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Dave Kurlan on Understanding the Sales Force

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A Forgotten Secret of Sales Success

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Brad Ferguson, my guest on this week's edition of Meet the Sales Experts, shared a story about a bank he worked with.  Using Objective Management Group's Sales Force Evaluation, he identified 8 bankers that weren't right for the business development roles they were in.  After both the voluntary and involuntary turnover of 7 of them, the bank increased new business revenue by 30% from the 5 remaining bankers.  What did Brad have them do?  It was relatively simple, really.  He had them identify and focus on specific behaviors they could measure, required them to perform specific levels of those behaviors, and held them accountable.  Listen to the show to hear more.

Brad learned early in his career that left to his own devices, he would find ways to avoid picking up the phone and making calls.  Like so many salespeople, he suffered from call reluctance, fear of rejection, fear of failure, and more.  Over time, he learned to trick himself, play games and, most importantly use purpose, motivation and fear to assure that he was consistently filling his pipeline.  Listen to the show to hear more about this compelling topic.

Brad's early willingness to help prospects that weren't yet customers once earned him a vendor of the year award - before he was their vendor!  His take away?  Just show up!  Get out there and do whatever you have to do and don't just sit around waiting for good things to happen.

Click here to listen to the show.  Click here to contact Brad.

(c) Copyright 2009 Dave Kurlan

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Thu, Oct 01, 2009 @ 03:47 AM

COMMENTS

Dave, 
 
This is one of the most interesting and valuable interviews I've listened to in a long time. (I'll listen to even more of yours now!) 
 
For anyone who hasn't listened, I highly recommend. And Brad provides examples of very powerful questions that (i) he asks and that (ii) those of us in other industries can ask...starting at roughly 38 minutes into the interview.  
 
Also, nice job of interviewing him, Dave. You let him give his message instead of trying to "show off" about how much you know. I've never seen you "show off," but it's a mistake that many would-be interviewers make.

posted on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 at 7:51 PM by Phil


Thanks Phil. As I say in tonight's post, it's not about me.

posted on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 at 10:00 PM by Dave Kurlan


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