hiring salespeople

  • How I Learned I am a Sales Consulting Imposter

    • November 11, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    arrogant candidate

    I didn’t like this candidate.  He was way too cocky and aggressive, he wasn’t prepared, and he didn’t like all of my questions.  I ended the call after about a minute and a half because I already knew he wasn’t going to proceed in the process.  I told him that if he didn’t hear back from me by the end of business on the following day, then he didn’t make it to the next round (an interview with me).

    Considering the findings on his OMG assessment, imagine what could happen if he felt rejected from the way I ended the call, and when he didn’t get the follow up call the next day. Consider how his lack of patience, along with not being a relationship builder and not needing to be liked, could manifest.

    Did you imagine what could happen?  

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  • The Biblical Sales Team Part 1 – Hiring and Firing Salespeople

    • September 29, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    God

    Given that God used terminations to achieve his goals and eliminate mistakes, there should be no reason that sales leaders can’t better utilize terminations.  More than 50% of all salespeople don’t meet annual quotas and haven’t for years.  They should be terminating salespeople at scale, but instead, scared sales leaders create specialized roles, hoping that moving salespeople into a less demanding role will solve the problem. Unfortunately, the only thing it accomplishes is to create distraction from the real problem and noise, as more salespeople, in more roles, are failing than ever before.

    It is clear that God had expectations and goals, and was intolerant of non-performance, under-performance, and especially non-compliance.  If you lead a sales organization, why not follow God’s lead?

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  • Hiring Salespeople – How Deadpool Would Fare as a Sales Candidate

    • August 16, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    deadpool vs wolverine

    Hiring salespeople doesn’t have to be complicated but most companies get the entire process wrong from expectations, to job description, specs,  job posting, vetting, phone interview, first interview, final interview, selection and on-boarding.  The companies we help attract more candidates, better quality candidates, conduct fewer interviews, have significantly less turnover, and new salespeople producing out of the gate.  We could probably help you too, but you must want the help.  That means getting your ego out of the way, embracing a different way to hire salespeople, paying for the help, and being more patient than before.  If you are willing to do that, you can be a big winner and build a kick-ass sales team.

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  • New Data: Top Salespeople are 7562% Better at Winning RFPs

    • March 13, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    mission critical

    RFPs aren’t going away, and there are two ways that salespeople can approach them, the companies that write them, and the people associated with them:

    Passively – in this capacity, they are nothing more than facilitators, waiting for an RFP to drop in their inbox, so they can get it off to the folks who write the proposals.  When complete, they email the proposal back to procurement and hope to win.
    Proactively – in this capacity, they regularly meet and develop relationships with the appropriate CxO’s and Sr VP’s of manufacturing, engineering, design, IT, IS, Finance, Marketing, HR, R&D, Operations, Facilities, Fulfillment, Distribution, Sales, Learning and Development, Enablement, and any other organizational head they might possibly sell to.  They become a resource, an asset, a partner and not only help to write the specifications of the next RFP, but write the specs in such a way that they are the only company that can win the business.

    It seems obvious, doesn’t it?  Option 1 is stupid and Option 2 is brilliant.  But if option 2 is so brilliant and obvious, then why do so many salespeople become so defensive and dug in to option 1?

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  • How to Identify Candidates Who Will Succeed in Your Sales Roles

    • February 9, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    sales hiring efficiency

    Suppose you have a project or task that you don’t particularly enjoy doing, but despite your lackluster feeling, must complete it. Do you seek out the most efficient way to complete the project or task, or default to the most inefficient way to complete it?

    Let’s take recruiting, selecting and hiring salespeople.  For HR, that’s part of their job.  Despite how important new salespeople are to the future of a company, Sales Leadership attempts to get recruiting over with as quickly as possible, often prioritizing speed to hire over cost to hire, talent and capabilities.  Why?  They aren’t using the most efficient process and tools to hire the best salespeople.

    I’m hiring a salesperson for a client and using my time-tested process which we also train clients to use (so that WE DON’T have to recruit!).  My experience shows that 10% of the candidates will be viable but, of more importance, how do we know which 10% to focus on?  The stats for the first week were:

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  • The Best Sales and Sales Leadership Content of 2023

    • December 11, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    best of the best

    Welcome to my annual list of the best sales and sales leadership content of 2023.  This year’s list has thirteen entries, including articles, videos, and LinkedIn posts.  There are several categories including Most Read, Most Liked, Most Engagement, Best Quality and Personal Favorite.  Ready?

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  • Top 5 Keys to Hire Ideal Sales Candidates at Your Company

    • September 11, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    hiring salespeople

    There’s no time like the present to hire salespeople but your sales recruiting strategy must consider the ever changing ebb and flow of the candidate pool. This article explains the five keys to hiring ideal salespeople for your company and has lots of data to back it up.

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  • Can Malcom Gladwell Explain the Sales Hiring Problem?

    • January 4, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    For the sales leaders who claim they trust their gut, this book and its many examples demonstrates that there is no such thing as accurate gut instinct.  Like a coin flip, you’ll be right half the time.  So what can companies do to improve on these odds?  Assessments.

    Consider these statistics from several sources:

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  • Is 28 Years Long Enough for a Sales Assessment Trial ?

    • September 19, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Isn’t 28 years long enough for us to prove ourselves?  

    Clearly OMG is not for everyone. Companies that sell at the lowest price, companies that are the brand leaders, and companies that have a transactional sale don’t need to hire good salespeople because their salespeople are order-takers.  But what about everyone else?

    After consistently proving its legendary predictive accuracy making it a no-brainer to use OMG, there are five possible reasons why companies didn’t use OMG  to assess their sales candidates over the past 28 years:

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  • Must Read – How a 15% Corporate Minimum Tax Will Impact Companies and Sales Teams

    • August 10, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The primary point of today’s article is to point out the irony of hiring 80,000 agents but you’ll have to read a bit of background before I can point out the irony.

    So why are they hiring 80,000 IRS agents?

    They want the rich to pay their fair share and that sounds fair, but let’s go beyond the headline and general talking point.  There are 724 billionaires in the US (of 2,775 worldwide) and it’s not that hard to find a millionaire because there are 20 million of them in the US (50 million worldwide).  If they target billionaires it would work out to 110 new agents per billionaire.  Sounds like overkill.  They also want to make sure that corporations pay their fair share so this legislation imposes a minimum 15% tax on corporations. 

    Let’s focus on the 15% tax for a moment. I can think of only three ways for corporations to deal with that surcharge:

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