Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

My regular readers know that when it comes to evaluating the sales force or assessing sales candidates, I have no use for personality assessments.  If you’re a first time or new reader, look no further than here for documentation and proof.  Regulars also know that I sometimes reprint emails received from sales candidates who have been offended by a potential employer’s request to take an assessment.  Many of these uninformed, unprepared, emotional candidates refer to the assessment as a personality test - the assessment it least resembles.  There are personalities in sales, but the various traits do not predict performance and there isn’t a personality trait that translates into sales because the traits are discovered in social contexts, not business or selling contexts.  That said, there are diverse individuals that you will have to manage and they aren’t really personalities as much as they are characteristics.  You might call them one or two word descriptions of people instead of characterizing them as personalities.  Following are 10 Sales Characters and how you can manage them more effectively.

PETE THE PERFECTIONIST - Pete won’t begin anything until he is sure he can do it perfectly.  Symptoms are procrastination, failure to implement your suggestions and ferocious rewriting of his notes (because the first set wasn’t perfect).  Your job, should you decide to accept it, is to provide Pete with permission to fail.  Assign a goal that you both know he can achieve.  Tell him to get some “no’s” and it’s not only OK to bring back some “no’s” but you would prefer it to a “think it over” or a “maybe”.  Read more

NICK THE KNOW IT ALL - Nick is easy to spot because he drives you nuts.  He knows everything, as evidenced by his willingness to say, “I know!”  You can’t tell him anything new and he will always defend the way in which he has always done things.  His lack of flexibility and resistance to change is his downfall.  Your job, and in this case, it’s too much fun to call it a job, is to challenge or dare Nick.  Tell him what needs to be accomplished, but tell him you don’t think he can do it.  Tell him you’ll have to get someone else to do it.  Enough said.

ORSON THE OVER ACHIEVER - Orson is always busy, always striving to break the record, out-earn his latest paycheck, set the new company record for most miles driven in one day, etc.  While you may have the urge to take some of the burden off Orson’s shoulders, he actually functions best when over burdened so leave him completely alone.  He doesn’t need to be managed with a heavy hand.  Just tell him what you expect and he’ll get it done.  It never occurred to him that he could find a way not to do it!  Read More

LOIS THE LOYALIST - Lois is like a puppy dog, always following you around, sucking up to you, learning from you and even idolizing you.  In fact, she’d love to have your job if it meant you would be getting a better one!  The only thing you have to do with Lois is tell her what to say, who to say it to, when to say it, what will happen then and what to do after that.  Make sure she has it down exactly and then have all the confidence in the world that your own personal groupie will get the job done exactly as you would have done yourself.

CONTENT CARL - Carl has sales know how but isn’t using it as aggressively as he once did.  His sales are probably flat and his calls for new business are dropping every year.  He has a good existing customer base and services it well but you still want him to be more than a $100,000+ service man.  Have a very serious, extremely strong meeting with Carl, in which you tell him how terribly unhappy you are with his performance.  Tell him exactly what you expect from him, by when, and what will happen if he doesn’t perform.  Read More

NEED FOR APPROVAL ALICE - More than anything, Alice needs for you to like her.  Her need for approval will cost you both a fortune in lost business in the field but you can play her like a fiddle in the office.  Just tell her you are losing respect for her.  Tell her she isn’t measuring up to the others in the office.  Tell her that she is disappointing you.  She’ll do whatever it takes to get back in your good graces. Read More

UNSTABLE URSULA -  Ursula needs to get her head on straight, might come from a dysfunctional family and is used to being yelled at.  In fact, it’s the only thing to which she seems to respond.  Ask her nicely to do something and she blows it off.  Lose your cool with her and it’s done in a New York minute. 

MIKE THE MAVERICK - Mike plays by his own rules, is difficult to manage, won’t take direction and drives you nuts.  The only reason he still works for you is that he outperforms everyone else on the sales force including you!  Managing Mike is easy.  Tell him you respect his need for independence and his desire to do it his way.  Tell him to stay away from the office as much as he likes, avoiding sales meetings and keeping away from the other salespeople.  You’ll continue to let him write his own rules as long as he continues to out-produce everyone else.  If his production ever drops below a certain level, then he will have to follow the same rules as everyone else.

