Search Results

  • New Penn State Coach – Just Like Dysfunctional Sales Management

    • January 6, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Bill O’Brien. One coach – two full time jobs.  Both teams need his immediate, undivided attention and won’t get all that they need.  Given the dual roles, how do you feel about the Patriots’ chances of another Super Bowl?  Given this conflict of interest, how do you feel about Penn State’s ability to have a quality recruiting season?

    This happens quite frequently in my world – the sales force.

    In most small businesses, the President or owner is responsible for running the company and by default, manages the sales force too.  The problem?  Unskilled sales management is being provided on demand and that is always quite ineffective.

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  • Sales Pipeline – Reality vs. What Your Salespeople Know and Think

    • November 28, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What your salespeople think or believe – not a data point.  

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  • Sales Traction – The Key to Measuring the #1 Sales Competency

    • November 16, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One of the KPI’s I introduced in my Moneyball article two months ago was Traction, the ratio of suspects that become prospects. Using the Baseline Selling process, that is also the ratio of opportunities that move from 1st base to 2nd base. Translating that one more time, it is the number of 1st meetings that move to “we have a real opportunity here”.

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  • Top 7 Things That Consultative Sellers Do

    • November 14, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A small group of experts, especially those that lack this competency themselves, believe that using this competency for selling is manipulative and counters being customer-centric.  They are as entitled to their opinion as I am to mine.  But remember, you simply can’t argue with science, data and results.

    So which competency am I referring to?

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  • Top 10 Ways to Increase Sales

    • October 3, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ll bet that every CEO, President, Director, VP of Sales and Sales Manager asks the “how can we increase sales?” question on a regular basis.  Do you?

    There are as many answers to this question as there are politicians running for US President in 2012.  They include but aren’t limited to:

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  • Does Your Sales Force Have Asthma?

    • September 23, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Both of my parents had Asthma so wouldn’t you think that when I described the sensations to them – my inability to breathe, the burning sensation, and huge fear, they would have recognized the symptoms? They didn’t want me to have Asthma, they didnt’ think I could have Asthma, they didn’t connect the dots to conclude it was Asthma and they didn’t send me to a doctor.  They were in denial.

    The same thing happens with your sales force.  

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  • Red Sox and the Sales Force – Winning and Losing is Contagious

    • September 21, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Of course you can coach, train and develop SOME of the wannabes, but only if they are Committed, Motivated wannabes, that you can hold accountable.

    Either way, winning is contagious  and you must do everything in your power to create a winning environment where success is expected and anything less is not acceptable.

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  • Top 11 Reasons Why Salespeople Fail to Close Sales

    • September 19, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The reason I’m bringing this up is that in most companies, when certain stages of the sales process are not being exectued as they should, executives often don’t know why.  That’s one of the many reasons why we evaluate Sales Forces – to identify root causes of the known (and unknown) problems.  

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  • What’s the Difference Between Sales Commitment and Motivation?

    • September 8, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    “Which is more important in sales – commitment or motivation?”

    Let’s discuss the difference first.

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