Sales Coaching

  • New Penn State Coach – Just Like Dysfunctional Sales Management

    • January 6, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Bill O’Brien. One coach – two full time jobs.  Both teams need his immediate, undivided attention and won’t get all that they need.  Given the dual roles, how do you feel about the Patriots’ chances of another Super Bowl?  Given this conflict of interest, how do you feel about Penn State’s ability to have a quality recruiting season?

    This happens quite frequently in my world – the sales force.

    In most small businesses, the President or owner is responsible for running the company and by default, manages the sales force too.  The problem?  Unskilled sales management is being provided on demand and that is always quite ineffective.

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  • Only 11% of Salespeople Do This at the End of a Sales Call

    • December 20, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is the time of year for traditions. While most are family traditions, an analysis would reveal that the processes for buyers and sellers alike are filled with traditions: habits, learned behaviors, and standardized questions and comments. Today I am initiating a tradition on my Blog by republishing this holiday flavored article (from exactly one year ago today) that addresses those buying and selling traditions.

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  • How Many of Your Salespeople are Addicted to This?

    • December 14, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Do your salespeople have a hopium addiction?

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  • Self Centered Salespeople and Customer Focused Selling

    • December 6, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Most of the newer material on sales effectiveness is about being more customer focused. While this gets misinterpreted, the basics cannot be misunderstood. It’s about them (customer).

    Unfortunately, many of the B players – the group in the middle – will never become A players because for the B’s it’s all about “me”.

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  • How to Get Top Performance From Your Salespeople in December

    • December 5, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Heading into the last week of the month, quarter or year, would you prefer to be ahead of goal or behind?  And what about your salespeople – would you prefer for them to be ahead of goal or behind?  

    Are you sure?  I didn’t ask how you wanted them to finish…

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  • Sales Pipeline – Reality vs. What Your Salespeople Know and Think

    • November 28, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What your salespeople think or believe – not a data point.  

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  • The Latest Astonishing Findings about Sales Managers

    • November 7, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This article recently appeared at SalesBenchmarkIndex.com.  The number that stood out for me in their report was 83% – as in 83% of first year sales managers don’t make their number.  Is that possible?  Is it realistic?  Is it believable?  Can you explain it?

    A few thoughts about that…

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  • Embarassed by This Sales Article in The Economist?

    • October 31, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    On October 22, The Economist published an article called, The Art of Selling – The Death of the Salesman Has been Greatly Exaggerated.  Is the Economist really that far out of touch?  I wrote the last of my 5-part Death of Selling Has Been Exaggerated articles 5 years ago!  And how long has it been since anyone referred to salespeople at “salesmen”?  

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  • The Secret to Winning Sales Presentations and Public Speaking Success

    • October 28, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I spoke to an Entrepreneurial class at Clark University this week, something I’ve been doing once or twice a year for the past 5 years.  It’s much more difficult than working with experienced C-Level Executives, Sales Leaders, Sales Managers and Salespeople because the kids don’t have the context, reference points or experiences that professionals have.  Despite the difficulty, it’s more fun because they don’t push back, they don’t claim to have heard it before, they don’t say that “it” won’t work in their business, they don’t resist, and they are great learners!

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  • Do Your Salespeople Really Understand Pipeline Requirements

    • October 19, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    They sent their lessons but didn’t get it right.  Their takeaway was that it requires 20 opportunities to sell 1.  But that’s not correct.  It requires 9 opportunities to sell 1.  Why is that distinction important?

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