Search Results
-
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:
-
Improve Sales Performance with More Effective Pipeline Management
- November 10, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Related to pipeline, I hate inappropriate blog commenting. That’s when people seek out a blog only to use it as an excuse to write about what they’re promoting on their site. It’s the other form of SPAM. The way it manifests itself on this blog is when someone targets one of my posts on closing or pipeline management and then adds their comment about how you can solve this problem by using lead analytics software or search engine optimization. I’m all for tools of this type and I love Hubspot’s lead analytics and SEO but let’s be real. SEO and on line analytics help to generate leads; they have as much to do with closing effectiveness as Michael Jordan has credentials for baseball’s Hall of Fame! Over achievers, using their sales competencies, create improved sales performance.
-
Who Are Better Salespeople – Men or Women?
- October 23, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Tom Peters said women are better salespeople than men.
I wrote that Objective Management Group’s data proves that a greater percentage of women are stronger than men.
Here is how that data breaks down:
-
The Sales Assessment as Crystal Ball
- October 16, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Not all sales assessments are created equal.
That’s an understatement.
Yet it’s when a client pushes back – not when they look at the recommendation or prediction and accept it – that we get an opportunity to bring our sales assessment to life.
-
10 Types of Sales Advisers and How to Choose the One That’s Best For You
- October 9, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ll bet you know plenty about agreements, contracts, and legal compliance in your industry. You probably know enough about accounting, taxes and audits to get by too. And I bet you know your way around insurance, investments and real estate.
Despite all of that knowledge, I’m certain you have a great corporate attorney, corporate accountant, insurance advisers for commercial, benefits and personal lines, and a Realtor. Some of these people may even sit on your board.
Do you have a sales expert on your board? On retainer? Working with your sales team? Your sales management team? On your sales infrastructure? On compensation and incentives?
-
Sales Pipeline Can Provide Sight for Blind Executives
- October 1, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In a struggling economy, executives of sales driven companies are able to see weaknesses and shortcomings on their sales forces that they were previously either blind to or chose to ignore when the orders were coming in.
Now that these executives have sight, the question to be answered is can they invest the money to improve their revenue making machine or, is it too late because there isn’t any money left and what they see is what they get.
-
Sales Statistics That Reveal Sales Effectiveness
- September 26, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Jeff Angus, author of the Management by Baseball Blog, wrote this lengthy article in response to my Pitch Count post from last week. While Part I of his manifesto explores pitch count as it relates to injury and effectiveness, he brings up another important point. He talks about the best pitchers not learning how to win by not being expected or conditioned to finish the games they start.
-
The Sales Management Equivalent to Baseball’s Pitch Count
- September 19, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One friend suggested I find a way to correlate pitch count to sales.
No problem.
-
Your Sales Force – Who is Playing on Your Team?
- September 11, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
What happens to your salespeople when a big deal or account they were hoping to close, counting on to close,doesn’t? What happens to them psychologically, emotionally and even physically?
-
Sales – What the Data Tells Us – The Series
- August 14, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This article series is called Sales – What the Data Tells Us. While some of the articles simply report the research and/or data, others share either my insights about the data or provide data to support my insights. Here are the articles: