-
What Elon Musk and Great Salespeople Do Differently Than Everyone Else
- October 10, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Elon Musk doesn’t care whether you like him or not. He doesn’t care what you think about him. He doesn’t care what you say about him. All he cares about is that he is getting a lot of attention.
How does this apply to sales and selling?
-
Milestones in the Sales Process are Like the Stones in a Wall
- October 5, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
An ideal sales process has 4 stages, each with anywhere from 4 to 10 milestones that must be met in order to move to the next stage.
-
The 10 Avoidable Things That Occur When Salespeople Don’t Talk about Money
- September 27, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The table above uses data from Objective Management Group (OMG), which has assessed close to 2.4 million salespeople. The data shows that 43% of all salespeople are uncomfortable talking about money and while the top 10% have no such problem, 71% of the bottom 10% are too uncomfortable to talk about money. These are the 10 things that happen when salespeople are uncomfortable with the finance-specific milestones of the sales process:
-
Sales Presentations to Big Companies – the Same as Political Theater
- September 22, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
What really happens on presentation day? Theater. Salespeople validate what the individuals on the committee already believe to be true. If you’re not the one getting the business, nothing you do on that day will change that UNLESS the one who is getting the business screws up big time.
-
How to Achieve Greater Sales & Sales Leadership Success
- September 20, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Salespeople need to be much better at prospecting instead of hiding behind emails and LinkedIn messages. They need to be better at the discovery call and qualifying. They need to improve their listening and questioning skills. They need to improve their ability to reach and build stronger relationships with decision makers. They need to improve their ability to sell value. They need to improve their ability to execute the company’s chosen sales process and sales methodology. They don’t need the distractions of off-topic reading.
-
Three Recent Hurricanes Show the Path to More Effective Selling
- September 18, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A great example of how much more successful salespeople are when they call on Decision Makers came from a salesperson who messaged me last week. Freddy was excited to talk about his recent success and I have changed his name and company names to protect his identity. Freddy wrote:
-
Top 5 Keys to Hire Ideal Sales Candidates at Your Company
- September 11, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There’s no time like the present to hire salespeople but your sales recruiting strategy must consider the ever changing ebb and flow of the candidate pool. This article explains the five keys to hiring ideal salespeople for your company and has lots of data to back it up.
-
What Relationship Builders Do Better Than All Other Salespeople
- September 5, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Last week, I posted an article on the Impact of Relationship Building Challenges in Sales. The article explored what happens to salespeople who are skilled at selling, but aren’t very good at building relationships, as well as those who are great at building relationships, but aren’t very skilled at selling. While there were some terrific insights, the one thing that was missing from the article was what great relationship builders do that everyone else fails to do.
Also last week, we celebrated the life of my best friend and longtime business partner, Matt Hogan, who passed away on Friday, August 25. Today’s article will pay tribute to Matt, the best relationship builder I have ever known, I’ll share the 10 things Matt did to build strong, lasting relationships, as well as ten things I learned from Matt.
-
The Impact of Relationship Building Challenges in Sales
- August 28, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
My wife and I recently finished streaming Parenthood, whose theme song was Forever Young, by Bob Dylan. Despite my enjoyment of the series, the theme song hit me like nails on a chalkboard. I cringed every time I heard it.
It explains a lot about intangibles in selling.
-
Top 15 Categories of Reading to Improve Sales Team Effectiveness
- August 21, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Bookmark this article so that over time, if you want to improve your sales effectiveness, you can read articles from the topics listed below