Dave Kurlan

  • What Are Reasonable Sales Management Expectations?

    • March 12, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I am often asked which of the various services we provide to companies can be done in-house, by the executive team.  Fair question.  Answer: All of them.

    So why would companies use us or others with our expertise?  Answer: Because when they try to do it in-house they aren’t able to get most of it right:

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  • Sales Leadership – a Balancing Act to Achieve Compliance and Quotas

    • March 11, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We covered many areas of Sales Leadership that fall under the direction of someone in Phil’s role including cultural issues, competition among sales managers, and getting an entire sales force to change.  I chose to discuss the balance sales leaders must have between sharing, mandating and asking.  Sounds simple.

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  • Sales Coaching – Are Sales Managers Any Good at This Function?

    • March 10, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve written extensively about sales coaching before. Yesterday, a fairly typical day, I coached 4 different sales experts and 2 clients on how to more effectively coach salespeople and sales managers.  I have noticed that most sales managers believe that they’re fairly good at coaching when, in reality, most of them are very ineffective at it.  Why?

    First, let’s look at what’s required for effective coaching. Some of it is tangible and measurable while some isn’t. Effective Sales Coaching requires:

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  • Top 10 Rules for Getting Salespeople to Follow Your Sales Process

    • March 8, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A lady approached the priest after the service and felt terrible because she had been leaving early to tend to her sick husband.  The priest said that this didn’t apply to her; she was already making a sacrifice by attending, and should care for her husband.  She paused and finally said, “But he passed away three years ago!”

    This story got me wondering about the widespread misuse of the sales process. 

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  • The Top 5 Factors to Predict Sales Turnover

    • March 5, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Here are the Top Five Factors to Predict Sales Turnover / Longevity

    The most important factor in predicting sales longevity is

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  • Salesperson ROI – How Long Must They Stick to Pay Off? – Part 1

    • March 4, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Is there a connection between sales success and tenure?  Is it really a given that a successful salesperson will stick around longer than an unsuccessful salesperson?

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  • Great Sales Opportunities That Don’t Close

    • March 2, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If getting opportunities into the pipeline is the most universal sales challenge, then getting opportunities closed comes in a close second. I’m talking about prospects who aren’t ready to say, “yes” but are still “very interested”.  These calls pose problems for salespeople for several reasons:

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  • How to Get Salespeople to Stop Resisting Change

    • March 1, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Some Professional Sales Development Experts are adept at overcoming resistance.  But sales managers not so much.  Salespeople may resist:

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  • The Science of Selling – Rules versus Data

    • February 25, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The true science in selling is the research and data that explain performance.  In Baseball, a good or bad year, by a team or player, is not explained so much by whether the rules were followed – they probably were – but by the statistics that explain why a good or bad year occurred. We have the same thing in sales and Objective Management Group may have the mother load of that data. 

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  • Now How Can You Motivate Your Salespeople?

    • February 24, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    While reviewing the recent sales assessment data compared with the same data from before the recession, two changes jump out at me.

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