sales management

  • Great Salespeople Can See the Pixels – The Rest Watch the Movie

    • March 6, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We have been describing the Consultative Sales approach.  How do your salespeople fare in their ability to sell consultatively and, more importantly, which of them can be trained and coached to effectively execute this with consistency and results?

    read more

  • Harvard Business Review Blog Off Target on Sales Greatness

    • March 5, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This recent article in the Harvard Business Review Blog was as far off target as any I have ever debunked.  Steve Martin lists 7 characteristics that he says differentiate great sales forces from good ones.  His seven are:

    read more

  • How the Landscape Quickly Changes on Your Salespeople

    • February 27, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Give your salespeople these two pictures and the next time they begin to think that everything seems wonderful, make sure they remember to brush the snow away, take off their rose colored glasses, and learn what the landscape truly looks like underneath the false interest.

    read more

  • Sales Excellence Studies Propagate Mediocrity

    • February 26, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you conduct a Google search for “sales excellence studies”, you’ll find more than 20,000 results.  I’m sure that some results point to surveys which were conducted by others, but either way, that’s a lot of studies on sales excellence.  If any of those studies were actually ground-breaking, insightful or truly representative of sales excellence, there would probably be fewer than a dozen. But there are not.  There are many reasons why these studies are so lame, but let’s name just a few:

    read more

  • Dan Pink Hits and Then Misses the New Key to Sales Performance

    • February 6, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Why do brilliant people, like Dan Pink, look at research and then reach faulty conclusions?   

    read more

  • Sales Hiring Chronicles: The Doctor, The Drug Dealer and The User

    • January 31, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Recruiters think that all of their candidates walk on water.  Clients think that because of our assessment, quality advice and guidance that we walk on water.

    So the recruiter sends 5 of the best candidates ever to the client, who has them assessed, and 3 are not recommended.  The recruiter is upset, “Why are you using that stupid assessment? You don’t need that! I know these candidates and they’re awesome.”  

    read more

  • Top 10 Problems with Veteran Salespeople

    • January 28, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    For companies who want to grow revenue, veteran salespeople cause more problems than any other factor.  After all, if you have a young, energetic group, there’s nowhere to go but up and everyone knows that they need to improve.  On the other hand, veteran salespeople believe that they know everything and everyone and probably could lead the sales training class.  

    read more

  • Sales Process – Top 10 Reasons Why Sales are Lost

    • January 14, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When a salesperson fails to land a deal, sale or order which they expected, projected, forecasted and pre-banked, nine times out of ten, you can lay the blame on one of the following ten conditions:

    read more

  • Best Way to Sell and/or Manage a Sales Force?

    • January 10, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The biggest issue affecting salespeople, sales managers, sales leaders and even Presidents and CEO’s is this:  For most of them, the way they know, the way they do it today, the way they have always done it, is the “best way”.  They simply don’t know what they don’t know.  Of course, some are worse than that.  They know that they know it all.

    read more

  • Tighter Sales Metrics at New Year Leads to Improved Success

    • January 7, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    That leads to your KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) or metrics which drive revenue.  If you collect these now via a daily huddle, that’s terrific; let’s tighten them up.  If you don’t currently have your sales team calling in every morning for 10 minutes, you’re missing out on a critical piece of accountability, team-building and intelligence.

    How can you tighten up your metrics?

    read more