Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
As evidenced by one of my book titles, Baseline Selling, I have frequently borrowed from baseball when the analogy is more useful than the sales message. Although the following stories may appear to be about my son and/or his baseball team, they are actually about coaching and adapting.
Baseball - I brought my son to the batting cage to work out a swing flaw after his line drives had become weak ground balls. He was bailing out (stepping toward third base instead of the pitcher), causing him to take weak swings at the ball. After I got him to stop bailing, he began leaning away from the pitch with his upper body, causing him to take an off-balance swing. When we fixed that, his front shoulder began opening too quickly, the head of the bat moving through the strike zone too slowly for solid contact. When we finally fixed that, line drives began zipping off his bat again and he was able to carry that into the next game for 2 doubles and 3 RBI's.
Sales -This sequence of analysis and tweaking works in exactly the same way when coaching salespeople. You should be able to immediately identify what went wrong, when it went wrong, how it went wrong and demonstrate how to prevent and fix it. The last two steps must take place through role-play. Are you doing that effectively?
Baseball - I took some swings for the first time in 20 years. I immediately realized that I couldn't track the ball with bifocals, so I removed them. Without the glasses, I could barely see the ball at all! My son said, "Dad, you don't have it any more." That's all I needed to hear. I wasn't going to let my 10-year-old get away with that, so I adapted. I accepted that I couldn't see the stiches or the spin of the ball anymore, but I could see the fuzzy little round thing heading in my direction and resolved to just see that and hit that. He said, "I guess you still have it after all."
Sales - Your salespeople must adapt when the existing approach isn't effective with a prospect. Instead, most salespeople take one of two actions. They either continue to do what isn't working (stupid human trick) or they give up (typical human behavior).
Baseball - As their coach, I offer 1-2 minutes of one-on-one pre-game or in-game coaching to each boy on the team. They get more from their one-on-one time than they could ever get from a 90-minute practice and we see immediate results in that very game.
Sales - Sales Managers must provide their salespeople with one-on-one time before upcoming calls and debrief calls that have already taken place. There is no area that will have more impact on sales than coaching.
Sales and baseball are nearly the same except that far fewer ball players make it to the major leagues, but those who do so get paid a lot more money.
Article has
1 comments.
Click To Read/Write Comments
Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
One of the many changes to affect selling during the last several years is that salespeople are making fewer face-to-face sales calls than ever before and more of the selling has moved to the phone. This has resulted in more calls (although shorter), more resistance with a longer sales cycle, and greater success in closing sales, deals and accounts which might not have been possible just a few years ago. The biggest difference though? It might just be the music.
Back in the good old days, many of us played music on the way to sales calls while some listened to sports, news, or talk shows. I'm focusing on music today, so I'll we'll discuss how music could serve to:
- Motivate
- Calm
- Stop the Thinking
- Improve Focus and Resolve
- Boost Adrenaline
While some might play classical, easy listening or new age music to calm their nerves, others play genres that could motivate them for upcoming calls. In much the same way as a pitcher or hitter has a personal music clip played to get their adrenaline pumping as they enter a baseball game, music can have a similar effect on the psyche of a salesperson.
If a salesperson has a one-hour ride to the next sales call, it would require about 10 tunes to fill that time. I invite you to join today's conversation by sharing your pre-sales call playlist (or the tunes you would include if you had one). I've shared mine and encourage you to contribute yours. It will be very interesting, perhaps even exciting, to see all the variations (or not) in the styles of music and specific songs that everyone prefers prior to a sales call. There is no right or wrong, just personal preferences.
Here are my 10 (Frank, you'll notice that the band Chicago does not appear in my Top 10 Pre-Sales Call Playlist):
Article has
4 comments.
Click To Read/Write Comments
Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
Nearly 18 months ago, I posted an article about my experience with National Car Rental. Please read that for background before reading this article. Pay particular attention to the comments where Elizabeth, from National Car Rental, reached out to me and provided me with a free rental day. That changed my impression of National!
I didn't have an opportunity to use that free day until this weekend when, following the instructions on the email they sent prior to arrival, we entered their area of the garage in Orlando. This time, there wasn't a man in a green booth who didn't want to wait on me. This time, while browsing the cars from which to choose in the Emerald Club aisle, a miserable lady chased us down and demanded to know what we were doing. I told her. She pointed to three cars and started to walk away. I said, "Thanks, but I reserved a luxury car." She said, "Why didn't you say so? Those are in the next row." and she walked away.
On our way out of the garage, I wasn't smart enough to follow all of their exit signs and the twists and turns that went along with them. I ended up in another rental car's exit lane. The guy in that booth nicely explained that I was in the wrong place, got out of his booth, helped me back up without injuring anyone, led me back to the correct path and made sure I was headed in the right direction. Then, I came across another National employee, who should have been directling me to the exit lane, but instead asked, "What do you want?" I told him I was exiting and he nodded. Nice touch.
