Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 13, 2024

But lately, when I talk with the Kurlan & Associates team, the topic is consistently about salespeople who push back on our sales training and coaching when it comes to dealing with RFPs. ” When training and coaching salespeople, theory is not enough. He started strong which you can see here.

Decision Maker 170

Decision Maker Proposal Distribution Territories 170

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

I’m hiring a salesperson for a client and using my time-tested process which we also train clients to use (so that WE DON’T have to recruit!). They aren’t using the most efficient process and tools to hire the best salespeople.

Hiring 193

Hiring How To Decision Maker Guarantee 193

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

They need to improve their ability to reach and build stronger relationships with decision makers. If you want to achieve greater sales or sales leadership success, the very best thing you can do is to invest in training and coaching. It won’t be nearly as powerful as training and coaching but it won’t hurt either.

Sales Leadership 203

Sales Leadership Hiring How To Account Based Marketing 203

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 31, 2024

If you want to put the finishing touch on your custom sales process, it should include a sales-specific (not marketing) scorecard that objectively scores every opportunity for the likelihood that it will be won.

Sales Process 182

Sales Process Decision Maker Sports Construction 182

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 28, 2013

I never want to be in a situation where I''m writing, coaching, consulting or training about a sales topic, but not actually doing those things myself. Did we default to the consultative approach when we were able to reach decision makers and the transactional approach when we weren''t?

Case Study 220

Case Study Study Decision Maker Inbound 220

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 10, 2023

As I mentioned earlier in this article, the new salespeople you attract, assess and hire must be able to sell value over price and sell consultatively to decision makers instead of transactionally to underlings. But it can’t be any salesperson who is willing to accept your offer.

Revenue 156

Revenue Hiring Decision Maker Cancellation 156

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

I''m sure I''ve missed a few but you get the gist. Dave Kurlan Inbound Marketing sales methodology closing sales performance sales selelction'

Sales Methodology 212

Sales Methodology Inbound Decision Maker Consultative Selling 212

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 28, 2013

I never want to be in a situation where I''m writing, coaching, consulting or training about a sales topic, but not actually doing those things myself. Did we default to the consultative approach when we were able to reach decision makers and the transactional approach when we weren''t?

Decision Maker 173

Decision Maker Inbound Buyer Lead Rank 173

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 5, 2014

Top 5 Success Factors for a Sales Training Initiative. Top 25 Prerequisites for Successful Sales Training and Sales Development. Top 10 Sales Training Realities Versus What You Believed. Top 6 Reasons Decision Makers Fail to Attend Your Meetings. Top 3 Ways for Salespeople to Eliminate Competition.

Hiring 249

Hiring Sales Management Decision Maker Cold Calling 249

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 17, 2013

It led to a significant number of comments with one of them being this question: "Dave, in your opinion, with all the training that is available and has been delivered to sales people over the years, how come sales people still fail at executing an effective approach to qualifying a prospect. Forget what we want to call the approach.

Decision Maker 268

Decision Maker Consultative Selling Buying Cycle Proposal 268

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

The decision maker won't meet with you. How well equipped are you, Sales Managers and Sales Leaders to recognize, identify, train and coach salespeople to overcome these weaknesses? You don't need to know why we want to move away from our current vendor. You have to go through me.

Airlines 268

Airlines Prospecting Decision Maker Vendor 268

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 3, 2014

Further relating this example to sales, the stakes go up for some salespeople relative to: The title of the decision maker or contact. Sales training will not make rejection related weaknesses disappear. With most training, the salespeople are given new words to use but still have the weakness.

Face-to-face 215

Face-to-face Decision Maker Call-back Outbound 215

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Despite the tools, training, coaching, video, audio and reading that are available, all three calls were as bad as I have ever heard. He was trained at some point in his lifetime - very long ago - and it showed - he offered tomorrow morning or the following afternoon - very, very, very, old Dale Carnegie tactics. Am I judging?

Cold Calling 191

Cold Calling Call-back Hiring Decision Maker 191

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Despite the tools, training, coaching, video, audio and reading that are available, all three calls were as bad as I've ever heard. He was trained at some point in his lifetime - very long ago - and it showed - he offered tomorrow morning or the following afternoon - very, very, very, old Dale Carnegie tactics. Am I judging?

Cold Calling 156

Cold Calling Hiring Call-back Decision Maker 156

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 22, 2014

Do Technical Salespeople Need Sales Training? Getting a Sales Organization to Buy-In to Sales Training. While getting to the decision maker is a measure of effectiveness, the spending ability, timeline, incumbent vendor and internal politics are not a measure of their effectiveness.

Proposal 233

Proposal Sports Sales Qualified Lead Scale 233

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 30, 2023

They won’t improve unless you have them trained on cold-call delivery. There are five possible reasons and some obvious solutions: Salespeople are not reaching decision makers. Opportunities are 341% more likely to get stuck if your salespeople aren’t talking with decision makers. Not being the value.

Decision Maker 156

Decision Maker Hiring Proposal Sales Cycle 156

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 8, 2023

Time Management – they have time for everything except making prospecting calls Nobody Answers the Phone – a nice excuse since it can take anywhere from 8-15 attempts to reach a decision maker and most salespeople give up after 4 attempts. However, at your company, there is a lot you can do.

Decision Maker 156

Decision Maker Penetration Account Comparison 156

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 4, 2024

Top Salespeople are 8600% Better at This Than Weak Salespeople How to Use Buckets to Improve Sales Performance and Coaching The Difference Between OMG and Extended DISC Assessments Salespeople With This Weakness Score 47% Worse at Reaching Decision Makers New Data – Most Sales Managers are a Disaster When it Comes to Coaching The New York Times’ Misleading (..)

Hiring 149

Hiring Sales Leadership Sales Forecasts Forecasting 149

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 11, 2014

Failure to Reach Decision Makers. The only time closing skills should come into play is when a properly qualified, closable prospect isn''t able to make a decision at closing time. If it''s multiple issues affecting multiple salespeople, then training is a better way to go. Inability to Sell Value. Poor Sales DNA.

Data 241

Data Decision Maker Proposal Trends 241

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Today, a client was nice enough to postpone their training to next week and that provided me with two hours to dig into both the infographic and data from Objective Management Group (OMG) that might correlate to what he sent me. Returning from two weeks vacation, I was buried in work and filed the email until I had time to review it.

Data 170

Data Groups Objections Training 170