Analogies

  • How Big of a Role Does Age Play in Sales Effectiveness?
    • August 19, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Salespeople Like Children, Understanding the Sales Force

    Young salespeople (0-2 years experience) tend to wing it, while older salespeople (20 or more years experience) tend to be more skilled and structured.  Want proof?  Let’s dig into the data.

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  • The Bearded Lady, My Shaving Pattern and Your Sales Pipeline
    • August 8, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    I can grow a pretty decent five o’clock shadow  – above my upper lip and only after about a week.  Unlike the bearded lady at the circus, when it comes to facial hair, there’s really not much there!

    Can you think of something else which, at first glance, appears to be OK but upon closer inspection, there’s really not much there?

    Did you guess sales pipelines?

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  • How All Those Trucks on the Road Can Help You Stop Discounting
    • August 5, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    I have an awful lot to say about incentives to buy!
    The occurrences are as predictable as the 6pm news beginning exactly at 6pm.  If you have opportunities in the pipeline during the last week of the month, the last week of the quarter and the last two weeks of the year, and your prospects showed a strong likelihood of moving forward, they’ll be sitting back waiting for a call from a salesperson or sales manager to sweeten the pot so that you can get this deal in before the end of whenever.  How lame.  

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  • How to Transform Your Sales Pipeline Today
    • July 8, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    Flower gardens can be large, colorful, impressive and calming to look at.  Unfortunately, most sales pipelines are full of weeds, not large enough, and certainly not impressive.  From its evaluations and assessments of 1,875,978 salespeople, Objective Management Group (OMG) has found that only 46% of all salespeople maintain a full pipeline.  It breaks down as follows:

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  • The 14 Lies Preventing Salespeople From Getting Their Prospects into a Buying State of Mind
    • May 17, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    Let’s cover some of the lies being told to companies with sales organizations and how those lies prevent sales organizations from being their best.  Over the past 10-20 years, we have seen and heard the following proclamations (and you can find most of them with this Google search link:

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  • 10 Reasons Why Salespeople Hallucinate
    • May 15, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    I saw something that simply wasn’t there.  A figment of my imagination.  You could even call it a hallucination.

    Salespeople frequently have hallucinations where they think there is something there, like a great opportunity, and in reality, there isn’t anything there.  Not even close.  And then there are the salespeople who don’t see an opportunity when there is actually a great one hiding in plain site.

    Let’s talk about the many reasons that these scenarios occur.

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  • Using the Power of a Duracell to Help You Hire Perfect Salespeople
    • April 25, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    Apparently, Duracell 9 volt batteries are the picture of consistency. 

    Last night, all 7 of our upstairs smoke detecters starting squawking within about 30 minutes of each other to indicate that their batteries needed to be replaced.  Given that the Duracells were installed in those units on the same day 4 years ago, one would hope that there are more things that we could rely upon to be as consistent and predictable.

    One of those things is Objective Management Group’s sales candidate assessments.

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  • 2 Selling Shortcuts That Will Always Work
    • April 22, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    Do shortcuts work in sales?

    I can tell you that shortcuts work when you’re driving a car and need either a more direct route to your destination or a route that avoids traffic.  Waze helps a lot with that!

    Shortcuts work in math when you know what the formula is and how to use it.

    But shortcuts in sales?  Not usually.  Watch this 1:30 video on sales shortcuts and then I’ll share two scenarios where shortcuts can actually be used.

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  • Six Overlooked Factors When Hiring Salespeople
    • April 11, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve been sick with my annual bout of asthmatic bronchitis – fun stuff – and the question I’ve been asking myself is, “how long will it last this year?”  Historically, it’s takes 2-4 weeks for this to subside and it sucks big time during that 2-4 weeks.  But thinking about time frames got me thinking about one of the universal timelines and challenges facing companies everywhere.

    How long should it take for a new salesperson to become successful and why do so many of them fail?

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  • How the Rubber Band Sabotages Sales Performance
    • April 1, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force

    I have written many articles about Sales DNA, the combination of strengths that support sales process, sales strategy and sales tactics; or, when it appears as a weakness and sabotages ones ability to execute.

    Unlike strategies and tactics, where you can learn and apply them, improving your Sales DNA requires much more effort and time.  

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