Search Results
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Effective Selling Can’t Occur Until Salespeople Perfect This
- June 20, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In today’s article, we discuss five examples of what salespeople must do to sell more effectively.
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How Selling is Just Like Driving a Car
- June 5, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you can make the adjustments when you are driving, then you should be able to make similar adjustments when you are selling. Those adjustments, in no particular order, include being sure that:
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Warning to Sales-Focused Companies Wanting to Stay Relevant
- May 30, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Mike Myatt wrote an article for Forbes‘ online site called, To Increase Revenue Stop Selling. This article has been very heavily viewed and commented. I don’t agree with most of Mike’s suggestions, but in his defense, he is not a sales expert, sales writer, sales manager, sales leader or salesperson. He simply doesn’t like being pitched or sold to and urges salespeople (he doesn’t want them to sell or be called that) to simply let him buy – when he wants, where he wants, how he wants, from whom he wants, and for prices he is comfortable paying. Sounds like retail, doesn’t it?
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Do Chain Reactions Like This Really Occur When Selling?
- May 8, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Mary always succeeded in finding new opportunities, but her weaknesses, especially her Need for Approval, Discomfort Talking About Money, and Tendency to Become Emotionally Involved, would usually interfere with her ability to gain traction and close the sale. During the past year, she has improved enough so that she is not only finding new business, but closing it too. But she isn’t out of the woods yet.
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Why Do So Many Salespeople Fail to Make Quota?
- April 26, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The statistics are staggering. In some sectors, fewer than 25% of all salespeople will make quota. Even best-in-class companies are lucky when fewer than 80% of their salespeople make quota. Are you OK with it when your own salespeople fail to make quota? There are a number of possible reasons for this widespread mediocrity and failure and, depending on the company, some or all of them may apply.
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Why Most Companies are Struggling to Grow Revenue
- April 25, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Dan Perry, writing at Sales Benchmark Index’s Sales Force Effectiveness Blog, wrote that “The single biggest problem with sales today is sales reps are mismatched to the buyer. They think like a sales rep and not like a buyer.”
Well, Dan, I don’t agree and I have the statistics to back me up.
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Challenges Don’t Always Require a Complete Sales Force Makeover
- April 19, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Many of the Sales Force Evaluations provided by Objective Management Group (OMG) reveal that the company’s problems run so deep that they will require a complete sales force makeover. However, it doesn’t always have to be that way. Sometimes, a single word, question or statement will change how every prospect responds.
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Does Your Sales Force Look Like This?
- April 12, 2012
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I shared just a few of the charts, graphs and tables, which we include in a sales force evaluation when we are answering common, but difficult, business questions such as:
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Another Sales Assessment Takes on OMG – What Does it Reveal?
- April 4, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I received an email asking if I could explain why OMG’s assessment said “Not Recommended” and the SalesAP said “Highly Recommended”. In general terms, SalesAP, like all personality assessments, makes assumptions about its sales findings.
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Can Too Many Opportunities be a Negative for Salespeople?
- April 2, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Many of us in this space write about the obvious importance of filling the sales pipeline and keeping it filled. But what about too many opportunities in a salesperson’s pipeline? Isn’t that a positive?
Maybe not.