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.

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Top of Funnel Positioning Scale Inbound 409

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 9, 2024

Most sales teams win fewer than half their “games,” and while defense can’t be blamed, pitching can! Unlike the Red Sox, most sales teams have too much pitching (demos and presentations)! As of this writing, they have assessed 106 sales and sales management candidates.

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Hiring Lead Rank Lead Scoring Compensation 358

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 4, 2024

Assessments Compared Data on Sales Excellence Coaching Salespeople MUST READ: Are Assessments as Evil as the Persona Movie Suggests? The Caliper vs OMG Comparison: Which Sales Candidate Assessment is More Predictive? How to Transform Your Sales Pipeline Today Can Malcom Gladwell Explain the Sales Hiring Problem?

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Hiring Sales Leadership Sales Forecasts Forecasting 159

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 20, 2020

You're probably going to hate this article! As always, if you can hang in through some of the preliminary analysis, I'll make the pivot to sales and business. Each day, the Boston Globe sends an update with metrics that the state of Massachusetts is monitoring with regard to the Pandemic.

Pivotal 408

Pivotal Analysis Relationals Sales 408

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.

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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. As good as this movie is, it comes with a bonus because it also provides three exceptional lessons for salespeople and sales managers. One exception to the crappiness of 2020 movies is The Trial of the Chicago 7. Let's take a look!

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Film Sales Management Sales Consultative Selling 391

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.

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Data Sales 313

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. Because sales managers are not coaching – still – at least not consistently or effectively. Sales Managers don’t want to coach because it takes away from personal sales.

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Coaching Guidelines Margin Incentive 347

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 10, 2024

The title of today’s article might be confusing, but it’s true. I scheduled a five-minute pre-screening call with a candidate who was recommended and scored quite high on the OMG sales candidate assessment. Within the Sales Posturing Competency, he had a weakness in the attribute, Maintains Appropriate Amount of Patience.

Hiring 348

Hiring Cold Calling Call-back B2C 348

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.

Comparison 316

Comparison Groups Objections Examples 316

No More Cold Calling

JULY 29, 2021

This broken link is to blame for sales teams’ biggest closing mistakes. “My This is the frustrated lament I hear regularly from sales leaders. But not closing sales is never the real problem. The problem is that sales reps neglect important activities during earlier stages of the sales process. It’s just a symptom.

Closing 409

Closing Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 409

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

JUNE 27, 2023

Even though this article begins as a baseball article, in the fourth paragraph it quickly morphs into a sales article. Compare that with salespeople who, after five years in sales, could be referred to as veterans. I started coaching him when he was old enough to hold a wiffle bat.

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Hiring Coaching Sales Consultative Selling 307

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

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 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. Let's take sales assessments for example. But does it really matter whether this is causation?

Report 374

Report Hiring Groups Media 374

No More Cold Calling

JANUARY 9, 2020

million per sales manager. But I don’t think any sales manager listened, because more than half of reps are still missing quota. I blame the sales manager for having the wrong priorities. Yet, modern sales managers have their heads stuck in spreadsheets with priorities changing daily. Poor leadership will cost you $3.5

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Sales Management Hiring Quota Cold Calling 390

SBI Growth

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

If you are reading this article and you work in the B2B space, you have most likely been inundated with buzzwords surrounding Digital and how it is disrupting your industry: Digital strategy, digital transformation, eCommerce, big data, IoT, AI, and.

Channels 315

Channels Strategy B2B Data 315

No More Cold Calling

JANUARY 13, 2022

I understand that predictive analysis tools can be accurate at forecasting business trends and sales performance. Astrologers, business analysts, and sales “experts” all tend to focus on hopeful outcomes that aren’t always grounded in reality. Hopeful outcomes sound like this: Sales and marketing will learn to play nice.

Trends 356

Trends Margin Cold Calling Inbound 356

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 18, 2021

It's short article Friday. As brilliant as they are, in most cases, sales is not one of their strengths and it's not until the business has a logo and a website when they realize that success won't come until somebody sells something. million of those startups are tech related. Did you have any idea the number was that huge?

Banking 316

Banking Hiring Relationals Up-Sell 316

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.

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Decision Maker Hiring Analysis Data 317

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

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

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Team Photo of the American League Champion 1967 Boston Red Sox I frequently write about taking a consultative approach, where listening and asking questions are the keys for successful sales presentations. The post Two Keys for Successful Sales Presentations appeared first on Kurlan & Associates, Inc. Who cares other than me?

Sales 358

Sales Follow-up Groups Prospecting 358

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 20, 2024

Although this is an article about sales process, the first two paragraphs have more to do with religion than sales. I’m sure by now you’re thinking, but Dave, what the heck does that have to do with sales process? Most of that group believes that a sales process is helpful. It will be worth it!

Sales Process 348

Sales Process Sales Methodology Decision Maker Pipeline 348

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.

Leads 277

Leads Marketing Qualified Lead Sales Leadership Training 277

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.

Data 348

Data Up-Sell Sales 348

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 18, 2023

But this article isn't only about normal, it's also about the abnormal in both baseball and sales. As we do each Friday in March and April, my wife and I drove to upstate New York to watch our son's college baseball games.

Sales 298

Sales Revenue 298

Steven Rosen

MAY 20, 2024

In this episode of the Sales Leadership Awakening Podcast, Margo Edris , Regional VP of Sales at Salesforce, shares insights on sales leadership and discusses topics such as handling challenges gracefully, preparing for coaching, and integrating fun into the workplace. Authenticity is key in coaching.

How To 296

How To Sales Leadership SalesForce Coaching 296

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.”. Conversations have become less frequent, email spam has skyrocketed, and social media is the new breeding ground for sales pitches. Please take care of yourself. “ Maybe, if you sell widgets.

Referrals 391

Referrals Cold Calling Social Media Social Selling 391

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

MARCH 14, 2023

As a Nor'Easter barreled across Central Massachusetts today, a few interesting storm-related happenings were analogous to some sales-related occurrences. This article will explore two weather-related analogies:

Sales Forecasts 280

Sales Forecasts Forecasting Relationals Sales 280

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 4, 2022

It resonated - not for its baseball coaching - but as sales coaching. Do you know how this applies to sales? Click here to read last year's fun article comparing pitcher's fielding practice (PFP) to role-playing in sales. Run… Run Fast! That Coach is working on “flaws” that will have no impact on your pitching.

Coaching 295

Coaching Exact Sales Coaching Sales 295

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. Meet Tom Schaff, the Sales Commissioner of Major League Sales. Check out this article. Each year around this time I start thinking about Baseball because I miss it so much.

Strategy 358

Strategy Twitter Course Video 358

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

No More Cold Calling

APRIL 16, 2020

Face Facts: The Client Is Not Always Right, and Your Sales Pitch Is Annoying. They hear the word sales and think of the stereotypical used-car salesman. Joe Galvin, chief research officer at Vistage, clarifies the meaning of trust in his article, “ Trust in the Time of COVID-19.” Their pipelines are recession-proof.

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

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 9, 2021

If you have used Indeed to hire salespeople, they will offer to have your candidates take a free sales assessment. In this article we'll explore how Indeed's sales assessment compares to the gold standard in sales candidate assessments from Objective Management Group (OMG). Doesn't that sound great?

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Hiring Cancellation Tools Advertising 293