-
Leading a Sales Force is Even More Like Baseball
- November 6, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve written plenty about the similarity betwen baseball and selling, but today I’m writing about the similarity between baseball and sales leadership. If you’re not a baseball person, you might not see the same things that I see, most of which can be applied to leading a sales force. For example,
-
Surprising Social Selling Secret Drives Sales Revenue
- November 5, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you’ve been reading my Blog, then you are probably aware of OMG’s big Sales Force Effectiveness Study that we’ve been working on for the past three months. One of the things we studied is the impact of Social Selling. At face value, one might come to the exact same conclusion as we did in 2013, that it’s having limited impact on sales. However, this time we looked wider and deeper and beyond the obvious and we were extremely surprised by what we found. We discovered that
-
Sales Success is Like Making Great Tasting Soup
- November 3, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Sales success is no more about any one competency than great-tasting soup is about one ingredient. If you omit one ingredient, like salt, the soup will taste bland. If you omit one competency, like Qualifying, your sales effectiveness will suffer. While you can’t leave one ingredient out of the soup, it’s also not possible to make soup by focusing on and including only one ingredient. Likewise, with sales, you can’t expect to succeed, dominate your market, and celebrate your results if you focus on and include only one of the competencies on my list.
-
Why Prospects Don’t Buy From You Today!
- October 29, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Engagement. There is a huge connection between what I experienced with the World Series, and what prospects experience with salespeople. If you can understand and apply this analogy it will make a huge difference in the quality of your calls and meetings. Here are the four most important things for you to know.
-
The One Thing Most Salespeople Are Unable to Do
- October 27, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Can you guess what it is – the one thing most salespeople are unable to do?
Based on what I most frequently write about, you might think that it would be consultative selling, but that’s not it. You might also guess that it’s the sales equivalent of eating right – not doing demos and presentations so early in the sales process. But that’s not it either.
However, there really is one thing that all but the most elite salespeople are unable to do. It is partly a result of their inability to sell consultatively while continuing to demo, present, quote and propose too early. Can you guess what it is now?
-
Not the 3 Most Important Sales Hiring Attributes
- October 24, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One topic that never gets stale is how to make sure that you nail sales selection. Whether or not salespeople actually fail, or they simply stick around, but fail to have an impact, the common theme is still failure to select the right salespeople. Recently, I stumbled upon this article about 3 Uncoachable Sales Attributes that you should focus on to get hiring right.
-
How Would These Sports Celebrities Perform in Sales?
- October 23, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I decided to lighten things up a bit with my analysis of how some famous sports celebrities would perform if they were in sales. You’ll enjoy this one.
-
The Biggest Secret of Sales Rockstars
- October 20, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In the old days, after speaking at a conference, I would frequently be told that I was the top-rated speaker at the event. More recently, people have told me that I “Rocked!” One time, as I was being introduced, an audience member came up to me and said, “Don’t Suck!” We can’t always be rock stars…
-
Did our Sales Evaluation Uncover Part-Time Job Selling Drugs?
- October 15, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A salesperson was arrested for growing pot and selling it. Can you believe it?
Recently, the same man participated in OMG’s Sales Force Evaluation at the company where he worked. The evaluation showed that he was a very strong salesperson with tremendous selling skills, but it also identified a few telling issues:
-
Why My Golfing May be Just Like Your Sales Recruiting
- October 14, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
On the rare occasion that I have the opportunity to golf, it doesn’t matter what I choose for clubs, balls, gloves, tees or clothing. At this point in my life and very short golfing career, just being out with a friend is good enough for me and if we count his strokes, and my lost balls, our final scores might even be competitive!
That’s how some companies recruit salespeople. It doesn’t matter who they are, where they come from, if they have selling skills, and whether or not they have any experience. These companies treat sales recruiting like the instructions on their shampoo bottle – they rinse and repeat.