Sales DNA
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New Data Shows Sales Weaknesses Cause Powerful Chain Reactions in Salespeople
- May 30, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I have written extensively about Sales DNA over the years and today we will view Sales DNA from the perspective of sitting inside of a chemistry lab.
Sales DNA is the combination of strengths (or weaknesses) that support (or sabotage) the execution of sales process, sales strategy and sales tactics. Objective Management Group (OMG) measures and includes the 6 most powerful of those strands of Sales DNA in its 21 Sales Core Competencies. While I usually discuss the impact of these weaknesses, we have never conducted a lab experiment like this before!
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More Fake News in Sales Organizations Than on TV Networks!
- December 13, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Most of your salespeople are just like fake news and I will prove it. I’m not talking about the elite top 5% or the next group of 15% who are very strong. I am referring to the bottom 46% of the sales population who, if I am to be completely honest, totally suck. If yours is like most companies, then half of its salespeople fit this description.
I’m going to show you exactly how your salespeople report fake news but first, we need to break down how fake news happens so that I can demonstrate how your weak salespeople do the exact same thing, every chance they can get.
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Is Excuse Making Actually the Biggest Obstacle to Increasing Sales?
- December 14, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve talked a lot about excuse making and the powerful difference between using your index finger, which points outward, versus your thumb, which points inward. Today, Brandon Steiner wrote a great little article about taking responsibility.
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Holiday Sales Treat – A Mashup of Two Classic Songs
- December 6, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This past weekend I read that the lyrics to the popular Christmas song, “Baby it’s Cold Outside” were rewritten to emphasize consent. And the weekend before I saw the news that Brady Bunch Mom, Florence Henderson, had passed away. That immediately caused the Brady Bunch theme song to come to mind but my brain tends to combine things. In 2005, when I combined sales and baseball, it became Baseline Selling, which when I looked as I was writing this, was still ranked #9 in the sales category on Amazon.com. So my brain went and combined the Brady Bunch Theme song with a lyric change and came up with this diddy on OMG.
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What is the Single Biggest Differentiator Between Top and Bottom Salespeople?
- October 3, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There is one Blog that I never fail to read, and that’s Seth Godin’s Blog. Seth doesn’t write about sales – he pens a thought leadership Blog – but sometimes his articles are very applicable to sales and selling. Recently, he posted two very short articles – each is less than 30 seconds to read and I believe they are both well worth your time.
The first is Fully Baked. The second, on a related topic, is Skills vs. Talents.
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Sales 102 – The Pitch Deck, the Price Reduction and the Data
- September 29, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Recently I met with a CEO whose salespeople were not closing enough business. We had just evaluated their sales force and I had the answers as to why their sales were so underwhelming. Before we could explain what was causing their problem, the CEO said something along the lines of, “We are going to create a new pitch deck and reduce our prices. That will solve the problem!”
They weren’t suggesting a small price change either. It sounded like an 80% reduction and their reasoning overlapped with one of the contributing issues that we identified. Their salespeople weren’t reaching decision makers which raises more questions. Why weren’t they reaching decision makers and could anything be done about it? Would lowering their prices solve the problem or did the issue go deeper than that?
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How March Madness Applies to Salespeople and Your Sales Force
- March 18, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You have a choice – be part of the elite 7%; be part of the strong 16% or be part of the crappy 77%.
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The Importance of Resiliency in Sales and Selling
- April 22, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We saw Paul Blart – Mall Cop 2 and laughed a grand total of twice. It was inept comedy, a horrible sequel and a terrible movie. Despite that, it was a great example of resiliency as Blart is continually rejected, stopped, ridiculed and put-off, only to ignore those events, bear down and try even harder to accomplish his goals. From that perspective, the movie, and Kevin James, succeed at demonstrating what it is like to be a salesperson.
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Does Efficiency or DNA Help to Increase Sales?
- July 24, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The Salesforce Blog published a new article of mine today – Read How to Create Perfect Sales Conditions. It’s really an article about how to use tools and efficiency to increase your focus and sales. Speaking of efficiency, Kyle Dougherty, from Prialto, sent me this very cool video today. Talk about a tool that helps you to be efficient!
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Science and the Length of Your Sales Cycle
- October 9, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A really important factor is exactly what salespeople actually believe – what they think – relative to the sales cycle. Read some of the beliefs that this sales force had around the sales cycle:
Those two factors alone are enough to double the length of a sales cycle! There are still 9 more factors that have an impact; however, just from what we’ve discussed and reviewed so far, it’s obvious that this company’s sales cycle is M-U-C-H longer than it needs to be.