Search Results
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A Forgotten Secret of Sales Success
- October 1, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Brad Ferguson, my guest on this week’s edition of Meet the Sales Experts, shared a story about a bank he worked with. Using Objective Management Group’s Sales Force Evaluation, he identified 8 bankers that weren’t right for the business development roles they were in. After both the voluntary and involuntary turnover of 7 of them, the bank increased new business revenue by 30% from the 5 remaining bankers. What did Brad have them do? It was relatively simple, really. He had them identify and focus on specific behaviors they could measure, required them to perform specific levels of those behaviors, and held them accountable. Listen to the show to hear more.
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How to Get the Entire Sales Force to Change – Now
- July 27, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Now lets discuss your company and the sales organization. What have you been afraid to change?
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2 Things Race Car Driving Has in Common with Selling
- July 16, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Karl Scheible was my guest on this week’s edition of Meet the Sales Experts and Karl is not only a sales development expert, but he is also a professional race car driver! How many people do you suppose there are that can take claim to both of those professions?
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5 Ways to Motivate Your Salespeople
- July 14, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I was coaching a senior leader today and the conversation turned to motivation, specifically, how to be a better motivator.
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Top 6 Reasons Why Most Sales Training Doesn’t Work
- June 25, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you invest in sales training, especially now, you also need it to work now, not in 12 months. Why does it take so long for most sales training to make a difference and why does most sales training fail to make the difference you expect? There are a lot of possible reasons and I’ll attempt to explain them here.
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Cultural Differences with a Sales Force Evaluation
- April 21, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I was in New Orleans speaking at the Gazelles Coaches Summit, a prelude to the Fortune Magazine Sales Summit. I was asked a question about cultural differences with the Sales Force Evaluation: Is the lack of Money Motivation on an entire sales force in Ireland a cultural difference? My questioner went on to say that the good people of Ireland, when asked if they would like a cup of tea, need to be asked three times before they’ll say yes – even though they really want that cup of tea.
The Money Motivation issue has only three possible outcomes:
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Top 14 Requirements to Perform a Sales Force Makeover
- April 16, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For kicks, let’s take a look at this week’s Baseline Selling mail bag.
One reader emailed that he just inherited a radio station in Honduras, has never sold before, and he and his salespeople aren’t able to book appointments.
Another reader is the Sales Director for several well-known magazines and said that her top producing team is down 50% from last year.
Yet another reader wrote and wanted to know how to chop her 2-3 year sales cycle down to 2-3 months.
And one President fired all of his salespeople, is back on the road selling and wonders what he can do to thrive.
What do all four of these scenarios have in common?
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Personality Assessments – They Still Don’t Get it
- February 18, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The following email was recently forwarded to me. As you read it, look at the descriptors which the client references in the personality assessments. They’re not sales descriptors, so in essence, we have another example of an assessment which claims to be measuring one thing, but actually is measuring another:
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Experts Provide Sales Management Help for 2009
- January 15, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Here are my thoughts of the day: This economic climate isn’t impossible, it’s just not easy.
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10 Steps for your Sales Force to Survive and Thrive in The Recession
- January 5, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Bernie is the President of a company that had experienced flat sales for the three strong economic years leading up to the recession. He had been looking for a VP of sales for two years but hadn’t found the right candidate or failed to pull the trigger.
He attended an event where he heard me speak and asked me to contact him. He asked for my advice and I recommended that if he was serious about finding the ideal VP, then he should: