Search Results

  • How Executives Fail to Understand the Reasons for Poor Sales and Revenue Performance

    • August 11, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I can tell you that once in a blue moon, after we evaluate a sales force and present our findings, a rare CEO can become defensive and react poorly to the results.  When it happens, it’s usually a sign that the CEO is out of touch with the sales force.  I’ll share some of the things to which they sometimes react badly:

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  • What We Can Learn from the Latest Data on Sales Motivation

    • July 25, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Sales Motivation is just one of the 21 Sales Core Competencies that we measure, but as with all of the competencies, we go very deep.

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  • New Analysis Shows the 5 Biggest Gaps Between Top and Bottom Sales Performers

    • May 1, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It didn’t take very long for this to happen.  When Objective Management Group (OMG) announced that it was making its findings data available to the public, we knew that it wouldn’t take long for someone with a flair for analytics to dig in and come up with something cool.  Last week, John Cousineau, creator of Amacus, got me on a video conference and shared what he came up with.  Hint:  Another way to differentiate top performers.

    He

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  • The Future of Selling – Understanding This Crucial Sales Competency is More Important Than Ever

    • April 12, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Sales Motivation is one competency where the changes have been dramatic over a very short period of time and today I want to share those changes, as well as how the changes impact salespeople, sales leaders and sales organizations.

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  • Veteran’s Great Quote Makes News and Has Terrific Lessons for the Sales Profession

    • February 21, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I might not have nailed his quote word for word, but I’m sure I captured the gist of it. Just think of the sales lessons that can be taken from this!  The short video below is from the interview and below that I will share some lessons for the sales profession.

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  • 7 More Tips on How I Sell More and Get More Done Part 3

    • January 9, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Part 1 and Part 2 were very popular and centered around productivity and technology, but not selling competencies.  This post presents Part 3, which although having a different perspective on selling more and getting more done,  stays away from selling-specific competencies like the other two entries.

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  • What it Takes to be an Elite (Top 7%) Salesperson

    • October 11, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last week I received a call from a young, motivated salesperson – we’ll call him Jim – who desperately wanted to be one of the elite 7% of all salespeople.  Despite being just 26 years old, he believed that he was already in the top 7%.  During our call, he asked me a great question.  He asked, “How many of the top 7% have you actually met and where are they today?”  I didn’t have to think very long or hard to answer that question because it was one of the easiest questions I have ever been asked.

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  • What is the Single Biggest Differentiator Between Top and Bottom Salespeople?

    • October 3, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    There is one Blog that I never fail to read, and that’s Seth Godin’s Blog.  Seth doesn’t write about sales – he pens a thought leadership Blog – but sometimes his articles are very applicable to sales and selling.  Recently, he posted two very short articles – each is less than 30 seconds to read and I believe they are both well worth your time.

    The first is Fully Baked.  The second, on a related topic, is Skills vs. Talents. 

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  • Sales 102 – The Pitch Deck, the Price Reduction and the Data

    • September 29, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Recently I met with a CEO whose salespeople were not closing enough business.  We had just evaluated their sales force and I had the answers as to why their sales were so underwhelming.  Before we could explain what was causing their problem, the CEO said something along the lines of, “We are going to create a new pitch deck and reduce our prices. That will solve the problem!”  

    They weren’t suggesting a small price change either.  It sounded like an 80% reduction and their reasoning overlapped with one of the contributing issues that we identified.  Their salespeople weren’t reaching decision makers which raises more questions.  Why weren’t they reaching decision makers and could anything be done about it?  Would lowering their prices solve the problem or did the issue go deeper than that?

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  • Remembering The Most Powerful Sales Lesson of My Life

    • September 6, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Which one thing helps almost every salesperson succeed, even when they have other challenges?

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