Consultative Selling
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Sales Management Best Practices – Are Top Salespeople Challengers?
- April 29, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I don’t promote an approach based on either Relationships or Solution Selling, but both must be incorporated into an appropriate sales approach. Also worth noting, the approach or methodology is only one part of selling. Without a sales process and a sales model, no methodology will work very well on its own.
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Inc Magazine Gets it Wrong on Consultative Selling
- April 8, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Inc. Magazine ran an article on its website that I just can’t ignore. It’s making my blood boil.
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Best Example of Value-Added vs. Commodity Selling
- March 7, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I wrote an article for the March 2013 issue of Top Sales World Magazine that debriefs an actual sales call. I’ve written more than 1,000 articles and I believe this one is the best yet! The article effectively details an actual value-added consultative sales call which, because of a single incorrect question, quickly became a transactional, commodity-based, price-driven call. The example is really striking because it so clearly shows that you can do everything correctly but asking even one question the wrong way can cause a salesperson to lose the opportunity to be a trusted advisor, and fall into the abyss of commodity sellers.
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Great Salespeople Can See the Pixels – The Rest Watch the Movie
- March 6, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We have been describing the Consultative Sales approach. How do your salespeople fare in their ability to sell consultatively and, more importantly, which of them can be trained and coached to effectively execute this with consistency and results?
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Why Salespeople Won’t Abandon the Early Demo and Presentation
- March 4, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you want your sales force to strive for sales excellence, the bottom line is that your salespeople won’t drive this transition and neither will a sales manager. You have to drive it. You must commit to it and it must be a sustained commitment. It’s not a do-it-yourself project, so you must also be prepared to do it correctly, get help from a results-oriented firm, and lead by example.
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To Salespeople, Demos and Presentations are Like Snack Food
- February 11, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Prior to learning about healthy eating, I believed a bagel was a healthy alternative to a donut. After I was shown that a carbohydrate converts to sugar in the blood and there wasn’t much difference between bread, bagels or rolls; and donuts, cake or pie, I changed the way that I ate.
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Baseball’s Huge Impact on Sales Performance
- January 22, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Let’s use Algebra to get a better handle on sales methodology and where it fits in the grand scheme of things. Consider the following formula:
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Drivers and Your Salespeople Need to be Patient
- November 30, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In order to create urgency and accelerate the sales process, your salespeople actually must slow down their meetings. Instead though, in much the same way that I rush to get to my next meeting, they rush to the presentation or demo. To make matters worse, your prospects want your salespeople to present and conduct demos. They want prices and proposals and your salespeople are too willing to oblige.
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#1 Sales Presentation Tip from October 16 US Presidential Debate
- October 17, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When your salespeople are invited back to be one of several to present capabilities, value propositions and solutions, the exact same scenario as described above is sure to be played out. If the prospect liked you going in, they’ll look for opportunities to support your presentation. If the prospect liked your competitor going in, they’ll look for opportunities to discredit you in any way they can.
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6 Keys to Make All Sales Calls Easy Sales Calls
- August 28, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Your salespeople can have more easy calls, but you’ll have to change up a few things.