Search Results
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Data Shows That Your Sales Team is No Different Than Your Lawn
- November 20, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
But why do sales teams continue to fail, year after year, regardless of industry, and in every economy? Why don’t the numbers improve? Why don’t more salespeople jump from C’s to B’s? From B’s to A’s? From D’s to C’s? The answers – and there are plenty – are evasive. But let’s try!
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New Data – Most Sales Managers are a Disaster When it Comes to Coaching
- November 16, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
My article about Crappy Sales Managers discussed the low recommendation rates for sales management candidates, why they are so low, and the bigger repercussions of the problem. Speaking of deeper dives, today’s article takes a deeper dive into one of the problems identified in the prior article; crappy sales coaching skills.
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New Data Shows an Overlooked Finding Correlates to Sales Effectiveness
- October 15, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Compatibility is not only important, it could be one of the most overlooked criteria in hiring sales candidates. Let’s do a deep dive!
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Data Shows Sales Commitment and Motivation Changed During Quarantine
- July 22, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Steve Taback and I started our respective sales training firms at the same time back in 1985. We became great friends and he became the second licensee of Objective Management Group (OMG) in 1990. He emailed me asking if I had seen a change in any of the scores of the 21 Sales Core Competencies since the Pandemic had hit. Specifically, he was wondering if there was an increase in the number of salespeople who lacked Commitment or whose Outlook wasn’t good.
OMG! (the other version of OMG this time) Was he asking me to do some research on sales assessment statistics? God, I love that!
Damn that Steve is good. Turns out he was right. Below I’ll share the changes in Commitment, Outlook and Motivation, all of which fluctuated during the past several months.
Take a look at these three screen shots which tell one part of the story.
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New Data Reveals Interesting Differences in Salespeople’s Ability to Work From Home
- June 25, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
John Pattison, COO of Objective Management Group (OMG), dug into OMG’s remote seller data, and learned that similar to the weather, things aren’t always what they appear to be. The table below shows how this data changes according to sales experience.
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New Data Reveals a Finding That Correlates to Sales Success
- January 29, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We had a request for some data from one of our longtime partners. My knee-jerk reaction to her request was that it would be a big nothing burger. She asked for data that would show the difference between salespeople who are goal oriented and those who are not. I did not expect much of a difference except in the area of Motivation but I was wrong. Very wrong! Check out some of the profound differences this data mining uncovered!
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New Data Reveals a Magical New Score for Sales Effectiveness
- October 31, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you drive at the speed limit, the fastest speed you can get away with, the slowest speed you can get away with, or are you an 85th percentile driver? The 85th percentile driver travels at the speed that 85% of the cars on that road are traveling, regardless of the posted speed limit. Motorists.org has data, illustrated below, proving that the 85th percentile speed is the ideal speed for safe travel.
Thanks to a new finding soon to be included in Objective Management Group’s (OMG) evaluations and assessments, the sales equivalent of this data shows a correlation between spoken words per minute and sales effectiveness, identifying the safest speed or pace to deliver sales messaging.
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New Data Shows That Top Salespeople are 2800% Better at Disrupting the Flow
- September 18, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Fish, rafts, kayaks, canoes, sailboats and swimmers all find much more success when they are moving with the wind or the current rather than going against it.
Unfortunately, the same isn’t necessarily true in sales.
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Great News! The Latest Data Shows That Salespeople are Improving
- January 23, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Some really terrific news came across my desk this week when John Pattison, Objective Management Group’s (OMG’s) COO, showed me two graphs he had created. For the first time in recent memory, salespeople as a profession GOT BETTER!
That’s right, when we compared the results of the 85,000 or so salespeople that were evaluated in 2018 to the 80,000 or so salespeople that were evaluated in 2017, there was a measurable improvement in overall scores!
Let’s review the two graphs below.
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Data Shows That Only 14% are Qualified for the Easiest Selling Roles
- November 15, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Lays Potato Chips. Movie Theater Popcorn. Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. BBQ Ribs. Fudge Brownies. Rolos (a personal favorite from years ago). All junk food which, after having the first one, you just can’t stop there. You must have more. Lays even had that as a slogan back in the late 60’s – “Bet you can’t eat just one.” Back then I couldn’t stop at one.
Last week I wrote an article that said companies are hiring the wrong salespeople 77% of the time. It was very popular and there was a great discussion on LinkedIn but similar to the junk food, you couldn’t read that one article and move to another subject. You need to have some more.
That article was filled with data to illustrate the differences between good salespeople versus those who actually get hired most of the time. It was ugly and there were questions about the 77% like, “Where does that come from?”
Some of the supporting data came from the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study. Some of it came from Objective Management Group’s evaluations and assessments of 1.8 million salespeople. And I’m going to show you some data that most people never get to see. Take a look at these wild numbers!