Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

My wife and I entered the small jewelry shop and were greeted - not with a warm welcome - but with a matter of fact "my name is.and I'm the owner.and I created everything in the store" which was followed by fifteen minutes of non-stop presentation of everything she created. It includes thinking all of the following: Stop! I don't care!

Retail 288

Retail Data Follow-up Exact 288

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 7, 2021

Before entering, they required scanning a QR Code, registering on their website, and waiting to receive a call from an associate before being allowed to shop. Retail is all about browsing and at this store, they forgot about making it easy to buy and replaced it with making it difficult to get started.

Sales Process 315

Sales Process Retail Exact Sales 315

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 22, 2024

That exact same thing happens to salespeople on their sales calls. Have you ever been on the road, lost in thought, just driving down the highway (oh-oh, already sounds like a country song), when you realized you blew past your exit about thirty miles ago?

Closing 212

Closing Proposal Discount Decision Maker 212

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 30, 2021

The exact same thing is happening with the sales numbers reported by most companies. For the real story to materialize, we should know how many of those 1,000 cases occurred in vaccinated people, how many vaccinated people with COVID have symptoms, and how many of those cases required hospitalization.

Report 170

Report How To Exact Sales 170

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 21, 2023

I had actually forgotten that before the app, I simply inserted a credit card to pay. Luckily for me, I remembered to bring my wallet on this particular visit so the card was handy, I paid, and gassed up. This is exactly what salespeople go through when a prospect pushes back, objects, displays lack of interest, or attempts to end the call.

Prospecting 170

Prospecting How To Call-back Objections 170

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

The article was clearly written to support the author's technology application, which helps track sales KPI's; so they should know a little about the topic of sales process. Towards the end of the article, they provided a sample of what an effective sales process should look like. The following text is exactly what they wrote:

Sales Process 209

Sales Process Exact LinkedIn Sales 209

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

They appear to be the exact same thing but since there is a huge difference in price, you look closely and learn that the cheapest products are Chinese rip-offs that don’t work, don’t last, and don’t include the same features.

Hiring 182

Hiring Analysis Exact Objections 182

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 31, 2023

The exact same thing happened with Ring Central except Ring Central tried upselling me and put the charges through without my agreement. Several different Zoom sales reps called to introduce themselves over the past several months.

Follow-up 156

Follow-up Proposal Intent Groups 156

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 16, 2018

I mined Objective Management Group (OMG) data and compared salespeople who have been with their company for 10 years or more, with salespeople who have been with their company for five years or less. Theoretically, the veteran salespeople should be better and stronger in every way. But are they?

Data 189

Data Exact Objections Groups 189

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

I reported on last year's report in detail here , but my conclusion for 2018 is the exact same conclusion I came to in 2017. The data in the report, which you can download here , hasn't changed a great deal since 2017, but the report's new look is awesome.

Report 186

Report Exact Study Data 186

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 8, 2014

or "The questions don''t fit the role!" or "Thanks for saving us so much time - we would have hired some of these losers last year!". I can usually determine, just from the comment of the email, exactly who, by title, must have sent it to us.

Hiring 287

Hiring Exact Examples Sales 287

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

Or the Cajun Army rescuing thousands in Houston? Now, I don't want to equate my news with the enormity of Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma, but when I first saw the data, my reaction was exactly the same. I said, "Wow - didn't see that coming.".

Motivation 204

Motivation Data Exact Groups 204

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 21, 2014

They don''t look at your bottom performers, but know that your underachievers have some of the exact same traits and styles as your top performers. These commonalities are the traits and styles that caused them to enter sales - not the traits and styles that cause them to succeed at sales!

Hiring 258

Hiring Groups Exact Face-to-face 258

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 15, 2014

Do you think anyone will show up to hear me? This comment, as well as articles and comments like this, are the source of exactly the kind of confusion that I spoke about in this cover story for Top Sales World Magazine last week. conference in Boston.

Inbound 264

Inbound Hiring Hubspot Lead Gen 264

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 12, 2023

Criteria represents the specific requirements for them to choose you and three of those will always be connection related. If they like you, find you easy to work with, and you bring them value.

Prospecting 156

Prospecting Vendor Proposal Sales Process 156

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

At face value, one might come to the exact same conclusion as we did in 2013, that it''s having limited impact on sales. 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. One of the things we studied is the impact of Social Selling.

Social Selling 256

Social Selling Revenue Inbound Face-to-face 256

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

Most salespeople - 74% to be exact - not wishing to jeopardize a great opportunity, start negotiating or worse, agreeing, to the unrealistic requests. He did what a lot of buyers do to salespeople and began to boast about how well-positioned his company is to market OMG in Hong Kong and what a huge opportunity this would be for OMG.

Licensing 229

Licensing Negotiation Exact Objections 229

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

I''ll be speaking at the EcSell Institute Fall Sales Coaching Summit in Chicago next week. I last mentioned EcSell in an extremely popular article, This is How Sales Managers Should Coach Their Salespeople. The article outlined exactly how to coach salespeople to success and as its example, discussed a salesperson in a competitive situation.

Coaching 201

Coaching Exact Webinar Metrics Sales Leadership 201

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

If you''ve been hiring, you may have noticed the exact same thing with salespeople! There aren''t many ripe salespeople, but there seem to be plenty of green ones. Green would represent either lack of sales experience or lack of experience in the desired selling environment.

Hiring 120

Hiring Exact Sales Strategy 120

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 10, 2023

They wanted to test the network even though I told him that calls go through and it was only internet that wasn’t working. As a non-expert, it was obvious to me that it was a local problem affecting only data. I wanted to share exactly where the issue was occurring but my customer service agent was located somewhere in Asia.