MISERABLE MARVIN - Marvin complains a lot.  He has more excuses than hooky playing high school renegades.  His performance is always below acceptable levels and despite that, everyone thinks he has potential - except that he’s never approached it.  Marvin is the easiest of the bunch.  Create an exit plan that fires him for non-performance and a lousy attitude. Read More

INSECURE IRENE - Irene only needs her daily dose of confidence medicine from you and that’s enough to keep her going until tomorrow, sometimes the day after.  She’s always making a big deal of the calls she’s going on in order to get your attention so that you can give her the boost of confidence she so desperately craves.  So first thing every morning, give it to her.

Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

I love the fact that companies have video available to make email and Internet communication more personal; to deliver a more compelling visual message; to say with emotion what can’t be said in an email; to introduce themselves or their companies; to tell a story; and yes, to sell in a way that can’t be done with text.

But before you go crazy and decide to include or increase your use of video, let’s talk about the mistakes to avoid.  While the mistakes on my list may be in the domain of marketing, in my opinion they are glaring Sales 101 mistakes.  It seems to me that “stars” of their own videos have forgotten that First Impressions are Everything!  I am horrified by some of the video sales pitches I have seen lately starring “Professionals” (CEO’s, Presidents, Entrepreneurs, VP’s, Sales Managers, and Salespeople:

1. Talking about their unique expertise while in tee shirts instead of suits.  There is a reason that broadcasters, emcees, guests and analysts dress up when on camera - it looks better!
2. Driving their cars, acting cool, believing that recipients will be impressed that they can shoot a high def video, drive on the highway, look in the mirror, and talk, all at the same time.  I’m impressed too, but only with their ability to multi-task, not with their credentials!
3. Sitting in front of a $5 green backdrop that makes it obvious it is an undersized, incorrectly hung, poorly positioned piece of crap.  Might as well take it down and let us see the real crap behind their chairs!
4. Reading from a script.  I know they don’t want to stumble through their message but if they don’t know their stuff by now, why should we watch them read it?
5. Failing to look at the camera.  If they aren’t going to look at us, they might as well just read the message and send us an audio file!
6. Using video because it’s there.  If it can be effectively communicated with text, then communicate it with text!
7. Compressing the video to make it portable.  If the resolution is horrible, it is horrible!
8. Emailing mini-videos. If the finished video is so small that you need a magnifying glass to see it, well, we won’t see it!
9. That are Boring.  Give us a break.  If your message isn’t valuable, interesting or thought-provoking, change your mind and don’t share it!
10. Don’t Speak Well.  If you don’t pronounce your words correctly or have a speech impediment, we won’t hold that against you but for crying out loud, have somebody else deliver your message.  We won’t know the difference.

It should go without saying that your videos should be professionally produced and directed. The do it yourself videos made on the fly are prone to all ten of the mistakes listed above.  Unless you are in the marketing, advertising or videography business, you have no business doing this yourself unless you want to give people reasons not to buy from you.

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Tue, May 18, 2010 @ 08:01 PM

Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

What would you do if one of your sales reps called at 5 PM on a Friday, the last day of the month, on the final day of a bad quarter and said, “Good News - I closed ___________!”(insert any huge company here)

You’d get excited, your heart would beat a little faster, you’d feel relieved because things seem to be turning around, and you’re thinking, “This is good, damn it.”

You ask, “What did you close them for?”

Your salesperson responds, “They bought a ___________.”
(the least expensive thing in the smallest possible quantity)

You know that  it would have been more appropriate for them to buy a _________________.
(the most expensive thing you sell)

You yell, “What?  Are you kidding? How did that happen?  And you’re calling me to brag about it?  Are you crazy?”

The salesperson says, “But we’re in!”

