Today I worked with a group of salespeople from different companies and when I asked how many of them followed a formal sales process only 2 people raised their hands. That’s even worse than Objective Management Group’s statistics about sales process. The statistics show that 91% of the more than 500,000 salespeople assessed to date did… Read More
Top 15 Questions That Prospects Ask Themselves
(This article originally appeared on Dave Kurlan’s blog) Following up yesterday’s Moneyball article, here are some more new things for you to think about. When your salespeople are in front of or on the phone with prospects, do they ever think in terms of whether their prospects: Want what you’re selling? Need what you’re selling?… Read More
Top 16 Problems with CRM
Yesterday, I wrote about solving the sales performance problem. Today, I’ll write about solving the CRM problem. CRM is very problematic, not because there aren’t choices, but more because companies make bad decisions. Just a few of the problems with CRM are listed here: Company has no CRM. Company has archaic CRM. Salespeople won’t use the existing… Read More
Top 20 Reasons Why Sales Managers Suck at Coaching
The latest interview between Jonathan Farrington, CEO of TopSalesWorld, and me is available here. We discussed why only 17% of all sales managers are effective at coaching and the conversation was very enlightening. It only takes 15 minutes to listen to the entire Podcast and you won’t be disappointed. So why aren’t more sales managers… Read More
Top 25 Prerequisites for Successful Sales Training and Sales Development
Before an inside or outside expert can help you develop your sales force, there are at least 25 milestones that must take place or the initiative will probably fail. Development has much less to do with content, curriculum, and methodology than it does with the person, or people who will do the developing. I am… Read More
Top 3 Reasons Why Salespeople Fail at Consultative Selling?
(This article originally appeared on Dave Kurlan’s blog) I have been teaching and writing for years that buyer-focused selling (a consultative approach to sales) is the best approach for differentiating, adding and being the value, maintaining and increasing margins and winning a larger percentage of opportunities. These days, I am just one of many who… Read More
Top 3 Sales Lessons from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”
If you attend a Nutcracker performance or simply listen to some of the suite during the holiday season, one of the selections you’ll hear is the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”. Perhaps you can’t match the music to the title, but I’m sure if you listen to the first 30 seconds of this version,… Read More
Top 3 Ways for Salespeople to Eliminate Competition
(This article originally appeared on Dave Kurlan’s blog) If your company is like most, you have lots of competition and some of them will do anything to get the business. How would you like to eliminate your competition? I don’t mean putting them out of business (some of you wouldn’t mind that at all) but… Read More
Top 4 Reasons a Great Salesperson Can Fail at Your Company
Earlier this week, I spoke to a great audience of sales leaders at the EcSell Institute Fall Sales Coaching Summit in Dallas where my topic was, How to Hire a Great Salesperson that Will be Great. I asked the attendees if they had ever hired a great salesperson that still failed and everyone there said,… Read More
Top 5 Conditions For B2B Prospects to Buy Your Services
There are five specific events, points in time, and conditions when it is appropriate to ask for help. Before I explain those, let me go to my favorite source for analogies – baseball – to show how this is true. A quick Google search indicates that I have woven baseball into 435 of my articles –… Read More
Top 5 Keys to Effective Sales Coaching and Results
(This article originally appeared on Dave Kurlan’s blog) One confusing component of effective sales management is that great sales management skills don’t always translate into great sales results. This phenomenon is most obvious when a company hires a terrific, new sales manager, who possesses all the desired skills, and the manager fails to have an immediate… Read More
Top 5 Reasons Why Sales Cold Calls Are So Awful
Today I listened to voicemails from three salespeople who cold-called me. The good news is that three people actually made cold calls! The bad news is that not much has changed. Despite the tools, training, coaching, video, audio and reading that are available, all three calls were as bad as I’ve ever heard. For example, the first… Read More
Top 5 Reasons Why Salespeople Don’t Make Quota
(This article originally appeared on Dave Kurlan’s blog) I received the IDC Sales Advisor Newsletter in my email today and while it was about the importance of cross-selling, they said it is important because 50% of reps aren’t making quota. Forget cross-selling! If 50% of your reps aren’t making quota you have bigger problems than… Read More
Top 5 Reasons You Don’t Get More Strong Sales Candidates
Clients frequently ask about the percentage of candidates recommended by Objective Management Group’s (OMG) Sales Candidate Assessment and why it is so low. When clients are feeling the urgency to hire salespeople and too many candidates are not getting recommended, their knee-jerk reaction is to change the customized criteria on the role configuration so that… Read More
Top 5 Success Factors for a Sales Training Initiative
(This article originally appeared on Dave Kurlan’s blog) If your company is about to begin a sales development initiative, do you know the factors that will determine its eventual success or failure? There are many and ultimately, like most systems and processes, they are only as good as the weakest link. Sales Force Evaluation –… Read More
Top 6 Factors for Killing a Sales Opportunity or Prospect
I hear this question a lot…”When should I move on?” You have left 6 messages and haven’t received a return call. You have a prospect and things were moving along pretty well and now you can’t get them back on the phone. Should you move on? First, the data is clear on this – it… Read More
Top 6 Keys to Closing Big, Difficult to Close Sales
If I think back on most of the big deals I have closed, helped others to close, or trained and coached others to close, there are several common themes we can discuss that you can incorporate into your sales and sales management world. For the purpose of this article, we will assume that the opportunities… Read More
Top 6 Tests to Determine if Your Sales Process Supports Sales Competencies
I was at the Deli counter yesterday and I couldn’t help but notice a few things. There was the veteran Deli guy – short fast strokes on the machine and quick results to go with them. There was the stoic lady – she didn’t really use her arms as much as she just rocked her… Read More
Top 7 Reasons Why Ineffective Salespeople Get By
Once upon a time, when I was much younger, I was a professional musician. I started out by taking weekly, private piano lessons for 3 years and then trumpet lessons for 9 years. In Junior High School, I had my own band and, by the time I reached high school, I was playing in two concert… Read More
Top 7 Things That Consultative Sellers Do
(This article originally appeared on Dave Kurlan’s blog) My series about the Top 10 Sales Competencies that nobody talks or writes about is among the 10 most widely read of my articles. That series did not include the traditional sales competencies so I want to talk about one of those competencies today. In my opinion, this sales… Read More
What is the Big Secret That Powers Baseline Selling?
I’m a baseball lover, die-hard Red Sox fan, and proud father of a 12-year-old baseball star. Having founded Kurlan & Associates in 1985 and Objective Management Group in 1990, the only surprise should be that it took so long to combine the two passions and write Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar… Read More
What it Sounds Like When You Don’t Have Happy Ears
When a prospect says what you were hoping to hear, we call that having happy ears. Your happy ears prevent you from thoroughly qualifying, pushing back and asking the right questions. I’ve written about happy ears before – check out this Google search and see the first five articles – all on happy ears. Now… Read More
What’s the Difference Between Sales Commitment and Motivation?
A better question might be, “Which is more important in sales – commitment or motivation?” Let’s discuss the difference first. Commitment is the willingness to do whatever is required to succeed in sales, at reaching quota, achieving goals and closing a particular deal or account. Whatever it takes (ethically). It’s not, whatever it takes “as… Read More
When Does Effort Beat Skill?
Do you have a value proposition that you consistently use? What about an elevator pitch? While these two professionally crafted messages are important, they aren’t used nearly as often as companies expect. Among the approximately 180 questions that Objective Management Group (OMG) asks salespeople as part of a sales evaluation, we ask them to provide… Read More