Search Results
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Bugged by the Difference Between Great and Lousy Salespeople
- July 21, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, I noticed a large, furry, dead bug on the hood of my car. It seemed to be attached to the outer lip of the hood – like the edge of a cliff – right where the hood drops down to the grill. I got out of the car to remove the chunk of dead fur and I was shocked to see how wrong I was. It was dead all right, and it was furry. I’m not a tall person, so I wasn’t sitting high enough in the car to notice the distance between the bug and the lip of the hood, but my estimate was off by more than 2 feet! What I thought I saw was completely different from reality.
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12 Proven Sales Hacks to Increase Sales
- June 25, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It seems that these days, things are changing faster than we can recognize. Cosby is finally out of the news, but the Marathon Bomber is back in. The terrible winter weather is in our rear view mirror, but now we are dealing with droughts and tornadoes! And in our world, Sales 2.0, a term we haven’t heard in a while, is making the rounds again. In today’s article, we’ll talk about the sales improvements that readers are most interested in.
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Salespeople as Closers & 10 Other Sales Myths
- May 14, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
Just because you think it, that does not make it normal, correct, supportive or useful. Challenge everything you believe to be true in sales and ask whether or not it really needs to be that way. Could you change your results if you changed your beliefs, expectations and thinking?
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More Junk Sales Science in HBR Blog
- April 14, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Junk Sales Science Debunked, Understanding the Sales Force
What do donuts, chips, cake and ice cream have in common with some of the articles that are written and published about salespeople, sales selection and assessments? That’s right, they are all junk and junk is bad for you to consume. Over the years, there has been no better source of junk science written about sales and salespeople than the reputable Harvard Business Review Blog. Recently, they put out another absurdly awful piece, this one written by sales consultant, Steve Martin. As most of these articles do, “What Separates the Strongest Salespeople from the Weakest” attempts to use personality and conditions to differentiate the two groups. This comes on the heels of another horrible article I called out in March 2015, which led to this amazing epic debate on the science of sales, sales assessments, and sales selection. This is why this latest HBR article is yet another example of junk science.
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30 Reasons Why 1 Million Sales Jobs Will be Obsolete
- March 30, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
On March 8, this article on the Hubspot Sales Blog reported that one million B2B sales jobs will be lost. Are you, or any of your salespeople at risk? The article talked about four archetypes of salespeople and the two types at greatest risk. While I agree that there won’t be a place for order takers, and those who sell consultatively will always have work, I see the shakeup a bit differently. Here’s why.
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30 Reasons Why 1 Million Sales Jobs Will be Obsolete
- March 30, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
On March 8, this article on the Hubspot Sales Blog reported that one million B2B sales jobs will be lost. Are you, or any of your salespeople at risk? The article talked about four archetypes of salespeople and the two types at greatest risk. While I agree that there won’t be a place for order takers, and those who sell consultatively will always have work, I see the shakeup a bit differently. Here’s why.
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Rebuttal to What Elite Salespeople Do Differently
- March 4, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Sales Assessments Compared, Sales Data and Science, Understanding the Sales Force
This article appeared through syndication on some other sites. On CustomerThink, an epic discussion followed this introduction and I have included more than 50 comments that appeared there. It started with this comment from Bob Thompson, who also happens to own the CustomerThink website:
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How Dramatically Has Selling Changed?
- February 19, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, I was listening to a radio promotion when they said, “Take a selfie with a standie and then, using your smartphone or tablet, upload it to Facebook, or tweet your image using hashtag [something I can’t remember].”
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Recent Client Projects
- January 23, 2015
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories:
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How to Sell More Effectively
- January 20, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Monthly Tips, Tactics - Getting to 2nd Base (Prospects)
Every salesperson wants to be more effective – unless of course they’re looking for early retirement. A salesperson made a call on me that serves as a good example of what most salespeople could do better.