In the end, just like 18 months ago, the man inside the exit booth and the lady, who received my car when we returned it, were both wonderful.
I never would have used National again if they hadn't provided me with a free day. After another unacceptable experience, I don't plan to use them again even if they provide me with another free day.
This is a tremendous example, and not the least bit unusual, of how non-selling, customer-facing employees, sell. Despite two effective customer-facing people doing their part on selling us to return, one was horrible and not so subtley sold us on not returning.
Companies must be certain that ALL of their customer-facing employees, not only salespeople, always create favorable impressions that sell their customers on returning. National Car Rental still fails to do this.
Article has
2 comments.
Click To Read/Write Comments
Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
When a room full of sales leaders arrive for two days of intensive training, there are many things that can and do happen. Here are ten of them:
- They can and do resist the training if they were sent there. If they chose to come on their own, resistance never occurs! Fortunately, the resistance fades away by the end of the first day.
- They can and do see the magic of how proper sales coaching should be conducted.
- They can and do pick and choose what to embrace and bring back to their offices and teams.
- They can get a much better grasp on what it takes to make their sales force change-ready, but some won't take the time to do so.
- They can understand the subleties of how to shape their sales environment, but it's not as exciting as mastering sales coaching. So, even though one can't coach effectively without shaping their environment, some will fail to execute that important step.
- They can and do see the power, efficiency and magic of a well-thought-out, time-tested, proven, customized, optimized sales process. But old habits are hard to break and some still want to demo and present too early in the new process!
- They can and do get a much better understanding of how to effectively motivate their various salespeople, but some will forget most of it by the time they return to their office.
- They can and do understand how to more effectively and consistently find, assess, interview, select, hire, on-board and retain better salespeople, but some would rather work harder and longer and do what they have always done instead of trusting that a time-tested, proven, customized, efficient sales recruiting process will make it as easy as advertised.
- They can and do learn the power of the daily huddle as a great way to hold their salespeople accountable to the KPI's that will drive revenue. However, some will ease into this by conducting a weekly huddle, mistaken in their belief that weekly will work as effectively as daily.
- They can and do learn the power of a staged, criteria-based pipeline and what it takes to keep it filled. Most will implement this upon their return.
If it sounds like some people waste their time by attending, that isn't true. What actually happens is that they fear that they can't do everything that they hear (not enough time and too much work), so they determine what is most important (or most comfortable) and resolve to do that. It's not a waste at all. It's simply the sales leader being guilty of some of the same "I can't" issues that their salespeople have.
Here are ten suggestions that will make participation a success if you decide to attend an intensive sales leadership training event like this:
- Embrace instead of resist.
- Focus instead of getting distracted.
- Participate instead of observe.
- Be early instead of late.
- Take fewer detailed notes, but focus more on concepts.
- Apply everything, not just with what you like or feel comfortable.
- Listen with your sales force in mind.
- Ask questions, ask for help, enter into discussions.
- Complete all exercises which are intended to help you apply the lessons to your sales force.
- Perform the overnight assignments so that you won't be left behind.
You can get more out of these two days than from your entire sales leadership career, but you must be present and in the moment for the entire two days.
Article has
0 comments.
Click To Read/Write Comments
Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
I heard former NBA all-star and current ESPN basketball analyst, Bruce Bowen, talking about Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics. He characterized Garnett as one of the toughest competitors on the court, unlike some younger, very talented players who aren't as competitive and don't know how to close out games. He said the difference is that Garnett is trying to win while the less competitive players are trying to make friends.
I've been talking about Need for Approval being one difference between the elite 6% of salespeople and the bottom 74% of salespeople for years, but this is the first time I have heard of the affliction as a differentiator in sports. In one of my books - it was probably Baseline Selling - I discussed how it would play out if the pitcher had need for approval from the batter and vice versa.
Why is Need for Approval such a differentiator?
In the discussion about Kevin Garnett, Bowen said that Garnett doesn't care what other players think about him. Given his reputation as a shut-down defender, we can interpret that as he doesn't care if other players have a problem with him being tough, unrelenting, unfriendly, angry and passionate on the court. He isn't going to smile at an opponent, ask how he's doing or praise him for a nice play. He doesn't care if his opponent has a problem with that.
In sales, the elite 6% don't care what prospects and customers think about them, as long as they are thinking about them. They don't need to be best friends or have a relationship outside of work. That allows them to ask tough questions, challenge strategies and comments, and push-back when appropriate. These are behaviors that the bottom 74% of salespeople aren't able to do because they care so much about what their prospects and customers think about them. They worry that, if they ask too many questions or push-back, their prospects and customers won't like them anymore.
Who says that those prospects and customers like them now?
Because they don't ask tough questions and don't ever push back or challenge anything, we can be certain that they aren't having the type of conversations that add value. And if they aren't adding value, their prospects and customers probably don't respect them.
Do you know which of your salespeople have need for approval and how to deal with it?
Article has
10 comments.
Click To Read/Write Comments