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Discovered – Data Reveals the Second Biggest Obstacle to Closing More Sales
- May 7, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Whichever way you turn, wherever you look, and whatever you listen to there is data. Polls, surveys, metrics, analytics, analyses, white papers, graphs, charts, infographics, tables, spreadsheets and more. There is data everywhere. 5 of my last 10 articles were based on data and I know that my regular readers love the articles that are based on data so I am writing about data again today.
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Discovered – Data Reveals the Biggest Obstacle to Closing More Sales
- April 30, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Humans have been waiting for thousands of years to discover the secrets of life. Why are we here? Why do bad things happen? What happens after we die? Is Heaven real? What is God’s plan for us?
While many experts have attempted to answer all of these questions, most of us lack proof. There’s no data. If we wake up tomorrow morning and suddenly there are not only answers to these questions, but science-based proof, that would be a game-changer for us.
Likewise, every day most companies try to determine why their salespeople don’t close more business, why so many opportunities die on the vine, and what they need to do differently to change their results. They try everything! Most leaders think it’s an issue of closing skills. It’s not. Others think it’s about prospecting. While that has an impact on the size and quality of the pipeline, it has little to do with results. But I have discovered the cause, will show you the data, and discuss how to fix it.
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Improper Use of BANT Will Cause You to Kill Opportunities
- April 26, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I received an email asking me to check out an article on the Salesforce.com blog that features an infographic they hoped I would promote.
The article focuses on the middle of the funnel and the handoff between marketing and sales. In doing so, they discuss MQL’s (Marketing Qualified Leads) and SQL’s (Sales Qualified Leads). While I don’t have an issue with the infographic, I have huge issues with the content of the article and if you follow the advice in this article, you’ll have far fewer MQL’s that your salespeople can turn into SQL’s.
Here’s why.
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10 Ways to Determine if Your Sales Prospect was Engaged
- March 8, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A sales manager asking, “So, how did your meeting go?”
The salesperson always replies, “It went great.” It’s the same response a retail clerk gets when they ask shoppers if they need any help. “Just looking.” “It went great.” It’s the default answer.
The sales manager says, “Good, good.”
I wish that sales managers wouldn’t ask how meetings and calls went. They should say,
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Is the Sales Force Getting Dressed Up or are Real Changes Taking Place?
- February 7, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday I received an email from Richardson Training, letting me know that they have completed their 2018 Selling Challenges Study. The data in the report, which you can download here, hasn’t changed a great deal since 2017, but the report’s new look is awesome. I reported on last year’s report in detail here, but my conclusion for 2018 is the exact same conclusion I came to in 2017.
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Predictions for 2018 – The Sales Triad Will Provide Record Sales Growth
- January 29, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
With and additional competition, I can tell you this. If you aren’t the low price leader, the best-known company, or the safest decision that a buyer can make, you will have to do some real SELLING to get that business. And not just selling, but thoughtfully, effectively, efficiently, and articulately selling value. What? You already sell value? Really? I’ll bet you don’t.
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7 Reasons Why Prospects Go Cold and How to Avoid it
- January 5, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you change your perspective about prospects going cold, you might discover that you caused them to go cold, rather than the myriad of other possibilities. I’ll explain.
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The Perfect Day for a Salesperson – 10 Ways to be More Efficient and Effective in 2018
- December 8, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You can be more effective and more efficient selling in 2018, do every single thing I wrote about in this article, exactly as I wrote it, and without any difficulty, by making a conscious decision to follow this blueprint. It’s not hard. It’s not scary. It’s not unusual. It’s not even thought-provoking. It’s simply a list of best practices that great salespeople (top 5%) do and that crappy (46%) salespeople either don’t do consistently or don’t do it at all.
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Which is Worse – Crappy Salespeople or Crappy Sales Managers?
- December 6, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In his book, The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki said, “Don’t Worry, Be Crappy.”
That advice suggested that companies just get their early versions of software and tech products out there and they could make them better later.
How are early versions of technology different from crappy salespeople and crappy sales managers? For one thing, salespeople and sales managers tend to stay crappy unless professional training, coaching and interventions occur. And unlike products, user feedback tends to be sketchy when it comes to salespeople because they refrain from giving it. But what would happen if they did?
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B2B Salespeople Send 16,000+ Unqualified Proposals Each Day!
- November 30, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you have a role in sales or sales leadership then what could be better than knowing exactly how you and/or your salespeople REALLY compare with the other salespeople in your industry or in the world? Could anything be more fascinating than a visual or infographic depicting how effective your sales force is at various aspects of selling? And what if these visuals could demonstrate that B2B salespeople create and send more than 16,000 inappropriately timed proposals each day? Cool, huh? More on that data in a minute.