Salesforce

  • Top 14 Requirements to Perform a Sales Force Makeover

    • April 16, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    For kicks, let’s take a look at this week’s Baseline Selling mail bag.

    One reader emailed that he just inherited a radio station in Honduras, has never sold before, and he and his salespeople aren’t able to book appointments.

    Another reader is the Sales Director for several well-known magazines and said that her top producing team is down 50% from last year.

    Yet another reader wrote and wanted to know how to chop her 2-3 year sales cycle down to 2-3 months.

    And one President fired all of his salespeople, is back on the road selling and wonders what he can do to thrive.

    What do all four of these scenarios have in common?

    read more

  • Good News Not a Substitute for Sales Force Competencies

    • April 8, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Do you want to hear something crazy?

    I’m a very prolific writer – not to say I’m a good writer, just that I post a lot. And of the dozens and dozens of posts from the last three months, would you like to guess what the LEAST read post was?

    It was the one where I wrote about signs that the economy was improving! And one of the MOST read posts was the one where I wrote about the media making the economy worse.

    read more

  • Top 6 Tests to Determine if Your Sales Process Supports Sales Competencies

    • April 6, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Do your salespeople sound like these folks working the deli counter? Three of the four had some kind of process, but are the processes effective?

    read more

  • Good News About the Economy Positively Impacts the Sales Force

    • March 31, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I often get to see things six to twelve months before they happen.  When manufacturing placed projects and orders on hold as they did last October, it’s easy to predict that it will trickle down and impact everyone else over the next six months. 

    The word from clients so far this week is that manufacturers are taking projects off of hold and releasing money – even in the automotive industry!  That too will trickle down and impact everyone else over the next six months.

    read more

  • The Secret – The Ancient Scrolls and its Impact on the Sales Force

    • March 24, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Since this book is not the Kabbalah itself, rather a Cliff Notes version, it tends to read more like a self-help book. It is far more powerful than a self-help book though as it points to a number of rules that will cause a transformation in one’s life.

    Seven of the desired behaviors are consistent with the philosophies in Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball as well as Objective Management Group’s Sales Assessments:

    read more

  • Media is to Fuel as the Recession is to Fire – How Does it Impact the Sales Force?

    • March 11, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The media – they didn’t cause the banking crisis but they have surely capitalized on it, dramatized it, chronically reported every devastating development and turned a serious but contained fire into a wildfire.

    I don’t want to hear how many jobs have been lost.  Who does that help? 

    read more

  • Seth Godin Reinforces the Proper Sales Process

    • March 5, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Seth Godin posted this article last week.  Read it it’s very short and a very good story.

    read more

  • Jim Collins Fortune Interview Translated for the Sales Force

    • March 2, 2009
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    So, if you must do something, as opposed to nothing, what can you do? You can only cut so many costs.  You can only sit back and wait for so long.  You can only hope so much.  At some point, you must do something about the one thing you can control – your sales force – the single connecting point between you and your revenue.

    read more

  • Revising the Forbes Message of the Day for the Sales Force

    • February 26, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The Forbes Success Calendar for 2/25/09 said, “Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of our living.  Out of our overconfidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope.  And out of hope, progress.” – Bruce Barton

    read more

  • Will Gifts Get Prospects to Return Calls from your Salespeople?

    • February 13, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A fruit basket arrived this morning.  My first reaction was, “who would want to send me a fruit basket?” It turned out that a salesperson sent it, hoping to get me on the phone.  He had already left two voice mail messages and stopped by on one other occasion.

    read more