Are Your Sales People Jerks or Just Different From You?

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

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

jerks

Last week I conducted a 3-day Sales Leadership Intensive for a very small group. Working with a small group has advantages because everyone receives more individual attention, we can go at their pace, and spend as much time as we need to on their issues. Working with a small group also has disadvantages because their diverse learning styles tend to stand-out and can be a distraction.

For example, in last week's group, I had:

Mr. Anticipation - "Oh yeah, this is exactly what I need. This is gonna be great!"
Mr. Impatience - "Oh no, I couldn't possibly spend that much time on coaching."
Mr. Wait for It - "That's a good point . I always try to do that!"
Mr. Thoughtful - "Could you please clarify that for me?"

The point here is that these are not good or bad reactions; they are just different. And when you are working with your salespeople, they will not all learn things in the same way. You need to quickly understand how they are different and be flexible enough so that they will still receive value from your coaching and managing.

For example, Mr. Wait for It got value from the points that reinforced what he already does. That allows him to do those things more frequently, with more detail, nuance, and conviction, leading to better results.

Knowing that Mr. Impatience will tend to move from point A to point Z without covering the baby steps in between, we can make sure he understands why it's so important to go more slowly or devote more time.

People are different. Your salespeople are different. Their prospects are different. The more we understand their differences and learn to work with those differences, the more effective we can become.

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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

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Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
Click here to visit Dave's website.

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