Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 9, 2024

In Baseline Selling terms, most salespeople start their repeat business conversation at 3rd base but she did what salespeople should do and started at 1st base. She avoided the mistake that most salespeople make when they assume that their customer remembers all of the information from prior discussions. Kudos to the Vet!

Proposal 193

Proposal Call-back Account Conversion 193

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 9, 2024

In Baseline Selling terms, most salespeople start their repeat business conversation at 3rd base but she did what salespeople should do and started at 1st base. She avoided the mistake that most salespeople make when they assume that their customer remembers all of the information from prior discussions. Kudos to the Vet!

Proposal 156

Proposal Call-back Account Conversion 156

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

The coverage was so spotty that most calls were dropped several times per conversation. The only practical way to use the "car phone" was to find a coverage area, find a place to park in that area, and then have a conversation. All calls in and out were billed by the minute and my bill averaged around $1,500 per month.

Marketing 295

Marketing Conversion Account Prospecting 295

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

For example, Bob has never been comfortable having a financial conversation with his prospects. As a result of skipping the financial conversation, he regularly proposes solutions that prospects can’t justify, giving him a win rate of less than 15%. Data from Objective Management Group (OMG), which has assessed more than 2.4

Proposal 193

Proposal Sales Training Conversion 193

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 9, 2020

It's a bad thing because while Bob was supposed to be selling value, a price-based conversation is transactional yet he's supposed to be taking a consultative approach to support the value he provides. Bob was on a sales call and the prospect told him that they were looking for the lowest price. I hope you hate it when that happens.

Conversion 353

Conversion Prospecting Consultative Selling Sales 353

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 31, 2024

In the sales process, the milestones are also signs that guide you along the way to help you confidently enjoy the conversation, without being called out, in the appropriate time frame for your sales cycle, and finally closing the opportunity. Milestones are anything but restrictive.

Sales Process 182

Sales Process Decision Maker Sports Construction 182

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Discomfort Talking About Money is one of six Sales Core Competencies found in Sales DNA, the collection of strengths that support the execution of sales process, sales methodology, sales strategy and sales tactics.

Sales Methodology 203

Sales Methodology Sales Process Proposal Objections 203

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Quotas, pricing, margins, forecasts, conversions, quotes, close rates, meetings booked, average sale and more. By contrast, 38 years in sales consulting has shown me that selling is only about the numbers and admittedly, at times, I’ve been guilty of contributing to that focus on numbers.

Revenue 193

Revenue Margin Sports Quota 193

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

When professional salespeople are asked to role-play the salesperson's part of a sales conversation they sound every bit as awful as these pitchers look when attempting to field their position. Role-playing is the sales equivalent of fielding practice in baseball.

Exact 232

Exact Twitter Video Coaching 232

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 13, 2024

We must role-play each scenario so that we can demonstrate what a good conversation sounds like but salespeople who have never attempted option 2, and whose experience is limited to option 1, are unable to play the part of the prospect in an option 2 role play because they can’t wrap their heads around the possibility.

Decision Maker 170

Decision Maker Proposal Distribution Territories 170

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

I explained that there are four types of sales conversations and by conducting some self-analysis you can determine whether success or failure is the result of your own effectiveness, or because of your company's reputation, quality and features of your product or service, the timing of your conversation, or that you happen to have the lowest price. (..)

Real Estate 186

Real Estate Analysis Conversion Sales 186

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 30, 2018

I was emphasizing how important it is to role-play as part of every coaching conversation and that's when I realized that what I was sharing was a bunch of crap. Earlier this week I was leading another Sales Leadership Intensive and during a break it came to me.

Sales Qualified Lead 243

Sales Qualified Lead Sales Leadership Coaching Up-Sell 243

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 30, 2019

They aren't masters of role-playing and role-playing is one of the primary tools to demonstrate best practices and how effective sales conversations should sound. As I suggested to a pair of sales managers today, there is an intermediate step they can take.

