sales assessment
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A Home Run – How the Right Data Can Help You Hire Your Ideal Salespeople
- July 13, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
From time to time I’ve posted some compelling top/bottom sales team analyses using sales assessment data from Objective Management Group (OMG). From nearly 250 data points in 21 Sales Core Competencies, we identify the specific findings and scores that differentiate a company’s top 3 performers from their bottom 3 non-performers.
There are several reasons for doing this:
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How Gas Grills, Gardening, Masks, and Baseball Mimic Your Sales Team
- May 3, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
My project corresponds so well with how many executives approach their sales teams.
They do nothing for years, and then, after growing frustrated with complacency and inability to grow revenue, finally decide to make changes and rebuild their sales teams.
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My Prediction – What’s in Store for Sales Teams in 2021?
- January 8, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When I made my predictions for 2020 I’m pretty sure I didn’t predict a pandemic. Making predictions isn’t easy.
In the US, sales teams are coming off three robust years of sales growth and while revenue was up during that time, the percentage of salespeople hitting quotas was not. That means the top 20% were not only carrying the load, they carried more of the load.
That dynamic growth hit an iron barrier last spring when COVID became the unexpected economic disrupter, but the second half comeback was quite impressive. What does 2021 have in store for those of us in the sales world? In the US, how will Democrat control of all three branches of government affect sales and selling? And how long before that kicks in?
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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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Masks and Sales Assessments – You Lose a Little Freedom and Control for Safety and Confidence
- September 18, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The same thing happens when clients use Objective Management Group’s (OMG) accurate and predictive sales candidate assessments. They lose a little freedom because they no longer arbitrarily interview salespeople who they feel like interviewing, and refrain from simply offering positions to people because they have a gut feeling about a candidate. However, they lose some control because one half to two-thirds of the candidates will not be recommended when they aren’t great fits for the particular sales role for which the company is hiring, or simply aren’t very good salespeople – period.
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The Best Solutions for Hiring Great Salespeople for Your Company
- August 28, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
These are all examples of inappropriate solutions to the simple question, “What is the best way to get there from here?”
How about the simple question, “What is the best way to assure that the salespeople I am about to hire will succeed in the chosen role?”
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One Thing Your Company Must Do Right Now to Increase Sales
- May 13, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For example, since the 30 million who temporarily lost their jobs are receiving unemployment at more than 100% of what they were earning before, they aren’t facing the hardship the media would lead you to believe and the money is there for a reboot when it comes. But the really good news is for companies that are able to hire salespeople. Consider this!
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How Companies Choose Sales Training Companies is Backwards
- February 11, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you partake of dessert prior to eating your appetizer? Do you eat your dinner in the morning and have breakfast at night? Would you prefer to have the builder complete the finish work on your new house prior to framing it and installing the roof? Would you back your car out of the garage before opening the garage door? (I’ve actually done that by accident – twice!)
It’s all quite silly. You wouldn’t think of doing those things in that order but that’s how most companies choose sales training companies. After 35 years in the sales training industry, I’m qualified to comment on this silly behavior, and explain why companies have it all backwards.
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New Data Reveals a Finding That Correlates to Sales Success
- January 29, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We had a request for some data from one of our longtime partners. My knee-jerk reaction to her request was that it would be a big nothing burger. She asked for data that would show the difference between salespeople who are goal oriented and those who are not. I did not expect much of a difference except in the area of Motivation but I was wrong. Very wrong! Check out some of the profound differences this data mining uncovered!
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An Inside Look at Why 3 Good Salespeople Failed and 3 So-So Salespeople Succeeded
- January 9, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You hired a great salesperson that didn’t work out. You hired a so-so salesperson that did work out. You hired another great one that kicked ass, and another one that was so-so. That’s the story of hiring salespeople. It’s mostly hit or miss with an emphasis on miss.
In this article I’m going to share an actual example that illustrates why this happens so frequently. I’ll show you tangible differences between three salespeople who succeeded and three who failed in the same role at the same company.
Most of the time when we perform these analyses the differences are usually seen inside of the 21 Sales Core Competencies – the performers are strong in the necessary competencies and the failures are not.
So let’s dig into some data, shall we?