Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
If you have been reading this Blog for a while, then you may remember my requests during the last half of 2011 to complete a survey for my Trust Project. My goal was to understand to what degree people did not like and/or trust salespeople and integrate that information into our future work. I thought it could signify the importance of additional findings in Objective Management Group's Sales Candidate Assessments, and it could influence how we train salespeople in the future.
The research has been completed, a white paper has been penned, and I have a sneak preview for you below after which you can download the entire white paper if you want to dig in to the findings and determine whether they affect your business.
Did you know that salespeople distrust other salespeople nearly as much as non salespeople do?
Did you know that women and salespeople were 25% more likely to be victims of a sales scam than men and non salespeople?
Every woman that completed the survey has been the victim of a sales scam!
Did you know that men and women, as well as salespeople and non salespeople, don't agree on who are the second and third least trusted of all salespeople?
Young, male, insurance salespeople have almost no chance of getting women to trust them.
Automobile salespeople are the least trusted salespeople of all. They are not trusted by anywhere from 80 to nearly 100% of the population.
There are three industries from which salespeople are generally trusted quite well. Read the White Paper to learn what they sell.
The big surprise in the study is WHY people don't trust salespeople. It's not at all what you think it is and if you take a guess I'm sure you'll be wrong. After you read the white paper, please return to this article and answer these questions:
What does this mean for your company? For your industry? For your salespeople? For the salespeople that you will hire in the future? What will change about how you train them?
Click here to download my newest White Paper, The Trust Project: In Salespeople We Don't Trust; Where, When and Why Salespeople Aren't Trusted.
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Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
Cold calling. It sounds so...20th Century.
Some industries still break-in their salespeople by putting them on the phone and having them dial - more than one hundred times a day - and attempt to schedule appointments. You still receive calls like this from new, and sometimes not so new salespeople selling insurance, investments, copiers, office supplies, commercial real estate and long distance phone services.
Today, more salespeople are using the Social Network to find opportunities. Whether it's incoming leads from Blogs, researching and requesting introductions on LinkedIn, or simply finding the target audience from a Google search, salespeople are using these tools to connect more and more often.
Of course, one thing that will never change is word of mouth. Referrals and introductions from happy customers and clients will always be the finest method for generating new business.
Given all of the options, which salespeople are smartest? Is it those that are cold calling, those who are getting introductions or those that are using the Social Network? The answer depends on how you decide to measure what being smart means.
If smart is measured by the easiest method, with less work, and no human contact, then those using the social network are as smart as they come.
If smart is measured by following the path that most often leads to success, then those who ask their customers for introductions and get them are even smarter.
If smart means making sure that no matter what else happens during the course of the month, the salesperson adds the required number of new opportunities to their pipeline, then those who are cold calling are the smartest salespeople on the planet.
Cold calling isn't enjoyable (for those salespeople who are truthful about it). Cold calling isn't effective except for the most brilliant of callers. Cold calling isn't efficient anymore. One thing that cold calling will always be is controllable and manageable.
You can't control the number of inbound leads your salespeople will get. Of course, if you are generating more leads than necessary to keep the pipeline full of quality opportunities my argument doesn't work. But most companies aren't accomplishing that - yet.
You can't control the number of introductions you will receive from your clients and customers.
You can't control the number of introductions your social network will make on your behalf, even if you are asking for them.
You can control the number of cold calls your salespeople make. Even if the numbers are as ugly as this:
Attempts - 100
Connects - 10
Meeting Scheduled - 1
At least you can control that.
I don't think cold calling should still be the default approach for new business development. However, if a salesperson needs to add 20 new opportunities to their pipeline each month, and the other methods deliver only 7, then cold calling becomes a necessary method to secure the remaining 13 opportunities required.
Cold calling is slowly but surely declining in use but some salespeople have discarded it before its time.
Reevaluate what your salespeople are doing, how they are doing it, and make sure that the emphasis is on the result, not the method.
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Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
If you have been reading my Blog for a while you know that there is more to selling than just utilizing skills to execute the sales process, sales model, and sales methodology. The big, hidden, 600 pound gorilla in all this is the combination of hidden weaknesses that prevent salespeople from executing.
Objective Management Group identifies five big ones and a dozen or so additional weaknesses that cause problems for salespeople. Most salespeople have at least 3 of the big ones and average a total of 9 weaknesses all together.