Customer 156

Customer Wireless Customer Service Call-back 156

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 12, 2017

I'm going to show you exactly how your salespeople report fake news but first, we need to break down how fake news happens so that I can demonstrate how your weak salespeople do the exact same thing, every chance they can get. If yours is like most companies, then half of its salespeople fit this description.

Networking 80

Networking Exact Report Groups 80

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 27, 2023

They think they know it all but they don’t know Jack $hit. Hire outside experts who know how to deal with their resistance and turn them around, and soon you’ll have veteran salespeople who are doing exactly what you need them to do while getting the increase in revenue that you need.

Hiring 156

Hiring Consultative Selling Coaching Report 156

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 19, 2016

When you finally accept delivery and take it for a spin with your family, everyone hates it, nobody wants to drive with you, and you feel like it wasn't such a great price after all. You can't trade it in, and now you're stuck with it. Sounds impossible, doesn't it?

Hiring 120

Hiring Exact Marketing Company 120

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 19, 2016

When you finally accept delivery and take it for a spin with your family, everyone hates it, nobody wants to drive with you, and you feel like it wasn't such a great price after all. You can't trade it in, and now you're stuck with it. Sounds impossible, doesn't it?

Hiring 120

Hiring Exact Marketing Company 120

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 21, 2015

The 2016 MLB playoffs are in full swing so forgive me if I refer to baseball for exactly the 100th time in the past 11 years and 1,350 Blog articles. Clutch hitting - at bats in pressure situations that usually occur late in the game - has been studied a lot in recent years.

Exact 120

Exact Study Hiring Sales 120

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 22, 2015

You closed a nice deal, you shared the news with everyone else at the office, you entered it into your CRM, you provided the information to get the deal invoiced, you went home and calculated your commission and before you could collect the money, it got taken away. Dave Kurlan closing tips selling value lost a deal after the close'

Closing 120

Closing Commission Exact CRM 120

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

What they do change, is they add a phrase to the beginning of each message. They say, "Houston, in the dark.". They are moving blindly, without direction, without feedback, without certainty. They are in the dark. That''s exactly how most salespeople go through each day, through each sales call and meeting, and through each sales cycle.

Decision Maker 313

Decision Maker Proposal Sales Cycle Exact 313

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 15, 2013

Talk about their history and clients instead of their prospects'' issues. Fail to differentiate themselves. I checked and o f the 1,000 plus articles I have written for Understanding the Sales Force , exactly two have been about presentations and presenting.

Exact 247

Exact Sales Prospecting Company 247

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 2, 2015

I turned sixty years old today and everyone is asking me how it feels to be sixty. To be honest, it feels exactly the same as it felt to be fifty-nine - which is essentially the same as it felt to be 40. Nothing has changed. And speaking of nothing changing, nothing has changed over at BigBrains where two updates have come my way.

Hiring 120

Hiring Company Face-to-face Exact 120

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 18, 2013

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan. I wrote and posted exactly 100 new articles since my final article of 2012 when I announced your favorite all-time Kurlan article. I''ve chosen 10 from this year''s articles that were either very popular, contained many comments, or thought-provoking.

Decision Maker 204

Decision Maker Compensation Consultative Selling Call-back 204

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 30, 2012

Optimists are just as much of a liability as pessimists because they don't inspect or question what they hear. They assume that everything will be okay. While a positive attitude is good, it can be terribly frustrating! The realist : This is exactly who you need on your sales force.

Decision Maker 253

Decision Maker Proposal Sales Cycle Exact 253

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 11, 2014

Many volunteer youth baseball coaches scream the outcomes they want, like, "Get on base" instead of coaching kids on the approach they should take to reach base in their next at bat. Many Sales Managers are guilty of similar mistakes when they instruct their salespeople to, "Go sell something."

Coaching 283

Coaching Engineering Exact Sales Management 283

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

I would like to remind you of a white paper on trust that I published a couple of years ago. I conducted a study and we got some incredible, eye-popping data, that shows who trusts whom, by industry, and exactly when and why salespeople are distrusted. It''s a must-read. You can download it right here. (c) c) Copyright 2013 Dave Kurlan'

Face-to-face 266

Face-to-face Ideal Customer Profile Hiring Collateral 266

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 9, 2013

One of the 11 factors that has a great deal to do with the length of the sales cycle is whether or not the sales force and/or the salespeople have an effective sales process. As you can see from the image above, nobody was following an effective sales process.

Sales Cycle 255

Sales Cycle Analysis Analytics Pipeline 255

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

It's similar to when I'm trying to run to my next meeting. The patience that's so elusive to me on the road (but so easy for me in a sales call, consultation, coaching call or training session) is exactly what your salespeople must develop to be effective in differentiating your company on every sales call. (c) c) Copyright 2012 Dave Kurlan

Travel 191

Travel Consultative Selling Proposal Exact 191

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 30, 2012

Optimists are just as much of a liability as pessimists because they don't inspect or question what they hear. They assume that everything will be okay. While a positive attitude is good, it can be terribly frustrating! The realist : This is exactly who you need on your sales force.

Decision Maker 245

Decision Maker Proposal Sales Cycle Exact 245

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 22, 2014

With all of that information about their past, how can you possibly gauge potential when hiring for your sales force? Objective Management Group (OMG) has three candidate assessments that provide companies with exactly that for sales, sales management, and sales leadership (VP/Sales Director).

Hiring 236

Hiring Decision Maker Construction Incentives 236