Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 10, 2019

After you read his rant and related comments, please return to my article for a short tutorial on what's wrong with these emails and how to make them stickier. They aren't personal, they aren't written well, their messages are identical, you want to delete them and I know you get these emails too.

Prospecting 230

Prospecting LinkedIn Relationals Sales 230

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 18, 2019

What do Unbroken, Hunt for Red October, and A Few Good Men have in common and what is their relation to selling? What do Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocket Man, Miracle and Argo have in common and what do they have to do with selling?

Consultative Selling 237

Consultative Selling Relationals Sales Sales Process 237

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 7, 2021

The movie shines the spotlight on the well-known Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator and swings between those that love knowing, being and relating to one of the sixteen personality types; versus those who are trying to change laws to prevent assessments like this from being used as a pre-employment test.

Film 220

Film Sports Course Relationals 220

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Circling back to the two salespeople, at first glance the same findings for Desire and Commitment would seem to discredit the accuracy of the assessment. But could there be more to it? Historically, Bill is the company’s best salesperson. Fred is a relatively new hire who is not performing.

Hiring 182

Hiring Analysis Exact Groups 182

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. 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 19, 2017

To see him go to the door and touch it with his little paw, whimper when he is in his crate, go outside and do his business, and run back to the door is great. But it got me wondering, why is training a puppy relatively fast and easy while it is so much harder and takes so much longer to train salespeople?

Training 205

Training Relationals Sales Leadership Sales 205

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 5, 2019

Don't believe a word of it when you hear an economy related objection or put-off. It's because the supply chain is busier and stronger than ever and as a result of all of the buying, our roadways are jammed with trucks shipping products to distributors, retailers, warehouses and fulfillment centers.

Discount 173

Discount Construction Incentives Incentive 173

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

And boy oh boy does this relate to sales! Interestingly, the thing that excited me most was that we now have a well-known, high profile example of someone changing their mind AFTER the 11th hour.

Conference 186

Conference Coaching Relationals Positioning 186

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. Do you know which activities, questions and steps they are unable to execute as a result of their rejection weakness?

Face-to-face 215

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

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 20, 2018

The other piece of bad news relates to my award-winning sales training company, Kurlan & Associates. Basically, everything that comes after the fourth paragraph is not being read. This could also be good news. It could mean that I should write shorter articles and that would be great for me!

ACT 178

ACT Relationals Opportunity Closing 178

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 20, 2023

Today, I am continuing the music analogy, but this time, as it relates to motivational tools. Last week, I wrote about how the criteria you use to choose your all-time favorite songs is essentially the same as the criteria your prospects use to choose between you and a competitor. Let me explain and then I’ll pivot to selling.

Motivation 156

Motivation Pipeline Hiring How To 156

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. Things like collect five proposals, narrow the field to three, meet with the vendors, have them present, make a selection. 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

JUNE 4, 2014

Most of the focus on persistence is related to contacting new prospects. They get nothing because they deserve nothing because they did nothing related to actual selling! Just 3 years ago , when I wrote this article about the subject, it was 8 attempts and I thought that was high. When they go to follow up.nothing.

Territories 268

Territories Exercises Video ACT 268

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

It''s also very consistent with the late Steven Covey''s philosophy as related in his book, The Speed of Trust. We wondered aloud whether credibility and trust were really the same thing, related, or completely separate conclusions. It''s about the importance of trust. Please read it before proceeding.

Face-to-face 266

Face-to-face Ideal Customer Profile Hiring Collateral 266

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 7, 2017

Last week I wrote an Article for LinkedIn Pulse that explored some of the statistics related to Call Reluctance. Image Copyright Christian Chan. Many might think that Call Reluctance is a malady that occurred back when salespeople did their own dialing and had to book their own appointments.

Call-back 168

Call-back LinkedIn Relationals Conversion 168

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 18, 2015

They are basically ready to proclaim that anything selling related, that they don't really understand or find it necessary to do, is not needed and dead. They'll have you believing that salespeople are no longer needed, selling is dead, and a consultative approach is dead too. The Death of All Selling Forever April 25 2014. Februrary 19 2015.

Inbound 120

Inbound Inside Sales Sales Process Top of Funnel 120

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 2, 2014

Of course it more accurately described her - it''s a personality assessment, not a sales assessment, so it described what she is like and she was able to relate to the description of herself. OMG''s Sales Candidate Assessment does not describe a personality or a person or a type.

Conversion 249

Conversion Decision Maker Compensation Sales 249

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 14, 2014

As we continue to discuss these issues and more like them, let''s think about why there are two camps - those who continue to prophecise the eventual death of salespeople and selling; and those who defend its existence and continued importance as we march into the future.

Top of Funnel 250

Top of Funnel Inside Sales Conference Webinar Metrics 250

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 27, 2023

The positive group tells us the training is “life-changing,” a “breath of fresh air,” a “logical approach for them to follow,” a “welcome methodology to make them much more effective,” etc. A relatively small percentage of veterans provide negative feedback.

