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Top 7 Reasons Why Ineffective Salespeople Get By
- February 14, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
the typical salesperson receives, on average, 3 days of sales training in their entire career. I’ve interviewed thousands of salespeople (the good ones who have been recommended by the Assessment and performed well on a phone interview) and most of them have never had a single day of professional sales training. And practice? I can tell you that in the past 26 years, there has not been a single client whose salespeople had been practicing the art and science of selling before I required them to start practicing.
Why aren’t salespeople getting enough professional training before and during their employment?
Why aren’t they getting coached the way they should?
Why aren’t they practicing?
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10 Sales Coaching Examples
- February 13, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Your system for coaching – the frequency, duration and process – should remain consistent, but it is important to remember these variations. All of the people whom you coach or should be coaching are unique individuals and need you to work with them in a way that is most beneficial to them, not you.
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How Many Sales Candidate Assessments Does it Take?
- February 9, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Why wouldn’t you just wait until the end of the process to assess the candidates? Three reasons:
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Top 10 Sales Training Realities Versus What You Believed
- February 8, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Belief – Most believe that after a day of comprehensive training, salespeople will have the understanding, tools and experience to get on the phone, go out in the field, use what they learned and be effective.
Reality – After a day of training, salespeople still have the old, worn-out, ineffective approach down cold. It’s muscle memory. The new approach (even if they took notes and practiced it during training, even if the approach is highly effective, time-tested and proven) is as strange to them as the thought of eating monkey brains for dinner. They’re still using a modified version of their old approach rather than a modified version of the new approach. They are definitely not using the new approach as taught.
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Sales Strategy and Tactics – Thoughts from the Super Bowl
- February 6, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In my opinion, football is the sport based more on strategy while baseball is the sport based more on tactics.
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Great Sales Management Advice from Football’s Greatest
- February 3, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Sales Managers could learn a thing or two from Bill Belichick! Like:
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Top 10 Things – The First Minute of a Sales Candidate Interview
- February 2, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In the first minute of your interview with a sales candidate you should know whether you don’t want that candidate working for you. Think about it. If you decide in minute one that this candidate is NOT for you, there are options. You can end the interview and find yourself an hour that you didn’t expect to have. You can complete the interview for practice or you can do it to see if the candidate succeeds at winning you over during the remainder of the interview. If you can be won over after you have written a candidate off, that is exactly what you want in a salesperson.
What should you look for in the first minute that would suggest you don’t want this candidate?
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Before Your Company Hires a Sales Leader…
- January 30, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One area where we see this occur repeatedly is when companies are about to hire a Sales VP or Director AND they want to evaluate their sales force too. For some reason, many choose to delay the evaluation until after the VP is in place when in reality, the evaluation should be used to help them select the new sales VP.
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Why Young, Male Salespeople are at a Huge Disadvantage
- January 26, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Did you know that salespeople distrust other salespeople nearly as much as non salespeople do?
Did you know that women and salespeople were 25% more likely to be victims of a sales scam than men and non salespeople?
Every woman that completed the survey has been the victim of a sales scam!
Did you know that men and women, as well as salespeople and non salespeople, don’t agree on who are the second and third least trusted of all salespeople?
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Are Your Salespeople Still Cold Calling? The Ugly Truth
- January 25, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One thing that will never change is word of mouth. Referrals and introductions from happy customers and clients will always be the finest method for generating new business.