Tuesday, February 09, 2010 10:01 AM  
     

Dave Kurlan on Understanding the Sales Force

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL

Your email:
 

Search 550+ Kurlan Articles

Google
 

Radio Show

 

Kurlan Article Series

 

FREE TOOLS



 

BEST-SELLER

 

SALES SELECTION WHITE PAPER

 

Dave Kurlan on TV

Dave Kurlan and OMG were featured on World Business Review, hosted by General Norman Schwarzkopf. Click above to view this 3 minute segment.
 

Sales Force Evaluation

 

AWARDS

 

 

Find Articles

Navigate By : 
[Article Index]
 
Dave Kurlan's Blog  

Understanding the Sales Force

Current Articles | RSS Feed RSS Feed

5 Steps to Coaching Your Salespeople Beyond Happy Ears

 | Submit to Digg digg it | Submit to Reddit reddit | Add to delicious delicious | Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon | Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn 

Today I posted this article about Diagnosing and Overcomeing Happy Ears on the Baseline Selling web site.  And last week I wrote this article about Happy Ears and an empty pipeline.

Following are my thoughts about how you, the leader of your salespeople, can help them overcome Happy Ears. Slip into these five roles to help them be more realistic about and more comprehensive with their opportunities.

  1. Be their Doubting Thomas - Be more pessimistic than them. 
  2. Be their Carpenter - punch holes in everything they tell you by asking, "how do you know?" or "did they actually say that or is that what you think?"
  3. Be their Elephant - remind them of the last time they told you this - and what happened late when they were caught by surprise.
  4. Be their Show Director - rehearse them for what they must ask - before the call - through role play.
  5. Be their Coach - Do less cheerleading and more challenging.

Upcoming Events

Baseline Selling Webinar Series - begins next week - for Owners and Solopreneurs Only

Defeating the Enemy and Dominating Your Market - 10/15 - a Top Sales Experts Master Class

Close More Sales by Shortening Your Sales Cycle - 10/8 - a Business Experts Webinar

After the Cutting - How Successful Companies are Selling Their Way Back to the Top 11/3 - Top Executives only use Discount Code DK1103 to avoid paying fees.

(c) Copyright 2009 Dave Kurlan

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 @ 09:13 AM

COMMENTS

Wouldn't the right benchmarks in your sales process [OMG's list for the Sales Pipeline] address whether or not they can objectively know whether they are with a qualified prospect. Couldn't they recognize that themselves? Or are you suggesting that because of their happy ears they are misrepresenting where they are, or where they think they are with the client?

posted on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 8:08 PM by Douglas Wick


Great question Doug. 
 
It's your second response. Their happy ears cause them to misrepresent where they are. 
 
Dave

posted on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 8:35 PM by Dave Kurlan


Post Comment
Name
 *
Email
 *
Website (optional)
Comment
 *

Allowed tags: <a> link, <b> bold, <i> italics

Receive email when someone replies.
 
© 2010 Dave Kurlan - Understanding the Sales Force Terms of Use Privacy Policy