Search Results
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Are Sales Cycles Really Getting Shorter?
- December 11, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I read an article that claimed that winning sales cycles are getting shorter.
While I agree with everything else in the article, I questioned the 23% shorter because our substantial data does not support this claim. So where could the discrepancy be?
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Ultimate Comparison of Top Salespeople versus Salespeople That Fail
- December 8, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you’ve been following this Blog you know I sometimes refer to the elite 5% of salespeople, the next 20% and the bottom 74%. After reading Super Freakonomics I was moved to take a new look at our data on the more than 400,000 salespeople we have assessed. Behavioral scientists would look at our data on the top 5% and report on some common findings. It might look like this:
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Why is Selling So Difficult – Let Me Count the Ways
- April 20, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Wouldn’t it be nice if selling was as easy as most salespeople treat it? You would just come right out and say what you’re selling, tell prospects why it’s important, explain the features and benefits, tell them what it costs, and make the sale. After all, that’s how we did it in the 60’s and 70’s. It’s so easy. It’s so logical, it’s so ineffective. Why is selling so difficult? I have a number of answers….
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Sales Force Motivation – Learn From the Red Sox Miraculous Comeback
- October 17, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When salespeople have plenty of opportunities and have experienced plenty of difficult sales cycles, it’s not such a big deal when an important opportunity dies. But if it’s a salesperson that has very few quality opportunities or one who hasn’t experienced very many deals that went sour, they react – badly – by getting quite emotional, discouraged, and upset.
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Sales – What the Data Tells Us – The Series
- August 14, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This article series is called Sales – What the Data Tells Us. While some of the articles simply report the research and/or data, others share either my insights about the data or provide data to support my insights. Here are the articles:
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Top 10 Steps to Recruit Strong Salespeople
- February 18, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you’re tired of hiring salespeople who take too long to achieve mediocrity and more often fail to achieve anything noteworthy, some best practices may be in order.
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Can Sales Assessments Actually Predict On the Job Success?
- December 8, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Stathead was hell-bent on learning about the technical nature of how the assessment works, how it was created, how it was validated and its impact on protected minorities. While this is important, it can be very misleading. As you will read below, a test can meet all of those criteria and not help with selection at all!
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10 Reasons for HR and Sales Management to Hire Winning Salespeople Using Assessments
- December 15, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are two variables that have a huge impact on your success using an assessment in the hiring process. The first is which assessment you use. The second is where in the process you use it.