180

Hiring Hubspot Sales Leadership Coaching 180

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 9, 2015

Last week, a Blog post appeared on another site that listed ,8 Things that the Top 1% of Salespeople Do Differently. In response, I posted a simple counter argument on my Blog. Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo. Sometimes things happen in ways that you never plan for.

Groups 120

Groups Objections Tools Sales 120

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

John Pattison wrote his first article for the Sales Operations Blog, Today I met the Worst Salesperson Ever! Our new White Paper, The Modern Science Behind Sales Force Excellence is available today - Download it. One of the stand-out findings that jumps off the pages of our new White Paper is about sales training.

Study 241

Study Report Sales Operations Follow-up 241

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 18, 2013

By the way, if you haven''t read Frank''s Blog , it''s also deserving of recognition. I won the Bronze for Top Sales & Marketing Blog - my 3rd consecutive win for Understanding the Sales Force. At Kurlan & Associates , Frank Belzer won the Silver for Top New Sales & Marketing Book, Sales Shift.

Sales Talent 235

Sales Talent Video Course Up-Sell 235

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 19, 2012

My Blog - Understanding the Sales Force - won Silver for Top Sales & Marketing Blog of 2012, the 2nd straight year of being recognized. Last Word: Tomorrow will be my final post of 2012 and my 1000th Article since I began writing on this Blog in 2006. c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Follow-up 228

Follow-up Incentives Incentive Sales Qualified Lead 228

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Mark said, " Instead, they start a blog, create a website, open a Twitter account and begin email marketing campaigns. By the time training is over, they will rank in Google for a few dozen keywords in their market, have a few dozen followers on Twitter and have written a few dozen blog articles.

Lead Rank 283

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Hiring Hubspot 283

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 11, 2013

Along with the holiday traditions celebrated by you, your family and friends, my Blog has three traditions in December: I ask readers to vote for their favorite article from the past 12 months (coming next week). Top Sales & Marketing Blog - Understanding the Sales Force - Dave Kurlan.

Inside Sales 193

Inside Sales Groups Objections Benefit 193

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 18, 2016

I usually get notified when new sales studies are published and I'm asked to link to those reports from my Blog. Last week I was invited to download the 2016 InsideSales.com Business Growth Index Report.

Pipeline 120

Pipeline Report Study Sales 120

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Yesterday, this post appeared on the Sales Thought Leaders Blog to add fuel to the fire. Both of my companies have Twitter accounts that tweet Blog posts, news and retweet many of the tweets from other sales thought leaders. Gerhard Gschwandtner added this post to the ongoing discussion. How did the top salespeople fare on those?

Social Selling 180

Social Selling Cold Calling Referrals Social Media 180