sales management
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Is it Good to Have Perfectionists on Your Sales Force?
- April 20, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The best thing about perfectionists on your sales force is that you don’t usually have to worry about their administrative accuracy. Their emails, letters, proposals and quotes are well done and not prone to typos. The information they input into your CRM or SFA is accurate and done on a timely basis. Their call reports are meticulous and submitted on time. What’s not to like about that?
The downside of course. And what’s that?
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Money Motivated Salespeople a Dying Breed
- April 8, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I mined the data on 150,000 salespeople that were assessed in the past three years, a period of time that includes both the pre and post economic crash. I noted that the only data point that has changed for salespeople is the percentage that were Money Motivated.
50% fewer salespeople are money motivated today as compared to the findings from 2007.
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Startups and the Dilemma of the First Sales Hire
- March 11, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When a company is ready to hire someone for its first sales role, they often face a big dilemma:
Should it be a salesperson?
Should it be a selling sales manager?
Should it be a selling Sales VP? -
Getting Deals Closed – End of Quarter Sales Gone Mad
- March 3, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In the 26 years that I’ve been helping companies grow and develop sales and revenue, I have rarely met with an executive for the first time and not heard about —it.
It all begins around week 11 of the quarter. A frenzy of calls, increased activity, sales management and sometimes C-Level intervention, discounts, offers that can’t be refused, and more. For 3 weeks every quarter, the entire sales force – hell, the entire company – takes on a do whatever it takes attitude to bring those deals in house.
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Does Inbound Marketing Deliver Good Leads for the Sales Force?
- March 1, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
At least that’s the promise. And it delivers on the promise – to a point.
People submitted their names and email addresses (and perhaps more) to receive samples, download a white paper, request more information, view a video clip, subscribe to a free trial, subscribe to a blog or newsletter, get free use of a tool, or receive some premium content. To that extent it delivers on delivering leads. B U T, are the leads any good?
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Top 7 Sales Force Compensation Secrets
- February 28, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A reader asked an interesting question about the relationship between sales assessment performance and income.
“If someone does well on the assessment but never earned more than $100,000, should that set off some red flags since $100,000 is the high water mark of sales success?”
It’s a great question.
Sales income is all relative.
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The Effect of Momentum on the Sales Force
- February 25, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Momentum has a magical effect on salespeople.
When salespeople are doing well, there is pressure on everyone to keep up, carry their fair share, compete, be successful, and contribute. It causes salespeople to remain focused, be at their best, and put forth the extra effort. It contributes to happiness, fulfillment, excitement, confidence and success. That’s all pretty good, huh?
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Sales Effectiveness – IDC and CEB Draw Conflicting Conclusions
- February 24, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The latest IDC Study says that of the customers who changed vendors last year, 65% did so because they either had a poor relationship with their vendor or a better relationship with the new vendor. One of their conclusions is that companies need to do a better job teaching their salespeople how to develop relationship building skills, especially in the C-Level.
The latest Corporate Executive Board study starts out with this headline: “Most companies are betting that reps who focus on building stronger customer relationships will rebuild sales. They’re wrong—here’s why.”
So why are these two studies coming to two different conclusions?
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How Many Peddlers Do You Have?
- February 22, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
How many peddlers do you have and when will you insist that they become more consultative?
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The Difference Between Good and Bad Sales Coaching Questions
- February 17, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When it comes to coaching salespeople, there are both good and bad questions that sales managers can ask to get the conversation started. Here are some examples: