Search Results
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Good News Not a Substitute for Sales Force Competencies
- April 8, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you want to hear something crazy?
I’m a very prolific writer – not to say I’m a good writer, just that I post a lot. And of the dozens and dozens of posts from the last three months, would you like to guess what the LEAST read post was?
It was the one where I wrote about signs that the economy was improving! And one of the MOST read posts was the one where I wrote about the media making the economy worse.
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Exposed – Personality Tests Disguised as Sales Assessments
- January 28, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, I met with a long-time client who, in his previous company, used OMG’s Assessments to identify what needed to change in order to double revenue from $30 million to $60 million. In his new company, which is already about 12x that size, he wants to double revenue again. He said, “I just wasted two years with the _____ Assessment.” The assessment to which he referred was a personality assessment marketed as a sales assessment. It could have referred to any personality or behavioral-styles assessment.
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Who Should Your Sales Force Call On?
- January 27, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s not always obvious. If your company sells oil drilling rigs to oil companies, then your salespeople know who to call on. If your company sell luxury cars to wealthy people, you know where to find your prospects. But what if you sell products or services that could be sold to a much broader range of customers or clients? Who should your salespeople call on then?
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Take Empathy Out of the Sales Hiring and Selection Process
- September 18, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If an applicant is a good candidate for a sales management position, does that make the applicant a good candidate for a sales position?
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Developing Salespeople – a Hidden Finding
- November 14, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When salespeople are thinking about what they need to do rather than just doing it (think golf lessons, tennis lessons, skiing lessons, etc. and how they affect your game), they will be emotionally involved – even when they are supposedly getting better in every other area.
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Curt Schilling’s Contract Has Implications for the Sales Force
- November 8, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you follow baseball you probably heard that Curt Schilling’s new contract for next year includes $2 million for meeting weight incentives. For $2 million even I could be motivated to lose 20 pounds! And therein lies the deeper message.
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Sales and Statistics
- August 22, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If we judged Bob on sales alone we would have to give him failing grades for the 2nd quarter. If we judged him on his effort and his willingness to change and adapt, he gets an A. How do you judge your salespeople? How you do make sure that salespeople aren’t being judged by sales alone?
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The Sales Force Evaluation – Not Everyone Appreciates the Findings
- May 23, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In the May 13 post, More Hirable Sales Candidates, there were some controversial comments posted by a disgruntled sales candidate who didn’t get a job and blamed the assessment. As long as we’re on the subject of disgruntled, perhaps we should discuss the very small minority of clients who actually dislike the findings of the sales force evaluation. It happens very infrequently, only two or three times each year; but when it does, there are usually similar circumstances:
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Developing Weak Salespeople
- April 19, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Some of your salespeople are chronically weak – they just under perform and you don’t quite know where to begin to help them. Perhaps, you don’t even know how to help them so you just tell them to do more, try harder or keep at it. Maybe you give them your best ‘moves’ and hope they take. More often than not, you won’t be able to help but you will develop a closer relationship in the process, making it more difficult to terminate them when you give up.
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Be Still My Pipeline
- May 1, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We evaluated a sales force this week that had pipeline problems. Most companies have pipeline problems; they simply lack the awareness to recognize how serious those problems are. Of even more concern is how long it takes to fix a faulty pipeline.