Search Results

  • 10 Prospect Rules That Salespeople Must Learn to Break

    • January 24, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Like I said, this is not a COVID article because if it was, I could write a book about the data, science, policies and hypocrisies.  However, there is a sales equivalent to the stupid restaurant masking requirement and that is what we will discuss in today’s article.

    Have you or your salespeople ever been told by a prospect that they can’t:

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  • The Bob Chronicles Part 5 – Bob Can’t Win This Argument Over a Sales Core Competency

    • June 22, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    OMG has assessed more than 2 million salespeople and measures their sales capabilities in 21 Sales Core Competencies.  While some might not like their scores, most salespeople agree with our findings because they are extremely accurate.  However, there is one competency of the 21 that causes salespeople to dig in, disagree, and push back.  Today I will explain the competency and share yesterday’s conversation with Bob.  For new readers, and those who don’t remember, Bob tends to get himself into trouble and is representative of all weak salespeople.

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  • Crappy Salespeople and Lack of Urgency Alignment  – The Bob Chronicles Part 4

    • April 27, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is the fourth installment in the Bob Chronicles.  Bob is the weak salesperson who represents the bottom 50% of all salespeople. You can read previous installments about Bob below:

    The $225,000 Mistake That Most Salespeople Make

    Data – The Top Salespeople are 631% More Effective at This Than Weak Salespeople 

    Good Bob, Bad Bob, The Stockdale Paradox and Sales Success

    You’re probably wondering, what did Bob screw up this time?  He screwed up urgency.  You might be asking how a salesperson could possibly screw up urgency but Bob and the rest of the weak salespeople screw up just about everything else so why not urgency too?

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  • 31 Conditions That Predict Your Sales Opportunity is in Trouble

    • April 16, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last week, a crazy driver pulled out right in front of me and despite the fact that I anticipated his stupidity and would have been able to stop before smashing into this moron, my car wasn’t as certain as I was.  My Genesis took matters into its own hands and went into all out protection mode – making sure nothing happened to it or me.

    As advertised, it took over the braking and steering to protect itself, sounded all the alarms to alert me to its strategy and then did two things that really surprised me.  All at once, the seat enveloped me in a cocoon and the seat belt tightened around my shoulders so that there was no chance that I was leaving that seat.  Going through the windshield?  Not a chance unless the whole seat was coming with me!

    That was cool. 

    And it got me thinking.  Wouldn’t it be cool if salespeople had a sales version of an early warning system/driver assist like my car has?

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  • Data – Top Salespeople are 631% More Effective at This Than Weak Salespeople (The Bob Chronicles – Part 3)

    • January 26, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Bob is up to his old tricks.  If you don’t know who Bob is, you can learn about his sales misadventures in this article on not properly selling a trial, and this article about not selling value.  Both articles are of the must-read variety.

    So what did Bob do to piss me off this week? 

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  • Found! The Caliper vs OMG Comparison: Which Sales Candidate Assessment is More Predictive?

    • December 1, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Almost nine years in the making, this article compares OMG with Caliper and I did update it so that the information on both assessments is current.

    I compared two assessments for the same candidate: one from Objective Management Group (OMG) and one from Caliper.  Not being one to pass up opportunities like this, I conducted another comparison where OMG recommended this person for the role and Caliper did not. 

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  • New: The 21 Sales Core Competencies for 2020 And Beyond

    • September 27, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Like Apple, OMG updates its assessments on a non-stop basis but rolls out significant updates a couple of times per year.  Last week OMG introduced the latest revision to the 21 Sales Core Competencies.

    There are thirty competencies in all, each with between six and twelve attributes but some are more important than others and OMG measures twenty-one of them in the following three categories:

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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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  • Companies Surprised by Unexpected Remote Selling Challenges

    • April 9, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Forget Consultative Selling, Value Selling and Sales Process – the things I talk about most often.  The inability to sell that way is nothing – and I mean nothing compared with what I’m going to explain today!

    For most salespeople and companies, the last three weeks has been an absolute roller coaster. Most companies expect their sales teams to be not only active, but proactive; to replace face-to-face meetings with virtual meetings; and to continue pipeline building so that there is business to close when we return to work.  But is that what’s happening?  In today’s article, I’ll blend my usual mix of statistics with some personal observation from the clients I have been helping for the past three weeks.  I also included three videos that I extracted from a sales training session earlier this week.  You’ll be surprised!

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  • Why You Will Finally Pay the Price of Not Selling Value

    • March 17, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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