Search Results
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Rejection: Does Selling Cause More Anxiety Than Dating?
- July 29, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
Today, the abundance of technology and its place in selling has allowed fear of rejection to become much like it was in the golden days of dating. Salespeople now wonder to themselves, “Will they reply to my email?” Will they text me back?” “Will they accept my LinkedIn invitation?” “Will anyone retweet my tweet?” “Will they like me on Facebook?”
Let’s call it Neorejection.
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My Top 21 Keys to Help Your Sales Force Dominate Today
- July 8, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you have salespeople who are busy, but struggling to succeed? Do you have salespeople who are putting in long hours, but don’t generate enough business in relation to the time invested? Do you have salespeople who find enough opportunities, but struggle to get them closed? In my experience, there isn’t a correlation between busy and successful. Oh sure, successful salespeople may be busy and busy salespeople might be successful, but one being true does not necessarily mean that the other is true as well.
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Fine Tune Your Sales Force as You Optimize Your Computer
- June 18, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
I deleted about 10,000 sent items from Outlook, repaired the machine’s permissions, restarted the laptop, and it was performing to expectations again. I was excited about what I had accomplished in such a short time!
That process isn’t very different from what executives must do with an underperforming sales force.
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Top 20 Reasons Why Data May Not be the Key to Boosting Sales
- June 11, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Best Top 10 Lists, Understanding the Sales Force
I read somewhere that data was the key to boosting sales. Really? Says who?
When you look into the “who”, it should come as no surprise that it’s the companies that provide data analytics that say so. Don’t get me wrong; data (and especially the right data) can be very useful. But data, by itself, doesn’t boost anything.
If you are getting the right data…
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The Sales Epidemic That is Neutralizing Salespeople Everywhere
- June 4, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The Selling Power Blog published a new article of mine, The Top 10 Steps Salespeople Can Take to Improve. The article includes a really terrific video on the importance of tonality. I thought it would be helpful to expand on item #5, Persistence, because selling requires more persistence than ever before.
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Finding the Right Sales and Sales Management Candidates
- May 22, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Seven years ago, a company may have wanted sales managers who were task masters, holding salespeople accountable to top of the funnel metrics. While that could still be true today, a company should be looking for a sales manager who is an extremely effective sales coach, who spends 50% of the available time coaching and developing salespeople.
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The Best Top 10 Lists for Sales and Sales Management
- May 5, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Best Top 10 Lists, Understanding the Sales Force
Over the years, I have written the occasional Top 5, Top 10 and Top 20 Articles and they are now in a series of their own.
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Top 10 Indicators That You Have a Trustworthy Sales Prospect
- April 28, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Best Top 10 Lists, Understanding the Sales Force
there are some indicators that we can identify, to help salespeople have a better handle on whether the prospect is being honest and whether or not they will buy. But these are not replacements for instinct. These indicators do not change the facts, they cannot move the opportunity to another stage of the pipeline or sales process, and they cannot alter the probability of closing. They are simply indicators:
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Double Article Friday and the Death of All Selling Forever
- April 25, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There is no doubt that selling has changed – a lot – but the marketers who most benefit from telling you that it has changed to the point where you should not sell anymore are simply trying to get you to buy their stuff!
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Is There a Lack of Clarity on the Current State of Selling?
- April 14, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Without question, the internet, inbound marketing, and social selling have replaced traditional sales – IN CERTAIN AREAS. But they are relatively small areas and most B2B sellers will NEVER, EVER find themselves in that situation.