sales training
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Most Salespeople are Underdogs Like the Boston Red Sox
- October 13, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If your company is not the brand leader, market leader, or price leader; if you have a complex sale, a story to tell, a new technology, a new brand, a new product, a much higher price or a much tougher sale, then you are an underdog too.
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Crappy Salespeople and Lack of Urgency Alignment – The Bob Chronicles Part 4
- April 27, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This is the fourth installment in the Bob Chronicles. Bob is the weak salesperson who represents the bottom 50% of all salespeople. You can read previous installments about Bob below:
The $225,000 Mistake That Most Salespeople Make
Data – The Top Salespeople are 631% More Effective at This Than Weak Salespeople
Good Bob, Bad Bob, The Stockdale Paradox and Sales Success
You’re probably wondering, what did Bob screw up this time? He screwed up urgency. You might be asking how a salesperson could possibly screw up urgency but Bob and the rest of the weak salespeople screw up just about everything else so why not urgency too?
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How Pitchers Fielding Practice is Exactly the Same as Salespeople Role-Playing
- February 26, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
My Twitter feed had the funniest 1-minute baseball video I have ever seen. It was pitcher fielding practice (PFP) and the coach was miked up. It illustrated just how bad most professional major league pitchers are at fielding their position and how a coach can keep it light – even make it funny – when the pitchers are struggling so badly.
When professional salespeople are asked to role-play the salesperson’s part of a sales conversation they sound eve
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Why Sales Transformation Achieves Better Results Than Sales Training Alone
- January 22, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You brought in sales training but it didn’t achieve the expected change because the training didn’t address the bigger problems that went beyond selling skills. You may not have realized that companies really need sales transformation and while sales training can be part of that transformation, on its own, it usually underperforms.
Why?
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My Prediction – What’s in Store for Sales Teams in 2021?
- January 8, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When I made my predictions for 2020 I’m pretty sure I didn’t predict a pandemic. Making predictions isn’t easy.
In the US, sales teams are coming off three robust years of sales growth and while revenue was up during that time, the percentage of salespeople hitting quotas was not. That means the top 20% were not only carrying the load, they carried more of the load.
That dynamic growth hit an iron barrier last spring when COVID became the unexpected economic disrupter, but the second half comeback was quite impressive. What does 2021 have in store for those of us in the sales world? In the US, how will Democrat control of all three branches of government affect sales and selling? And how long before that kicks in?
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How Companies Choose Sales Training Companies is Backwards
- February 11, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you partake of dessert prior to eating your appetizer? Do you eat your dinner in the morning and have breakfast at night? Would you prefer to have the builder complete the finish work on your new house prior to framing it and installing the roof? Would you back your car out of the garage before opening the garage door? (I’ve actually done that by accident – twice!)
It’s all quite silly. You wouldn’t think of doing those things in that order but that’s how most companies choose sales training companies. After 35 years in the sales training industry, I’m qualified to comment on this silly behavior, and explain why companies have it all backwards.
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Dave Kurlan’s Predictions for Sales Organization in 2020
- December 16, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Before I can make any predictions for 2020, let’s start with these ten simple truths about selling for proper context.
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The New Salesenomics
- May 24, 2019
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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Improve Your Win Rate and Shorten Your Sales Cycle by Doing This
- April 11, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In September I wrote this article on the difference between asking good, tough and great questions.
I included examples all three types of question in the article.
There is also a proper sequence: Good question. Tough Question. Great question.
You will get immediate feedback on how effective your questions are: Your prospects will say, “Good question” when you ask one. They will say, “Great question” when you ask one. And they will stop and struggle before answering one of your tough questions.
Many salespeople make the mistake of preparing questions in advance. Salespeople who do that might be able to stumble onto one good question. But great questions and tough questions must be spontaneous and in response to something your prospect already said when they answered prior questions.
I’ll share a role-play from a training program that wonderfully demonstrates what I’m talking about as well as the kind of listening skills required in order to ask good, tough and great questions.
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Which Salespeople are Easier to Train – Millennials or Veteran Salespeople?
- April 19, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We brought home a puppy and we had him completely housebroken in 4 days. He’s really smart and we’ve done this before, a combination that makes it nearly impossible to screw up. To see him go to the door and touch it with his little paw, whimper when he is in his crate, go outside and do his business, and run back to the door is great. But it got me wondering, why is training a puppy relatively fast and easy while it is so much harder and takes so much longer to train salespeople?