So here are some questions for you; 

Is it better to “be in” with something sold today, or to still be out, and hoping to sell them the appropriate solution tomorrow?

Is it better to say “they’re a customer” now, or is it better to wait and do it the right way later?

Is it better to know you have to sell them one more time, or take a chance that you may never have the chance to sell them what they really need?

Let’s explore the opposite scenario.

Let’s say that you failed to close a company who decided against buying what you were trying to sell them.  Does it make any sense to return to them and offer to sell them what they are willing to buy?

These situations occur on a daily basis in most companies, (at least the companies with enough activity taking place) and everybody has a different preference as to how they should be handled.  What would you do?

Scenario 1 - happy to sell them something or wait to sell them the right solution?

Scenario 2 - return and try to sell what they’re willing to buy or move on?

Here’s another way of looking at it. In scenario 1, you waited to sell them the right solution and they wouldn’t buy it.  So now you have moved to scenario 2…

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Tue, May 18, 2010 @ 04:24

I was listening to Red Sox manager Terry Francona being interviewed on one of Boston’s sports radio stations the other day when I heard him say, “When we get information we try to know what information we are getting.”  Huh?

It turns out that he was referring to the difference between what the statistics tell him and what he sees with his eyes.  The statistics don’t tell the entire story.  A baseball example of that might be the shortstop who leads the league in errors.  If you look at that statistic you might think he was a defensive liability but if you were watching him perform, you might see that he completes all of the routine plays, regularly makes outstanding plays to prevent runs from scoring, and most of the errors were harmless throwing errors that didn’t cost the team runs or games.

Which salesperson would you rather manage?  The salesperson with $1 million in annual sales or the salesperson with $650K in annual sales?  You think I’m going to choose the $650K person, right? Well it depends.  If you simply look at the data, you would choose the $1 million salesperson.  If you also watched them, you might still choose the $1M salesperson.  But let’s look a little more closely at the make-up of their business.

Our million dollar man has just two accounts but they are big ones; one is worth $650K annually and the other $350K annually.  He wins roughly 2 deals a week from those two accounts and he’s always happy, smiling and confident.  The company and the salesperson were both very eager to have these two accounts and offered sizable discounts in order to land them.  The margin on all of this business stands at only 10% and it’s a senior salesperson, earning 30% (of margin) commissions.  So we have a salesperson investing 100% of his time managing just two large accounts that contribute only $70K annually to overhead after commissions. Yikes!

Our $650K salesperson has only been with the company for three years and has 65 small accounts at a 30% margin.  His commissions are 20% (of margin) and he brings in about one small order each week from one of his small accounts.  If you were watching, you wouldn’t think his accomplishments were nearly as impressive as the first salesperson’s.  But this salesperson is contributing around $175K to overhead, more than double that of our million dollar man.  

The differences go beyond the contribution to overhead though.  If salesperson #2 loses an account, there is almost no change to the business.  If salesperson #1 loses an account, it has a major impact on revenue, capacity and cash flow.  Additionally, it is much less difficult to replace a small account than one of those large accounts.

If salesperson #1 were somehow able to leverage those two large accounts and capture business from two more accounts like that, at 20% margin instead of 10%, that might make his contributions more valuable, but only if the average order from the four large accounts doubled or tripled in size.  Otherwise, he wouldn’t have the time to effectively manage twice the workload and the company might have to hire additional workers to handle the volume.

So things are not always quite as they appear.

Do you have salespeople that aren’t profitable, don’t contribute enough to overhead, won’t change what they’re doing and simply aren’t benefiting the company?

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Mon, May 03, 2010 @ 04:54 AM

There was a tremendous amount of hype surrounding the Red Sox-Yankees opening day game. Two ace pitchers were to take the mound when Josh Beckett, pitching for the Sox, would face CC Sabathia, hurling for the Yankees. Two of the best pitchers going head to head against two of the best offenses in baseball. What a pitching duel this could be!