Hiring 156

Hiring Consultative Selling Coaching Report 156

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 5, 2016

As a result, we miss some of the best work-related things because we aren't working as many hours, may be in catch-up mode and not have the time to get to everything we would get to during cooler months. There have been at least 2 lists published of the sales books you should read on the beach this summer so we are not going there!

Sales Leadership 120

Sales Leadership Relationals Sales Sales Process 120

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 21, 2014

Related Promo - Absolute last chance to register for my September 10-11 Sales Leadership Intensive in the Boston area where you can learn to expertly coach just like that.]. Another related Promo - request a free sample sales force evaluation ]. Always start with sales management.

Sales Management 241

Sales Management Hiring Face-to-face Groups 241

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Four days, four categories, with related articles. 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.

Hiring 235

Hiring Relationals Sales Company 235

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Four days, four categories, with related articles. 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 misssed a lot of what we were discussing this summer. This series will catch you up in a hurry. Day 1 - The Social Selling Articles.

Social Selling 243

Social Selling Inbound Google Video 243

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 9, 2016

With sales process finally getting the necessary attention, we should turn our attention to the two related issues that need to be addressed. But recent statistics are showing that 20-25% of companies and their salespeople are finally following and using a sales process.

Sales Process 120

Sales Process CRM Groups Objections 120

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 18, 2015

While I was looking for the least read articles I consistently came across a whole bunch of my articles that were related to music. I will post an article that features my least read articles of all time - sounds very exciting, doesn''t it? I found enough to create a another article series. By the way, do you know about my article series?

Sales Coaching 120

Sales Coaching Coaching Relationals Closing 120

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

Four days, four categories, with related articles. 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. The Selling Articles.

Sales Leadership 208

Sales Leadership Up-Sell Relationals Sales 208

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 28, 2013

But upon learning that the problem is costing the company $5MM it would be a contextually appropriate time to ask who else cares about $5MM. If you ask the right questions and get the timing right along with it, you''ll get the results you are looking for as well.

Conversion 245

Conversion Decision Maker Vendor Competition 245

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Consequences of removing an opportunity and its related value from the forecast and/or pipeline – “It’s much better to slide the opportunity to next month than the alternative”. Here is a link to that video on You Tube. So the storm and the video led me to the following thoughts. Fear of being wrong – “How could I live with myself?”.

Forecasting 188

Forecasting Pipeline Sales Forecasts Webinar Metrics 188

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

Four days, four categories, with related articles. 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. The Sales Leadership Articles.

Airlines 180

Airlines Sales Leadership Channels Customer Service 180

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 8, 2014

Do you have salespeople who are putting in long hours, but don''t generate enough business in relation to the time invested? Are there sales versions of this? Do you have salespeople who are busy, but struggling to succeed? Do you have salespeople who find enough opportunities, but struggle to get them closed? Everything is relative.

Top of Funnel 251

Top of Funnel Proposal Coaching Networking 251

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

The article said that in June, "the number of jobs in sales and related occupations jumped a whopping 445,000 to a four-year-high of 15.8 The latest proof can be found in this July 2013 USA Today article. I''ll give you the important facts, but you should shoot over there and read the entire article. That''s in the USA alone.

Hiring 246

Hiring Inbound Trends Positioning 246

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 9, 2013

As you can see from the image above, nobody was following an effective sales process. Another really important factor is exactly what salespeople actually believe - what they think - relative to the sales cycle.

Sales Cycle 255

Sales Cycle Analysis Analytics Pipeline 255

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

When you and your salespeople begin to develop a better understanding of what consultative selling entails and the related business conversations that go with that approach, they often have the same urge to move the meeting along. 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

JULY 22, 2014

Findings Related to Potential. It''s all about potential. There are eight findings that point to potential: Growth Potential - how much improvement we can expect from this point forward. Trainable - whether or not the candidate has the incentive to change and adapt.

Hiring 236

Hiring Decision Maker Construction Incentives 236

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 13, 2013

One of the reasons is compensation. True or False: The higher the compensation, the better. True or False: Compensation isn''t that important to most salespeople. True or False: Compensation is always relative. True or False: Base salary is usually more important than % of commission. The answers are False, False, True and False.

Compensation 269

Compensation Commission Hiring Salary 269

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 15, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I just realized that this is my third music-related post this week but I'm going with it. Last night we were among the 35,000 or so concert goers at the Bruce Springsteen concert at Fenway Park in Boston. We have been to dozens of concerts but this was the best ever.

Energy 180

Energy Sales Cycle Motivation Relationals 180

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Consequences of removing an opportunity and its related value from the forecast and/or pipeline – “It’s much better to slide the opportunity to next month than the alternative.”. Here is a link to that video on You Tube. So the storm and the video led me to the following thoughts. Fear of being wrong – “How could I live with myself?”.

Forecasting 120

Forecasting Sales Forecasts Webinar Metrics Pipeline 120