sales force evaluation
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What’s Missing from the Report That Says Sales Training Doesn’t Make Reps Better?
- January 6, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I could not believe my eyes when I read this report. It was during the break between Christmas and New Years, so perhaps I wasn’t as sharp as would be during a regular business day. Maybe I missed something. So I reread the report and the words amazed me even further. The report claimed that salespeople don’t improve their skills as a result of sales training. Really? Let’s take a look.
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Bugged by the Difference Between Great and Lousy Salespeople
- July 21, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, I noticed a large, furry, dead bug on the hood of my car. It seemed to be attached to the outer lip of the hood – like the edge of a cliff – right where the hood drops down to the grill. I got out of the car to remove the chunk of dead fur and I was shocked to see how wrong I was. It was dead all right, and it was furry. I’m not a tall person, so I wasn’t sitting high enough in the car to notice the distance between the bug and the lip of the hood, but my estimate was off by more than 2 feet! What I thought I saw was completely different from reality.
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Can the Worst Salespeople be Saved?
- March 25, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Recently, I was asked to explain what a company can do with the bottom 74% that I write about so frequently. It’s a great question…and I will share several examples…Depending on the size of your sales force, the relative effectiveness of your sales coaching, the degree to which you embrace sales best practices, and your track record at selecting and hiring only A players, your sales force might not have a top 6%, next 20% and bottom 74%. Nope. It could be better – or worse. Your sales force might have salespeople that are all in the top 26% or all of your salespeople might belong to the bottom 74%. What’s interesting is how that plays out.
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Beach Ball of Death Predicts Lack of Sales Growth
- March 11, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
And then there is the beach ball I want to share today – the sales beach ball of impending doom. You might be wondering how there could even be a sales beach ball, never mind one that spells impending doom; but, there is.
Last week I saw it for the first time on a slide from a deck that Objective Management Group (OMG) prepares when we evaluate a sales force. This particular slide answered the question, “Why Aren’t We Generating More New Business?”
Here’s the slide:
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Fix Your Mediocre Pipeline for Accurate Sales Forecasts
- January 26, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Most salespeople don’t pay too much attention to this. Even though we perform a pipeline analysis and restage the pipeline with every individual sales evaluation and comprehensive sales force evaluation we conduct, we typically discuss this exclusively at the executive level.
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Leading a Sales Force is Even More Like Baseball
- November 6, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve written plenty about the similarity betwen baseball and selling, but today I’m writing about the similarity between baseball and sales leadership. If you’re not a baseball person, you might not see the same things that I see, most of which can be applied to leading a sales force. For example,
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Did our Sales Evaluation Uncover Part-Time Job Selling Drugs?
- October 15, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A salesperson was arrested for growing pot and selling it. Can you believe it?
Recently, the same man participated in OMG’s Sales Force Evaluation at the company where he worked. The evaluation showed that he was a very strong salesperson with tremendous selling skills, but it also identified a few telling issues:
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Are Salespeople Also Joggers?
- September 26, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
As I drove to work today, I passed 4 joggers, all with different styles, paces and appearances. As usual, I saw the similarities between what I observed and the sales profession.
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Starting with the Sales Management Team – Is it a Bad Decision?
- August 21, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Companies typically have 5 reasons for starting with the sales managers:
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Sales Blogging – Do As I Say, Not as I Do
- May 1, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s a big problem with many of the sales blogs you read. One-person sales consulting firms, self-appointed experts, telling, but not doing, what they say.