sales evaluation

  • Tale of Two Assessments – Comparing Value

    • December 18, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A potential client wanted to know how Objective Management Group could justify the cost of a our license (unlimited candidate assessments for one year or until the specified number of salespeople are hired) versus what seemed at face value to be a lower cost for DISC assessments.

    There are several factors here but they are all worth noting.

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  • Timid Sales Managers Fearful of Confronting Salespeople

    • November 21, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Now how do you feel about ultimatums?

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  • Is Your Selling Model Effective? Know your Salesforce’s ABC’s

    • November 17, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Every company, with or without a salesforce, has a selling model.  I know of one company whose model is “we don’t believe in sales”. It works for them, but it won’t work for many others.

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  • What Really Creates Sales Excellence?

    • November 13, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you are like me, you’re receiving email invitations to attend webinars at the rate of 10 to 20 per day.  And you’re getting the exact same invitations every single day from the exact same companies.  And some of them promise the solution to all of your sales problems – sales excellence solutions.  Take a look at the invitations I received today alone!

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  • Stimulate the Economy – Get Your Salespeople Selling!

    • November 12, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was interviewed on two different radio shows today.  Jim Lobaito interviewed me about the impact that the economy is having on sales on his weekly business show and David Leopold interviewed me for his live Internet radio show, Let’s Talk Small Business.

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  • Are Your Salespeople Selling Price Like Sam’s Club or Value Like Nordstrom’s?

    • November 12, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    So what does this say about the state of the economy and more specifically, about discounting and trying to win business based on price?

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  • Sales Competencies and Your Competition

    • November 6, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Companies don’t invest enough time and energy being strategic and tactical about competition.  The approach shouldn’t be economic as much as it should be tactical.  Your approach should revolve around neutralizing your competition as opposed to being competitive with your competition.

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  • Sales Process – What Have You Gotten Away From?

    • November 5, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    There are about 45 executives in the room, many of them clients of Kurlan Associates.  At two of the tables are clients that have been with the firm for so long, twenty years or so, that they have become great friends and two of them have become business partners at Objective Management Group.

    One of the first exercises that the group participated in was Cash Optimization Strategies, and the first part of that exercise was Ways to Improve Your Sales Cycle.

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  • Misleading Statistics and Hiring the Wrong Sales Candidates

    • November 3, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The November issue of Fortune Small Business has an article called Entrepreneurial Myth Busters. FSB has Ken Blanchard (consultant )and Scott Shane (academic) go head to head answering questions about small businesses and entrepreneurship. While Blanchard provides insightful answers based on his years of experience working in, consulting to and writing about business, Shane provides surprising answers based on data. I’m sure that if you read the article you’ll agree that Shane’s data lead to some very misleading conclusions. Academics who haven’t been “out there” can fall in love with their data!

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  • Management’s Guide to the Top 10 Differences Between Sales Winners and Losers

    • October 19, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Friday I wrote this post and today I wrote this longer article about the Top 10 Differences between Sales Winners and Sales Losers.

    This post is the sales management version of the article referenced above.

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