-
Inc Magazine Misses on the 13 Traits of an Outstanding Salesperson
- March 14, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I just read the 13 Traits of An Outstanding Salesperson, an article that appeared on Inc.com.
As usual, I had several thoughts about this so, in no particular order…
-
This is How Sales Managers Should Coach Their Salespeople
- March 13, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A salesperson told me he met with a customer that had taken their business to a competitor because of price. It sounded like they were getting what they were paying for:
-
Email for the Sales Force – How it Should be Used
- March 11, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you’re anything like me, you get 300 emails a day and there simply isn’t time to respond to it all during office hours. That is one of the reasons why working hours often begin in the wee hours of the morning and don’t end until the late night television shows are over.
-
Best Example of Value-Added vs. Commodity Selling
- March 7, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I wrote an article for the March 2013 issue of Top Sales World Magazine that debriefs an actual sales call. I’ve written more than 1,000 articles and I believe this one is the best yet! The article effectively details an actual value-added consultative sales call which, because of a single incorrect question, quickly became a transactional, commodity-based, price-driven call. The example is really striking because it so clearly shows that you can do everything correctly but asking even one question the wrong way can cause a salesperson to lose the opportunity to be a trusted advisor, and fall into the abyss of commodity sellers.
-
Great Salespeople Can See the Pixels – The Rest Watch the Movie
- March 6, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We have been describing the Consultative Sales approach. How do your salespeople fare in their ability to sell consultatively and, more importantly, which of them can be trained and coached to effectively execute this with consistency and results?
-
Harvard Business Review Blog Off Target on Sales Greatness
- March 5, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This recent article in the Harvard Business Review Blog was as far off target as any I have ever debunked. Steve Martin lists 7 characteristics that he says differentiate great sales forces from good ones. His seven are:
-
Why Salespeople Won’t Abandon the Early Demo and Presentation
- March 4, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you want your sales force to strive for sales excellence, the bottom line is that your salespeople won’t drive this transition and neither will a sales manager. You have to drive it. You must commit to it and it must be a sustained commitment. It’s not a do-it-yourself project, so you must also be prepared to do it correctly, get help from a results-oriented firm, and lead by example.
-
How the Landscape Quickly Changes on Your Salespeople
- February 27, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Give your salespeople these two pictures and the next time they begin to think that everything seems wonderful, make sure they remember to brush the snow away, take off their rose colored glasses, and learn what the landscape truly looks like underneath the false interest.
-
Sales Excellence Studies Propagate Mediocrity
- February 26, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you conduct a Google search for “sales excellence studies”, you’ll find more than 20,000 results. I’m sure that some results point to surveys which were conducted by others, but either way, that’s a lot of studies on sales excellence. If any of those studies were actually ground-breaking, insightful or truly representative of sales excellence, there would probably be fewer than a dozen. But there are not. There are many reasons why these studies are so lame, but let’s name just a few:
-
Missing on the “Secrets to Developing Successful Sales Managers”
- February 21, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
An interesting article, Secrets to Developing Successful Sales Managers, by Xactly’s CEO, Christopher Cabrera, was posted on Selling Power’s 2/19/13 blog. I suggest that you read it first, returning to this article for the analysis.
I thought that the first half of the article was spot on.
I thought that the second half was as bad as the first half was good.
Here’s why: