Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 7, 2025

The post Dave Kurlan’s Homicide Detective Article Was a Finalist for Top Sales Article of 2024 appeared first on Kurlan & Associates, Inc.

Sales 120

Sales 120

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

I began debunking sales articles when the first ones predicting the death of selling appeared circa 2008. Later, articles predicting the end of selling became both more prolific and more specific including the certain death of: Solution Selling Cold Calling Consultative Selling Sales Process SPIN Selling and more.

Top of Funnel 409

Top of Funnel Positioning Scale Inbound 409

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 26, 2021

If you don't know Dinger, you can learn about his listening skills in this article. If you don't know who Bob is, you can learn about his sales misadventures i n this article on not properly selling a trial , and this article about not selling value. Both articles are of the must-read variety.

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Data Up-Sell Sales 348

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 15, 2020

At the same time each year I repost a seasonal favorite, an article I first wrote in 2010 with 3 great sales lessons from the Nutcracker. Please read my original post because it's one of my best analogy articles ever! That is as true for the Nutcracker ballet as it is for my Nutcracker article.

Sales 331

Sales 331

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 9, 2024

Resource – Read this article about what a company learned about their sales team from the sales team evaluation Step 2 – Optimize Sales-Specific Recruiting and Hiring We changed how they attract, vet, interview and select new salespeople, including the addition of a predictive sales candidate assessment.

Hiring 358

Hiring Lead Rank Lead Scoring Compensation 358

No More Cold Calling

MAY 28, 2020

That’s my favorite quote from David Meerman Scott’s insightful article, “ The 2020s: From the Lonely Chaos of Digital to an Era of Humanity.”. David delves deep into this topic in his brilliant article and explains that we are at the cusp of an important cultural shift. Please take care of yourself. “

Referrals 391

Referrals Cold Calling Social Media Social Selling 391

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 20, 2020

You're probably going to hate this article! I'm going to show you that much of what is transpiring with the Pandemic could be having a greater impact than you realize relative to the future state of your business and you might not like what I have to say.

Pivotal 408

Pivotal Analysis Relationals Sales 408

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

My article about Crappy Sales Managers discussed the low recommendation rates for sales management candidates, why they are so low, and the bigger repercussions of the problem. Speaking of deeper dives, today's article takes a deeper dive into one of the problems identified in the prior article; crappy sales coaching skills.

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Coaching Sales Management Data Sales Coaching 331

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

Today's article is different from most of my other articles because there is no opening analogy, very little data, and a complete lack of humor. It's such a serious article I was ready to delete it before I clicked the publish button. If you don't like the subject, the content or the writing, it's OK.

Data 317

Data Sales Compensation Company 317

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

I've written several articles (same as always) about OMG (Objective Management Group) Tailored Fits/Proofs of Concept where I analyze the differences between a company's top producers and bottom producers to identify the findings/scores that differentiate their tops from their bottoms. It's the same (as always) but different (new games).

Comparison 316

Comparison Groups Objections Examples 316

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 24, 2022

This is not an article about COVID but I will begin by asking which COVID policy you believe is the most stupid. Like I said, this is not a COVID article because if it was, I could write a book about the data, science, policies and hypocrisies. My vote is for the mask requirement in restaurants because the premise is so moronic.

Airlines 334

Airlines Prospecting Policies Groups 334

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 11, 2021

His answer is the focus of this article on selling! Starting in the fourth inning, Timmy, the eight-year-old Astros fan sitting next to me, didn't stop chatting with me for the remainder of the game. When Timmy said he hated the Red Sox I had to ask him why. Why do you hate the Red Sox so much Timmy?".

Sales 408

Sales Closing Account 408

No More Cold Calling

APRIL 16, 2020

Joe Galvin, chief research officer at Vistage, clarifies the meaning of trust in his article, “ Trust in the Time of COVID-19.” Read Joe’s article for more on “ Trust in the Time of COVID-19.” If they can’t help, they’ll refer someone who can. How Your Prospects Choose Whom to Trust.

Face-to-face 434

Face-to-face Call-back Cold Calling Webinar Metrics 434

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 30, 2023

Today, I read two articles that had some quotable copy which we can translate to sales. The first article is about baseball and I'll translate what it says after the quote I pulled out.

Revenue 315

Revenue Leads Marketing Qualified Lead Sales 315

Sales and Marketing Management

MARCH 8, 2023

In this podcast episode, we dive deeper into an article Amy wrote for a Sales & Marketing Management entitled “How to Create a Sales Enablement Center of Excellence.” The post Amy Franko on Creating a Sales Enablement Center of Excellence appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.

Sales Enablement 368

Sales Enablement Sales Marketing How To 368

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 28, 2021

I hope this is one of my more entertaining articles, although most of the enjoyment will come from the links within. Check out this article. Each year around this time I start thinking about Baseball because I miss it so much. Today there were multiple videos showing wild triple plays in my Twitter feed.

Strategy 358

Strategy Twitter Course Video 358

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 18, 2021

This article is not a review of the movie but it was a terrific film and worth the time to watch it. It's almost like the movie studios decided to release all the movies filmed in the past several years that weren't ready for prime time and hope that people would stream them at home during the pandemic because we had watched everything else.

Film 391

Film Sales Management Sales Consultative Selling 391

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

In today's article, we'll discuss the next set of steps you should take so that selling over video can be as effective as possible. At this point, most salespeople have accepted that the majority of their sales "calls" will take place over Zoom or similar video platform.

Video 367

Video Maximizer Tools Sales 367

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Sometimes, that's the feeling I get when I'm writing articles and I have solid data on my side, while dozens of competing authors just won't stop their constant borage of articles using junk science, anecdotal evidence, and alternate facts. If you watched Super Bowl 57, you observed two teams that simply refused to give up or give in.

Data 313

Data Sales 313

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 21, 2021

In an article last week we discussed how data can help you hire the ideal salespeople. In that article I shared a top/bottom analysis where the top performers were 100% more effective reaching decision makers than the bottoms. In this episode, Barry and Erica, the two oldest children, accused each other of being posers.

Decision Maker 317

Decision Maker Hiring Analysis Data 317

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 6, 2020

In today's article I'm going off topic so that I can share how we converted Objective Management Group's (OMG) 4-day Boston International Sales Experts Conference for OMG Partners, to a 3-Day Virtual Event on short notice, as well as the lessons learned so that you might be able to accomplish the same things that we did.

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Conference Video Groups Objections 382

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 27, 2023

Even though this article begins as a baseball article, in the fourth paragraph it quickly morphs into a sales article. As my regular readers know, my son is a baseball player - a rising college senior (as of the summer of 2023) - and I still coach him in the batting cage when he's home for the summer.

Hiring 307

Hiring Coaching Sales Consultative Selling 307

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 25, 2021

Regular readers know that I'm all about the data and I have written nearly two thousand articles based on data from Objective Management Group's (OMG) assessments of more than two million salespeople. Please understand that the dirty window and sill are not mine - I found the image via a Google search.

Meeting 390

Meeting Google Exact Data 390

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 25, 2022

While you don't need to know a single thing about Baseball to read this, it is another article with a baseball analogy. If you don't care about that then bye-bye until the next article.

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Closing Pipeline Opportunity Sales 296

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 9, 2020

In today's article, I'll blend my usual mix of statistics with some personal observation from the clients I have been helping for the past three weeks. But is that what's happening? I also included three videos that I extracted from a sales training session earlier this week.

Company 367

Company Face-to-face Consultative Selling Pipeline 367

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 1, 2022

The article was 100% junk science and to use the word science would be a disservice to the word junk. Below, I list five reasons why this article was so wrong, so bad, so misleading, so pitiful, and just plain stupid: I have," was my response and, "Look for a blistering review on Monday.".

Sales Enablement 290

Sales Enablement Sales 290

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 25, 2024

According to the search results inside this blog, I have written on the topic of coaching salespeople more than 400 times or 25% of my articles. The Top Sales Leaders quoted in the article are sales experts – like me – and I couldn’t believe what I read. Their advice wasn’t bad. It was good advice.

Coaching 347

Coaching Guidelines Margin Incentives 347

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

For those of you who are familiar with my series of articles about Bob - the worst salesperson ever - you can catch up by enjoying, laughing, and making fun of him here. 12 of the articles that show up on that page are about Bob! Today, I reviewed the worst OMG evaluation of a sales manager that I have ever seen.

Promotion 296

Promotion Sales Management Sales Sales Process 296

Steven Rosen

MAY 15, 2021

As I prepared to write this article, I found a very insightful article at Forbes.com, “The #1 Reason why Leadership Development Fails ” by Matt Myatt. If you have any questions or comments on the survey or this article, feel free to contact me at steven@starresults.com.

Survey 358

Survey Coaching Training Sales Talent 358

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 8, 2020

In today's article, I will explain why this problem exists and how it relates to a bigger problem in sales. In case you're thinking that it must be me, I have had success getting plumbers, stone masons, electricians, carpenters, power washers, and painters to the house but those other three categories are the outliers.

Call-back 372

Call-back Relationals Company Pipeline 372

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 19, 2021

However, there are some misguided selling strategies that can be undone and in today's article we'll discuss the benefits of the single tool that is the real deal and a huge difference maker. The US Government has seriously botched the ABC's in 2021 and there's no way to easily undo what's been done.

Face-to-face 317

Face-to-face Tools Government Benefit 317

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 5, 2022

My articles begin with analogies so we'll start by asking, has baseball changed?

B2B 296

B2B Inbound Consultative Selling Outbound 296

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

A few years had passed since the last time I wrecked an hbr.com (Harvard Business Review online) article about sales. Dan Caramanico alerted me to this dubious September 19, hbr.com article that explains their 5 Skills Every Salesperson Needs to Succeed. Why Do You Think Harvard Business Review Does This When it Comes to Sales?

Selling Skills 257

Selling Skills Hiring Study Sales Process 257

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

Of course the media was doing its best to spread misinformation as the article titles below suggest: The report actually included facts they didn't share in their titles, like: It was not known whether they dined inside or outside. It did not say that they contracted Covid-19 at the restaurant or because they ate at a restaurant.

Report 374

Report Hiring Groups Media 374

Anthony Cole Training

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

This article is the 1st place winner of the 2022 Sales Pro Central MVP Awards on Sales Leadership! In our sales management training, we have developed 10 keys and a framework of activities that provide a new or tenured sales leader with a roadmap they need to put in place to help lead their team to greater sales success.

Marketing Qualified Lead 277

Marketing Qualified Lead Leads Sales Leadership Training 277

Mr. Inside Sales

JULY 30, 2021

Note to my readers: Because of my heavy client load, I am reducing my blog articles to bi-weekly starting today. Your next blog will arrive on Tuesday, August 17 th. Ever feel stalled during a close? Make them specific to your product or service and write them so you’d be comfortable asking them.

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Closing Gatekeeper Face-to-face Decision Maker 334