Sales Coaching
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Double Article Friday – How New Salespeople Struggle
- February 21, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If ever there was a good analogy for the new salesperson, this is it; and what a case it makes for nailing the onboarding process to make sure that nothing is left to chance. In what kind of shape is your onboarding process for new salespeople?
Here is an article that I wrote seven years ago about how to onboard new salespeople and it still holds true today. Enjoy.
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The Monumental Effort Required to Grow Sales in 2014
- October 15, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When you look ahead to sales for the next 12 months, are you using the same assumptions as always? If you want to grow by 20%, do you use the same metrics for next year that you used for last year? Will the plan that got you there last year continue to work next year? Have you accounted for any of these changes?
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A Rare Paragraph or Two About Making Successful Sales Presentations
- July 15, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When everyone presents, salespeople and companies are perceived as commodities and the sale is driven by price. When salespeople take a customer-focused, consultative approach and actually become the value added, salespeople and companies are able to effectively differentiate, solve problems, and get paid accordingly.
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Top 10 Reasons Salespeople Can’t Move the Conversation from Price
- July 11, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are other factors that could contribute to salespeople regularly finding themselves in a price-sensitive discussion:
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Baseball and Selling Revisited – A Powerful Analogy
- June 12, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A salesperson tells you about a great-looking opportunity that has been forecast to close this month. “We’re definitely getting this and it’s an awesome opportunity for us. We’re going to knock this one out of the park!”
At the end of the month, the deal hasn’t closed and you question your salesperson about it. You are told that the decision-maker has been away on vacation, but as soon as he returns, the deal is sure to get done.
A month later, nothing has changed. This time, the salesperson admits that he has had a little difficulty reaching the decision-maker, but he is sure that nothing has changed. You are assured that everything is good.
Six months later, when the deal still hasn’t closed, you force the salesperson to archive the opportunity with the salesperson still not understanding what went wrong.
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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving
- May 15, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We talk a lot about the importance of using a consultative approach instead of a transactional approach to better differentiate and sell value instead of price. When we explain consultative selling, we usually emphasize the importance of listening and questioning. When we further explain effective listening and questioning, it becomes much more difficult to describe in a paragraph or in the absence of a demonstration or role-play.
Until today.
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Impact of Sales Process Versus Sales Coaching
- May 14, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
While most sales leaders admit that they must be more effective at coaching, many who said they have some kind of sales process in place didn’t come to the same conclusion. So, why is it so obvious to sales leaders that they need to improve their coaching, but so elusive that they need to improve their sales process?
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When Sales Coaching, Best Practices and Books are Ignored
- May 6, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Coaching is crucial to the success of any sales force; however, coaching without the context of an effective sales process, pipeline, metrics to drive revenue, motivation and accountability aren’t enough. So, our events integrate these additional elements to make for a well-rounded, comprehensive two days.
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Top 5 Reasons Why Salespeople Don’t Qualify Effectively
- April 17, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Last week, I posted this article in reference to an Inc. Magazine article that was way off base about Consultative Selling. It led to a significant number of comments with one of them being this question:
“Dave, in your opinion, with all the training that is available and has been delivered to sales people over the years, how come sales people still fail at executing an effective approach to qualifying a prospect. Forget what we want to call the approach. Just basic fundamentals like asking questions. This is known throughout the selling universe but sales people still suck at this. How come?”
Great question. Here are my top 6 reasons why:
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Top 20 Reasons Why Sales Managers Suck at Coaching
- April 4, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
So why aren’t more sales managers effective at coaching salespeople? Here are my top 19 reasons and I left #20 open so that you could add your two-cents worth.