Coaching 235

Coaching Sales Management Examples Tools 235

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 13, 2024

At Kurlan, we role-play each scenario in order to demonstrate what good conversations sounds like. When training and coaching salespeople, the theory of how to sell to companies that buy via the RFP process is not enough.

Decision Maker 193

Decision Maker Data Hiring Proposal 193

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 22, 2018

million salespeople to look at salespeople who are uncomfortable having a financial conversation with their prospects and customers. This article will take the same approach and use the same data from Objective Management Group's (OMG) evaluations of 1.8 The latest data reveals that 60% of all salespeople have this weakness!

Data 267

Data Decision Maker Revenue Groups 267

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 25, 2018

That article stimulated this great conversation on LinkedIn. Last week I wrote a revealing article which showed that Sales Managers are even worse than I thought when it comes to coaching their salespeople.

Sales Management 209

Sales Management Data Coaching LinkedIn 209

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 3, 2024

(score of 25-50 on Coaching) The following Sales Core Competencies provide additional nuance on the degree to which a salesperson is coachable: Relationship Building – When sales managers and salespeople both have Relationship Building as a strength, they can protect each other’s feelings as they proceed through a coaching conversation.

Data 130

Data Construction Coaching Face-to-face 130

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

Several of my recent conversations with sales leaders have focused on how to quickly and effectively and efficiently get new salespeople up to speed and help them to have an immediate impact. Image Copyright iStock Photos. Quickly and immediate are relative to the learning curve and the sales cycle but are still the key outcomes.

How To 245

How To Sales Cycle Coaching Relationals 245

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 7, 2014

You need the relationship, even if it''s to earn the right to have a deeper conversation about this behavior and how you can help them save time (less calling, fewer shipments to receive and fewer invoices to pay), and money (better prices when they buy everything from one source, in greater quantities, and over an extended period of time).

Consultative Selling 297

Consultative Selling Inside Sales Top of Funnel Funnel 297

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 7, 2017

The truth is that most salespeople are still expected to dial and in tech companies where BDR's do that dirty work, Call Reluctance is still the primary reason why there aren't enough conversations. Those with Call Reluctance might even be heard saying, "Sure, put me through to voicemail" or "He's busy?

Call-back 168

Call-back LinkedIn Relationals Conversion 168

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

Conversion ratios - calls to meetings, meetings to qualified opportunities, qualified opportunities to closable, and win rates, all compared with the same ratios from a prior period.

Sales Cycle 209

Sales Cycle Pipeline Coaching Revenue 209

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 14, 2014

Most importantly, it''s a conversation, not a series of questions. It''s a conversation that different from what most salespeople are having with their prospects and it relies heavily on effective listening and note-taking skills. Not really. 9,770 results come up for my articles on Consultative Selling.

Consultative Selling 253

Consultative Selling Training Conference Coaching 253

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 22, 2014

Overlooked Conversation Between Sales Managers and Salespeople. You could look at conversion ratios, but some opportunities move from one stage to another and it''s unrelated to whether or not the salesperson was effective. They should have developed a relationship during this conversation.

Proposal 233

Proposal Sports Sales Qualified Lead Scale 233

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 28, 2014

Overlooked Conversation Between Sales Managers and Salespeople. The yearly model might look like this: 7500 Attempts/Requests 1500 Conversations 150 New Scheduled Meetings/Calls 100 Quality Opportunities 75 Qualified Opportunities 68 Demos/Presentations 54 Proposals/Quotes 18 Closed. Do Technical Salespeople Need Sales Training?

Lead Rank 240

Lead Rank Sales Methodology Cold Calling Sales Qualified Lead 240

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 25, 2023

Hold everyone accountable to change. This can work. And it will work as long as there is commitment from the top down, not only in approving the money, but with visible endorsement, support, and participation in this sales transformation process from beginning to end.

