sales assessments
-
Before Your Company Hires a Sales Leader…
- January 30, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One area where we see this occur repeatedly is when companies are about to hire a Sales VP or Director AND they want to evaluate their sales force too. For some reason, many choose to delay the evaluation until after the VP is in place when in reality, the evaluation should be used to help them select the new sales VP.
-
10 Reasons – Don’t Worry When Sales Candidates Don’t Take the Test
- January 19, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Recent statistics show that only 34% of the candidates are taking the assessment without additional prompts. Isn’t that awful?
Maybe – let’s explore it further.
-
After Accepting the Sales Job Will the Salesperson Back Out?
- January 17, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Did a sales candidate ever accept your job offer only to back out prior to the agreed upon start date because the individual decided to stay with the current employer?
This happened to a client and it had a tremendous ripple effect.
-
Every Sales Assessment Tells a Story – This is Fred’s Story
- December 19, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When his boss couldn’t understand why Fred wasn’t performing, we performed a sales force evaluation and among the things we focused in on was Fred.
Fred’s Sales DNA was generally quite good but when it came to his selling skills, there were a few problems that explained everything.
-
Must Read – Accenture / CSO Insights Sales Optimization Study
- December 2, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In their latest study (thanks to Charlie for sending it to me) – Accenture reported on the 2000 companies worldwide that CSO Insights surveyed. I identified some very interesting findings and if there was a big surprise it was that nothing surprised me! In fact, it supports everything I’ve written about here for the past 5 years. Consider the following:
-
The Difference Between Sales Commitment and Desire
- November 18, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I was explaining this difference to a client and the two findings, which we were comparing, were striking in their contrast.
The candidate in question scored 100 (off the charts) on Desire (how badly he wants to succeed in sales); yet, as low as he was high – 16 – on Commitment – his willingness to do what it takes to succeed in sales. So as you might expect, the client asked, “How can he score so high in Desire but so low in Commitment?”
Great question.
I’ll explain it in exactly the same fashion I explained it to him.
-
How Can Strong Salespeople Lack Desire for Success?
- October 20, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This question is kind of funny to me.
Using Objective Management Group’s Sales Candidate Assessment, a company could assess 1,000 salespeople, understand that Lack of Desire for Success in Sales causes an automatic “Not Recommended”, and not be tempted to interview a single candidate who lacks Desire. That is until they introduce a sales candidate that they “know” into the mix.
-
Are Salespeople Born or Made? The Real Story
- October 11, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Several readers sent me the link to this article that discusses whether salespeople are born or made. Prior to that article, many others have attempted to answer the same question in the past few years. The common theme to each attempt is reliance on personality traits and, in Martin’s case, Language Specialization, Modeling of Experiences, Political Acumen and Greed. Good grief Charlie Brown!
Before we look at the science – not surveys and personalities – let me explain – me. I was both born and made to sell.
-
Revealing Study of Salespeople Makes News at HBR
- October 5, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This article has my first reaction to the Challenger Sale after news of the book first appeared in HBR back in 2011.