sales management function

  • New Data – Are Experienced Sales Managers Better Sales Managers?

    • June 25, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last week I wrote a revealing article which showed that Sales Managers are even worse than I thought when it comes to coaching their salespeople.  That article stimulated this great conversation on LinkedIn. 

    Following that article I dug further into the same 9,000 rows of data to look at the role that tenure and experience have on sales management effectiveness. Who do you think are more effective – newer or more experienced sales managers?

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  • Why Salespeople Fail to Make Needed Changes

    • September 3, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I recently paid a visit to the men’s restroom (more comfortable in that one) where I saw Steve, our building maintenance man, on the floor repairing the sensor that automatically turns the water on and off. About 90 minutes later (right on schedule), I was back and shocked to see Steve still down there on the floor. I asked what was taking so long and he said, “Well it works just fine when it’s not connected to the faucet but when I reconnect it the darn thing stays broken!”

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  • Professional Sales and the All-Star Jazz Performance

    • August 16, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Professional Selling is just like being in an All-Star Jazz Ensemble.  It’s being so good and so experienced, that one can perform perfectly, on demand, in any environment, despite tremendous pressure, regardless of product knowledge and expertise.

    How many of your salespeople have this capability?

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  • Bench Strength – The Key to Replacing Salespeople

    • July 19, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Don’t put yourself in a position where you have to worry about your new salespeople.  Once they’re on board, make sure you have a structured, effective 90-day ramp-up program to assure they succeed instead of setting them up for failure.

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  • Anatomy of the Worst Sales Call Ever

    • April 23, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It’s easier to talk about some of the things he failed to do since he didn’t do anything correctly. If we were to perform an analysis working backwards from the end of his (can’t really call what he did a) sales process:

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