Well the opportunity to watch a pitching duel never materialized as both teams hit better than they pitched. The game itself was fun, but the pitching matchup failed to meet expectations.

Yesterday must have been an incredibly slow news day. The 11 PM News had a brush fire in Boston (a brush fire?), Josh Beckett’s contract extension, Tiger Woods’ first day back to the PGA, The President throwing out the first ball at the Washington Nationals’ Opening Day Game, and two women who, while walking in their neighborhood, were struck by pellets fired by bicycle riding teenagers. I kid you not. For the Beckett, Woods and Obama stories to be included as part of the news instead of the sports shows just how slow a news day it was. Yesterday’s news really failed to meet expectations.

Yesterday, one of your salespeople learned that their opportunity with that nice large account is not going to develop. While they were simply out kicking tires, your salesperson got excited about the potential. In the end, the prospect decided to stay with their incumbent vendor. This opportunity failed to meet expectations.

What’s the difference between a baseball game or the news failing to meet expectations versus one of your salespeople’s opportunities failing to meet expectations? (Rick was writing about the same thing this morning!)

The game and the news are quickly forgotten and don’t impact your life unless you bet on the outcome of the game or happen to be the leading story on the news. When your salespeople focus too much of their time and resources on a large opportunity and it doesn’t materialize, you can lose 6-12 months of productivity from them. Not only that, your forecasts fall short, your budget goes to hell, and you could have a frustrated, demotivated salesperson on your hands. The worst part is if you have a long sales cycle, say 8-12 months, and the salesperson devoted most of his time and energy to this opportunity for 8-12 months, it will take an additional 8-12 months before the pipeline will produce new, meaningful revenue.

Has this ever happened to you?

Dave Kurlan

To achieve Fast Biz Growth two things are required. A well defined plan and the other is a great sales team. Out of all the blogs and experts I follow there are two that I put at the top of my list. Verne Harnish, Author of “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” and Dave Kurlan author of “Baseline Selling” and the leading sales force development expert. Below is a recent blog from Dave Kurlan on optimism.

Mike Brenhaug
__________________________

I’m reading Sarah Miller Caldicott’s book, Innovate Like Edison.

There are some noteworthy quotes which, although written in the context of innovation, apply equally, if not even more to selling and sales management.

“Psychologist Karen Horney (1885-1952) undertook groundbreaking work on optimism early in the twentieth century. She discovered that most people actually succeed when they decide, with full commitment, to accomplish something. Most of what people label as ‘failure’ according to her research, is a function of their doubts acting as traitors, causing them to withhold full commitment and give up too soon.”

Ain’t that the truth! I couldn’t have said that better…here’s another.

“As Edison phrased it, ‘Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged.’ He adds, ‘Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.’”

Ditto for that quote. One more…

“Dr. Martin Seligman, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, and author of Learned Optimism, has researched optimism for more than thirty years. His work offers further confirmation of the validity of Edison’s approach. According to Seligman, optimists get better results than pessimists in most areas of life. His research shows that optimists perform better at school, in relationships, on the athletic field, and at work….And optimists make significantly more money. All this is true despite the fact that pessimists are more skilled, according to Sligman, in their ability to analyze current problems accurately. For the pessimist, the optimist is someone who simply doesn’t yet see the facts as they are. But despite the tendency to view the world through rose-colored glasses, numerous long-term studies confirm that better results emerge when we err on the side of optimism.”

I’m not an optimist or a pessimist. I tend to be a be a realist. Relating the aforementioned quotes to selling, I believe that optimists find it difficult to challenge people. I can easily slide over to the pessimistic side when necessary, like when it’s time to debrief a salesperson on a recent call. It’s difficult to punch holes or question a salesperson’s account of a call if you are an optimist. Optimists often become overexcited and set unrealistic expectations about the likely outcome of an opportunity. I believe you must be able to slide back and forth between optimism and pessimism. Get yourself motivated and excited, be realistic about what’s happening, and challenge people when what you hear doesn’t sound right. What are your thoughts?

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 @ 04:50 AM