Outsourcing Services 193

Outsourcing Services Territories Proposal Sales Methodology 193

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 22, 2013

When we take the concept from selling an idea (at home, at church, in the neighborhood or internally to coworkers) to professional selling 10 things change: There is money on the table and 53% of salespeople are uncomfortable having a conversation about money and another 33% think that just $500 is a lot of money. What do you think?

Hiring 308

Hiring Cold Calling Commission Call-back 308

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 14, 2014

Nothing is more important in today’s selling than the conversation that takes place between the salesperson and the prospect. While other methodologies are based on relationship-building, strategy or tactics, the Baseline Selling methodology is based on the conversation that continues across each stage. It’s all good.

Sales Process 243

Sales Process Sales Up-Sell Follow-up 243

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 10, 2013

Now, they completely qualify the reasons, expectations and time allotted for that visit, have a meaningful conversation about their prospect''s business, and get commitments to have their products specified on future work. They are enjoying much better conversations, achieving much better engagement and getting much stronger commitments.

Proposal 224

Proposal Sales Qualified Lead Conversion Up-Sell 224

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

While most of these roleplays and coaching moments are memorable, impactful and terrific learning events for everyone on the sales force, some of these conversations tend to be more memorable than others. The conversation to which you just listened is easy to learn. More on that in a moment. Click here to listen.

Coaching 201

Coaching Exact Webinar Metrics Sales Leadership 201

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 31, 2013

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan It is difficult to have a conversation about sales and marketing without discussing some of the areas where they tend to bump into each other, create friction, and disagree. Aligning and Optimizing Sales and Marketing to Increase Conversions. This series will discuss some of those scenarios.

Marketing 186

Marketing Sales Cycle Conversion Sales 186

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 2, 2015

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a Sales VP about the training he said he wanted (but didn't really) for his sales team. When a CEO initiates the call, and then invites a Sales VP to join the conversation, Sales VPs are usually worried about:

Training 120

Training Company Conversion Sales 120

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 10, 2013

53% of all salespeople are too uncomfortable with the subject to have a conversation about money. How important is it that your salespeople have a conversation about money? 33% of all salespeople think that just $500 is a lot of money. How much money are your salespeople supposed to be asking for?

Negotiation 304

Negotiation Proposal Competition Positioning 304

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

This is when the conversation began to resemble a sales call. I was discussing the OMG Partnership opportunity with a gentlemen from Hong Kong, who objected to our reasonable licensing fees, refusing to pay any fees to a US company.

Licensing 229

Licensing Negotiation Exact Objections 229

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 23, 2014

I wrote a very serious post earlier this week where I had the nerve to bring God into the conversation. I thought it was appropriate because the biggest and most important take away from that article was about being inspired and inspiring others.

Sports 205

Sports Analysis Conversion Sales 205

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 1, 2020

Prospecting - Caliper calls it whether they will call and initiate conversations and OMG looks at whether the candidate will prospect consistently. We have seen plenty of salespeople who follow procedures, but don't have a sales process which works. Both assessments said yes, but once again, I believe Caliper got lucky.

Comparison 306

Comparison Lead Rank Lead Scoring Hiring 306

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 14, 2016

Ironically, I spoke to a crowd that wanted to learn how to be more effective at engaging prospects by phone and converting those conversations to meetings. Last week, I spoke at Inbound , where 19,000 people attended this sold-out event in Boston. Why is it ironic? Well, the promise of the Inbound movement is that cold calling is dead.

Inbound 120

Inbound Cold Calling Benefit Prospecting 120

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 16, 2013

Here''s the premise: Companies that have been rigorously enforcing sales process should stop doing so because it is resulting in longer sales cycles, decreased conversion rates, unreliable forecasts and depressed margins. The November 2013 issue featured an article titled Dismantling the Sales Machine. So they say. Sound familiar?

Sales Process 249

Sales Process Margin Survey Forecasting 249