Dave Kurlan
An Easier Way to Coach Salespeople – For a While
One of the challenges that sales managers have is their trepidation around transitioning from very little coaching to daily coaching; and at the same time, moving from coaching light (ineffective coaching) to coachi...
Do the Least Informed Salespeople Have the Loudest Voices
Do the least informed among us have the loudest voices? This article is about salespeople but to set the stage, we'll start with the news.
When I listen to and watch the news, it seems that those on the fringes and representing special interest g...
The Top 8 Requirements for Becoming a Great Salesperson
If you're young enough, some of the questions in the first few paragraphs won't apply because you haven't experienced the world without the innovations mentioned below. Don't let that prevent you from reading this because after the mil...
Dave Kurlan’s 10 Surefire New Years Resolutions For All Salespeople
Like most people, this year I intend to make good on my New Year’s resolution. It’s actually more of a life resolution than it is a New Year’s resolution in much the same way that salespeople should make theirs a career resolution. If ...
Why are Half of All Sales Reps Still Missing Quota in a Booming US...
Around this time ten years ago, the US economy was famously tanking. I remember it well as revenue at Objective Management Group dropped by more than 30%, almost overnight. During 2008 and 2009 more than half of all US sales reps were miss...
How Getting Feedback and Making Adjustments are the Keys to Sales Improvement
Becoming a great at selling - or anything else for that matter - is about making adjustments. In order to make an adjustment you need feedback - something you see, hear or feel that informs your ability to adjust. Take Baseball for example. ...
Would Henry Ford be Able to Sell Cars Today?
Cars were in the news this week when GM announced they were closing plants in the USA and President Trump pushed back. So it got me wondering...
What would Henry Ford think if he were alive today? I'm thinking that he would ask, "What the ...
Speed Limits, the Flow of Traffic, and Sales Pipelines
I don't get stressed anymore when I'm driving. All it took was for me to not exceed the speed limit. I'm not sure whether it was my navigation system repeatedly telling me to "obey all traffic laws" each time I started the car, or my wife ...
Data Shows That Only 14% are Qualified for the Easiest Selling Roles
Lays Potato Chips. Movie Theater Popcorn. Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. BBQ Ribs. Fudge Brownies. Rolos (a personal favorite from years ago). All junk food which, after having the first one, you just can't stop...
The Wrong Salespeople are Hired 77% of the Time
94% of sales managers are optimistic about their salespeople. That's a very surprising statistic for a couple of reasons:
50% or more of their salespeople won't hit their quotas this year and haven't since at least 2008.
Objective Management Gro...
Examples of How Salespeople Lose Credibility with Their Prospects
You probably thought I would write a world series article but there wasn't much tension or anxiety in this series as the Sox dominated. So instead of an epic baseball related article, you're going to read about trust and credibility.
Most salesp...
Golden Nuggets from the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study
I had a chance to review the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study and extracted some fascinating data. I thought it might be interesting to take their data, overlay some of Objective Management Group's (OMG) data, and see what we can take away f...
New Data Shows that You Can Double Revenue by Overcoming This One Sales Weakness
My wife and I have been watching 24 for the last few months and we've made it to season 7. Once in a while, one or both of us falls asleep during late-night episodes but we are always saved by:
PREVIOUSLY ON 24...
With that in mind, I will save ...
Salespeople With This Weakness Score 47% Worse at Reaching Decision Makers
A lot of the salespeople I coach have a weakness in their Sales DNA - their need to be liked. Approximately 58% of all salespeople have this weakness and on average, salespeople score 76% in that competency. Elite salespeople have an avera...
Which 4 Sales Competencies Best Differentiate Top from Bottom Salespeople?
The difference between great salespeople and weak salespeople has been debated for years. The articles in my Blog typically address these differences with science and data to support to my position.
For example, In 2018 alone I have writte...
The Top 12 Factors that Cause Delayed Closings and What to Do About Them
Over the past 3 months, my wife and I have been up and down the east coast driving our son to and from baseball tournaments and college showcases. Invariably, each drive back home has taken twice the time it should have because of road construct...
Finally! Science Reveals the Actual Impact of Sales Coaching
You must have heard the joke that 73.6% of statistics are made up!
I have read and even reported that sales leaders who coach their salespeople see a boost in revenue of around 27%. It sounds like a realistic number but I have not seen any ...
Elite Salespeople are 200% Better in These 3 Sales Competencies
Professional athletes have one trait in common - they are all very athletic and their skills are among the top several hundred in the world in their particular sport. For example, in Major League Baseball, there are 30 teams with 25 players...
Latest Data Shows Most Salespeople Would be Fired or Arrested if they Worked in...
It's summer so they're digging up streets, repaving roads, and repairing bridges. That leads to epic traffic jams, long commutes and tremendous amounts of frustration. And you're late! I've been doing my best impression of the diggin...
New Data – Are Experienced Sales Managers Better Sales Managers?
Last week I wrote a revealing article which showed that Sales Managers are even worse than I thought when it comes to coaching their salespeople. That article stimulated this great conversation on LinkedIn.
Following that article I dug fur...
