Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 1, 2025

There is another one we should discuss, and that’s when a sales leader has a Non-Supportive Buy Cycle with an attribute of needing to think things over. Fortunately, when salespeople fix their Non-Supportive Buy Cycles, their sales increase by an incredible 50%. Back to the sales leaders. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

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Sales Leadership Buying Cycle Coaching Proposal 286

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 19, 2024

My latest sales epiphany happened while I was watching Friday’s American League Championship Series game between the Yankees and the Guardians. And because this is my brain, this article is actually about sales, not baseball! Sales Leaders should root for their salespeople the way I root for the Red Sox.

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Epiphany Real Estate Face-to-face Coaching 188

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 11, 2024

If you’ve been reading this Blog for more than a couple of years, or since 2006, then you know that every December I post the best articles of the past year. Not listed among the best articles of 2024 is the page that has the top 250 articles of all-time.

Sales Leadership 156

Sales Leadership Hiring Epiphany Video 156

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 3, 2025

Last January, my first article included the introduction of my new Sales Grid. Check it out if you’re not familiar with it because it is a blueprint for quota-busting sales success. Stay tuned for my next article and video on getting ready. Then watch this short video. Something you disagreed with? It’s a lot.

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Video Engineering Quota Motivation 173

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 6, 2025

Last week I wrote this important article about how you can use sales process to increase revenue by 28%. Lets make the assumption that you either have or are about to have a comprehensive custom, staged, milestone-centric, buyer-focused sales process with predictive sales scorecard. What are the next steps?

Government 173

Government Sales Leadership Coaching Sales Coaching 173

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 16, 2025

If you missed my March 14 article on Sales Cringe – my first in over a month – that will explain why we had the time to rewatch “24.” Regardless of company size, the Owner, President or CEO must SHOW their commitment to sales training to demonstrate the critical nature of the training to all participants.

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Training Revenue Face-to-face Decision Maker 227

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 31, 2025

Even the people who provide the services promising inbound leads, meetings, and sales increases are struggling to generate inbound leads! Today, there is only one effective, manageable and controllable way to quickly build a quality sales pipeline. We’ll answer that in another article. It’s April Fools every day!

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Pipeline How To Cold Calling Inbound 188

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 13, 2024

I created an analogy for my first article when I wrote about scaling, hiring and firing salespeople , based on what I read in Genesis. Today’s article is about on boarding and coaching salespeople, an analogy I created from what I read so far in Exodus. I’m not a fan of that approach but sometimes there is no other way.

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Coaching Hiring Scale Sales Leadership 188

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 20, 2022

The lessons from my annual Nutcracker post have not changed at all in 12 years but my perspective changes. This year three new thoughts come to mind.

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Consultative Selling Sales Coaching Coaching Training 296

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 408

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 9, 2025

In 2015, I wrote about my encounter with Chris Cagle, but that article was about how he was opening doors for the new business he had launched. Before we dive deeper into timing, please check out this article from four years ago about urgency alignment.

Airlines 173

Airlines Decision Maker Call-back Vendor 173

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 352

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 4, 2025

Coincidentally, accountability is one of the competencies at which most sales leaders are lacking. But that’s a conversation for a different article. Many sales leaders fail to set targets for much more than revenue/quota and perhaps 2-3 others from my list. Getting this right has three parts. On the contrary.

Account 173

Account Hiring Quota Territories 173

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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Sales Enablement Sales Marketing How To 368

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 23, 2024

This is my third article using the Bible as an analogy to sales and I am currently reading Numbers. In my experience, most companies have KPIs in their sales organizations but the real issue is usually whether or not the KPIs they trot out actually drive revenue. Make your sales team biblical and do God’s work.

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Comparison Exact Follow-up Call-back 173

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 309

Data Sales 309

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.

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Closing Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 409

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 312

Comparison Groups Objections Examples 312

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 304

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 407

Sales Closing Account 407

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.

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Leads Marketing Qualified Lead Sales Leadership Training 308

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 313

Data Sales Compensation Company 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.

Coaching 341

Coaching Guidelines Margin Incentive 341

Zoominfo

AUGUST 20, 2024

Believe it or not, two of the least likely allies in a B2B company – sales and compliance – can successfully work together to achieve a harmony that benefits both internal stakeholders and customers. Sales teams often achieve this by showcasing features and functionalities that they think customers want and value.

Fashion 130

Fashion Promotion Discount Vendor 130

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.

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Trends Margin Cold Calling Inbound 356

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.

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Promotion Sales Management Sales Sales Process 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?

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Sales Follow-up Groups Prospecting 352

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 294

Sales Revenue 294

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

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 2, 2025

Reading a fascinating article in the NYTimes, Giving Kids Some Autonomy Has Surprising Results , got me thinking. ” But as the article points out, we have to create the underlying frameworks and guardrails to achieve success. For example, “You must follow the sales process!”

Government 127

Government Education Pipeline Segment 127

Hubspot Sales

AUGUST 26, 2024

I remember it like it was yesterday — I was just starting out in SaaS sales, and I had identified a promising account I wanted to target. Sales requires a lot of skills you can only acquire from experience, but there’s one critical attribute you should start to hone on day one: persistence. How to Use AI for Sales Follow-Ups 1.

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Follow-up Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 122

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:

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Sales Forecasts Forecasting Relationals Sales 280

Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Years ago, one of the lead execs from our client KeyBank shared an article called, “What it takes to be a Coach”. It began with: You must understand the game.

Coaching 296

Coaching Sales Coaching Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 296

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!

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Sales Process Sales Methodology Decision Maker Pipeline 341

Pipeliner

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

In today’s fast-paced business world, sales and marketing teams need to align to drive revenue. This article examines the importance of aligning sales and marketing , the challenges that hinder this alignment, and strategies to foster a more collaborative, effective partnership.

Buyer Persona 105

Buyer Persona Marketing Marketing Qualified Lead Lead Scoring 105

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.

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Revenue Leads Marketing Qualified Lead Sales 311