sales competencies
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Just How Important is Preparation to Sales?
- August 7, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It was a theme on this week’s edition of Meet the Sales Experts. Whether he talked about the keys to success in the role of salesperson, sales manager, regional manager, Sales Director or VP of Sales, stressed the importance of over preparation. Currently the VP of Commercial Lines, Marketing and Sales at the Hanover Insurance Group, Jim provided keys, tips, examples, lists, and secrets for success at every level of a sales organization.
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Public Speaking Simplified
- August 4, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I would guess that the only thing that is more common than an underperforming sales force is the discomfort that people have before they speak. And I’m not even talking about speaking in front of an audience. This discomfort can even manifest when presenting to one intimidating individual!
Speaking doesn’t have to be so difficult, especially when you are talking about what you know – your own area of expertise. Just follow my simple rules and you’ll be awesome!
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Sales Force Lessons from Gates, Crowley and Obama
- July 28, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
How often do customers become upset over the behavior of a salesperson, customer service rep, technician or even accounting?
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MLB All-Star Game Unveils a Sales Prodigy
- July 20, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Tom Schaff, Sales Development Expert in St. Louis, related a very funny story about events before and after the MLB All-Star Game. Here is Tom’s story:
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10 Steps to Record-Breaking Sales Revenues
- June 30, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When things loosen up (and things will loosen up) and companies and consumers both begin spending money again, you could be in for a significant windfall. You may even have some record breaking revenue months if, and it’s a big if, you have your sales force doing all of the right things, even while companies and consumers aren’t spending money.
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What Happens When You Develop Sales Competencies?
- April 10, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Earlier this week I wrote an article for my Baseline Selling Tips Newsletter. It was about What Sleep Apnea and Sales Improvement Have in Common. If you don’t get my Newsletter, you’ll need to read that article in order for the rest of this post to make sense.
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Good News Not a Substitute for Sales Force Competencies
- April 8, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you want to hear something crazy?
I’m a very prolific writer – not to say I’m a good writer, just that I post a lot. And of the dozens and dozens of posts from the last three months, would you like to guess what the LEAST read post was?
It was the one where I wrote about signs that the economy was improving! And one of the MOST read posts was the one where I wrote about the media making the economy worse.
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Former IBM Pro Lashes Out Over Sales Assessment
- February 17, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A CEO of a fairly large-sized but under-performing OEM asked us to evaluate his sales force. One of the three regional managers, who assessed as poorly as any regional manager could, called to complain about his results. In addition to calling me a toad, Bob said that in the eighties he used to sell and manage at IBM and he led the top performing team. He finished by letting me know that we didn’t know what we were talking about and, by the way, he would be picking me up at the airport for the kick-off of their national training initiative.
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Right Sales People in the Right Roles and the Right Seats
- January 12, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I was on site at a client’s last week to kick-off their training. At the end of the kick-off I asked each salesperson for their three biggest lessons learned. One salesperson had difficulty coming up with anything of substance. It turned out that he was new to sales and when we assessed him two months earlier, our assessment indicated that he was not trainable. The client wanted him in the program anyway because he had a hunch it would work out. “Not trainable” manifests in different ways but usually has the same outcome – salespeople don’t improve.
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Surprising Statistics from the Sales Force Grader
- December 22, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The actual results are even more surprising than the number of people (several hundred) that have already visited the FREE Sales Force Grader.