sales management

  • A Missing Link to Sales Improvement?

    • March 15, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was walking through the Airport when I saw what could be the missing link to sales improvement.

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  • What Are Reasonable Sales Management Expectations?

    • March 12, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I am often asked which of the various services we provide to companies can be done in-house, by the executive team.  Fair question.  Answer: All of them.

    So why would companies use us or others with our expertise?  Answer: Because when they try to do it in-house they aren’t able to get most of it right:

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  • Sales Coaching – Are Sales Managers Any Good at This Function?

    • March 10, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve written extensively about sales coaching before. Yesterday, a fairly typical day, I coached 4 different sales experts and 2 clients on how to more effectively coach salespeople and sales managers.  I have noticed that most sales managers believe that they’re fairly good at coaching when, in reality, most of them are very ineffective at it.  Why?

    First, let’s look at what’s required for effective coaching. Some of it is tangible and measurable while some isn’t. Effective Sales Coaching requires:

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  • Top 10 Rules for Getting Salespeople to Follow Your Sales Process

    • March 8, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A lady approached the priest after the service and felt terrible because she had been leaving early to tend to her sick husband.  The priest said that this didn’t apply to her; she was already making a sacrifice by attending, and should care for her husband.  She paused and finally said, “But he passed away three years ago!”

    This story got me wondering about the widespread misuse of the sales process. 

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  • The Top 5 Factors to Predict Sales Turnover

    • March 5, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Here are the Top Five Factors to Predict Sales Turnover / Longevity

    The most important factor in predicting sales longevity is

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  • Great Sales Opportunities That Don’t Close

    • March 2, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If getting opportunities into the pipeline is the most universal sales challenge, then getting opportunities closed comes in a close second. I’m talking about prospects who aren’t ready to say, “yes” but are still “very interested”.  These calls pose problems for salespeople for several reasons:

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  • The Science of Selling – Rules versus Data

    • February 25, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The true science in selling is the research and data that explain performance.  In Baseball, a good or bad year, by a team or player, is not explained so much by whether the rules were followed – they probably were – but by the statistics that explain why a good or bad year occurred. We have the same thing in sales and Objective Management Group may have the mother load of that data. 

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  • Now How Can You Motivate Your Salespeople?

    • February 24, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    While reviewing the recent sales assessment data compared with the same data from before the recession, two changes jump out at me.

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  • What Does it Mean When You Can’t Reach Your Salespeople?

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

    When you can’t reach anyone on your sales team is that a good thing or a bad thing?

    When they are all on sales calls, working the phones, or with customers/clients is that a good thing or a bad thing?

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  • Kindle – Lessons Applied to the Sales Force

    • February 22, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Readers who have purchased the Kindle have totally embraced that device.  Some think it’s the Kindle, not online sellers, that is the biggest threat to brick and mortar book stores.  Those of us who own a Kindle are reading more books, and reading them more easily and conveniently than before we had the device.

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