Search Results

  • 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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  • 8 Question Sales Quiz – Malpractice?

    • February 19, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One of the many sales newsletters I get each day had a ridiculous sales test.  It asked “Is a Sales Career Right for You?” and had an 8 question test.

    First, there aren’t 8 questions in the world where the answers would allow us to make that determination.  Even if we tried, we couldn’t identify even 15 of our 100+ questions that would allow us to answer that question accurately! But I was curious and clicked on through.  8 Questions and if you get 3 strikes or wrong answers, you’re out and shouldn’t be in sales. This free test shouldn’t even be available for entertainment purposes!

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  • Sales Success Secrets From Beyond the Grave

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

    Warning. I have included some very controversial material in this article so I’ll start with the easy stuff and finish with the material you may not want to read. I have some insights from three totally unrelated books as well as an unrelated article that I had a chance to read last week. I found common themes that relate directly to sales and sales management success. 

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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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  • Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions – What’s Missing?

    • December 9, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was asked a really good question yesterday.  Why wasn’t the Sales Force Evaluation or the Sales Candidate Assessments part of my series on the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions?

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  • Recruiting – 4th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

    • November 16, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You must use an assessment – not just any assessment, but a world class, sales specific, predictive, customized assessment that will consistently identify people that will be top performers for you, in your business, calling into your market, with your pricing model and competition.

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  • Top 10 Sales Management Functions

    • November 10, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you have been reading my blog for any duration over the last 13 years, the list should not be much of a surprise. 

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  • Stupid Choices in the Selection of Sales Assessments

    • October 30, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We had a conversation with someone who was using the CPQ Assessment.  The person who was providing it to them claims it is a sales assessment but it’s a personality test marketed as a sales assessment. If you’re not familiar with my series on this then click here. They were also told that it was predictive, especially with insurance salespeople, and that they could use the same criteria for selecting their salespeople (selling a business consulting package to CEO’s) as is used for hiring life insurance salespeople.

    Yeah, right.

    Let’s compare the life insurance (LI) sale and this business consulting package sale (BCP):

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  • The Numbers – 8th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies That Are Key to Building a Sales Culture

    • October 23, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is the 8th in the series of articles based on the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies that are Key to Building a Sales Culture.

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  • Happy Ears – 2nd of the 10 Sales Competencies That Are Key to Building a Sales Culture

    • October 9, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This article focuses our attention on the 2nd of the  10 Sales Competencies That are Key to Building a Sales Culture.

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