sales excellence

  • The Irony of Free Passes for Under Performing Salespeople

    • October 21, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A typical US sales team consists of 15 people, including a Sales VP, 2 Regional Sales Managers, and 12 salespeople.  Of course, there are exponentially larger and smaller sales teams, but this is the version that we most frequently encounter.  This team will have no more than 3 performing salespeople, another 3 who sometimes hit their numbers, and 6 who chronically under-perform.

    Let’s assume that the salespeople who are ranked 10-12 are not just under-performers, but pathetically ineffective salespeople.  At the end of the year, they receive their annual review – the equivalent of an arrest and release – and are back on the street to underperform for another year, making the company both both the victim and the enabler.  This is insanity!

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  • How to Use Buckets to Improve Sales Performance and Coaching

    • February 19, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Buckets are important, especially when you’re attempting to coach up a salesperson or even improve your own sales performance.  If you don’t have the OMG evaluation at your fingertips and can’t lookup the scores in 21 Sales Core Competencies, or see which attributes need to be improved, you’ll need to think in terms of buckets.

    When salespeople are struggling, there are five primary buckets to consider:

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  • The Top 10 Sales Articles of 2018

    • December 13, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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  • Discovered – Data Reveals the Second Biggest Obstacle to Closing More Sales

    • May 7, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Whichever way you turn, wherever you look, and whatever you listen to there is data. Polls, surveys, metrics, analytics, analyses, white papers, graphs, charts, infographics, tables, spreadsheets and more. There is data everywhere. 5 of my last 10 articles were based on data and I know that my regular readers love the articles that are based on data so I am writing about data again today.

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  • Persistence Over Polish – What the Top 10% of All Salespeople Do Better

    • March 12, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The best athletes in the world know exactly how they do the things they do that make them so great.  In addition to their God-given talent, they outworked everyone else to master the mechanics and nuances of their sport, the mindset required for greatness, and competed at a high level from a very young age.  When they falter they can easily make the adjustments necessary to get back on track.

    Interestingly, most top salespeople don’t know what it is that they do that makes them so successful! That’s surprise #1.  If you look through the data on the 2,.3 million salespeople that Objective Management Group (OMG) has assessed, you will see that the top 10% of all salespeople have better average scores than their colleagues in each of the 21 Sales Core Competencies.  Their average scores are listed below for 5 Sales Core Competencies in which they have the best scores.  They are:

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  • How Salespeople Must Run Stop Signs and Red Lights – Legally

    • September 5, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    There is one simple thing you can do each day that will dramatically improve your sales effectiveness.

    But you don’t think it’s possible to do what the title says, do you?

    Well, it is not only possible, it’s crucial – and not only that you do it, but that you do it often and start doing it today.

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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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  • What CEO’s and Sales Leaders Care About the Most – Are They Trends for 2017?

    • December 16, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I reviewed the 88 articles I wrote in 2016 (nearly 1,600 articles on the Blog) and was surprised to discover what I wrote about the most.  It wasn’t about sales force evaluations, sales candidate assessments or attacks on the Harvard Business Review.  It wasn’t about sales recruiting and selection, sales pipeline or Baseline Selling.  It wasn’t any of things I expected to write about most often.   Because my topics are driven by the conversations I have with clients and prospective clients, my articles are a reflection of what CEO’s and Sales Leaders care about.  I really think you’ll be surprised to find out what they cared most about this year.

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  • Is Excuse Making Actually the Biggest Obstacle to Increasing Sales?

    • December 14, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve talked a lot about excuse making and the powerful difference between using your index finger, which points outward, versus your thumb, which points inward.  Today, Brandon Steiner wrote a great little article about taking responsibility.

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