Sadly, most sales training and sales trainers are unable to help salespeople overcome these weaknesses because their focus is primarly the sales skills and methodology that they teach. That puts tremendous pressure on sales managers who are simply not equipped to help salespeople overcome things like:
- Need for Approval (prevents them from asking lots of good, tough, timely questions)
- Non Supportive Buy Cycle (causes them to empathize with stalls, put-offs and objections)
- Self-Limting Record Collection (negative self-talk that sobotages sales outcomes)
- Uncomfortable Talking about Money (not able to have an in-depth financial discussion)
- Tendency to Become Emotional (temporary panic when things don't go as planned)
- Difficulty Recovering from Rejection (takes too long to get back on the horse)
- Being Too Trusting of What Prospects Say (they believe the stalls and put-offs)
- Not Being Goal Orientated (they lack purpose and incentive)
- many more
Is there anything you can do?
Yes, there is. Have you heard of SalesMind?
You can have your salespeople work with the SalesMind CD. It helps them overcome these weaknesses - and more - through subliminal programming. Even better? It works! I've been using SalesMind with salespeople for years and it always does the trick.
It works like magic, it works quickly (usually within 3 weeks) and effortlessly. Your salespeople simply put the CD in the computer, watch the screen, and listen to the audio (only one program at a time) twice daily for 21 days. And poof. The weakness is gone. Salesmind sells for just $99.
If you are interested in getting SalesMind for your and/or your salespeople you can
email me.
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Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
Sales has changed a lot in the last five years and indications are that it will continue to evolve over the next five years. Technology, the economy and the internet have dramatically changed the way people buy and sell.
Monday, four sales experts will join Michael Nick in a round table discussion to talk about the Future of Selling. Join us for this free teleconference by registering here.
We'll be discussing tools, technology, sales process, changes, and everything else the modern salesperson must be aware of and prepared to face in the coming months and years.
This discussion is unscripted and non promotional so you should gain a lot from joining in.
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Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
We instruct clients to have their sales candidates take the Sales Candidate assessment very early in the recruiting process. It's the first step after the client receives their resumes. Clients carefully spell out exactly how the entire process will work and explain that the assessment is simply the first step.
Recent statistics show that only 34% of the candidates are taking the assessment without additional prompts. Isn't that awful?
Maybe - let's explore it further.
We should consider that the following ten scenarios are all possible reasons why candidates fail to complete the assessment:
- RISK AVERSE - they think it's a scam and they're afraid to click the link
- NARCISSIST - they think they are above such nonsense as having to take an assessment
- POOR ATTENTION TO DETAIL - they suck at following directions
- LACK OF CONFIDENCE - they do click the link, take one look at the questions and realize they are over their head
- NOT QUALIFIED - individuals are not a salespeople so this prevents them from pursuing the opportunity
- POOR FIT - they don't have the background you are looking for so they won't pursue the opportunity
- CAN'T MULTI-TASK - they begin taking the assessment, get called away and never return to complete it
- LONE RANGER - they didn't take the process you laid out seriously
- POOR NOTE TAKER - they intended to take the assessment and forgot to do it
- REACTIVE - They were waiting for you to call and ask them to take the assessment
I would be the first to say that 34% is a terrible completion percentage. But considering most of the reasons, would you really want to waste one minute of your time reviewing their resumes, talking with them on the phone, interviewing them face-to-face or even considering them for the position? If you are doing the hiring, is the 34% completetion really such a bad thing?
Instead, the 66% who don't complete the assessment simply become the victims of the first filter. The assessment itself is the second filter - recommending only 25% - 50% of those who do take the assessment. The variation is a direct result of the configuration of the assessment and how strong you need your salespeople to be, based on the challenges they will face.
The next filter is a phone call with the the recommended candidates. Clients learn that of those recommended, they don't all sound great and some don't fit. The best of the candidates who survive the first 3 filters get interviewed, the first time in the process where the hiring manager really has to invest any time. Interviewing skills are extremely important for this step, where the hiring manager must determine if the candidate owns what is written on their resume or they simply penned a work of fiction.
Is your sales recruiting process this efficient? Do you have and use the skills necessary for being able to conduct a thorough, intensive, challenging 30 minute interview and know at that point whether you have found your next salesperson?
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