Understanding the Sales Force

  • Top 6 Reasons Why Most Sales Training Doesn’t Work

    • June 25, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you invest in sales training, especially now, you also need it to work now, not in 12 months.  Why does it take so long for most sales training to make a difference and why does most sales training fail to make the difference you expect? There are a lot of possible reasons and I’ll attempt to explain them here.

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  • Sales and Sales Leadership Lessons from Lou Piniella and the Umpire

    • June 23, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last night on the MLB Network, I heard Don Denkinger, a former major league baseball umpire, tell a very funny story about former Yankee player and current Cubs manager Lou Piniella.

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  • How to Find More Sales Opportunities (without Cold Calling)

    • June 19, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The two biggest problems for most companies right now, in this economy, are delayed closings and not enough new opportunities.  I’ve tackled delayed closings, so today, with a little help from my friends, I’ll tackle not enough new opportunities.  I mentioned in my last post that (most of) you need three times more opportunities than ever before to make up for the late stage opportunities that aren’t closing right now.

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  • How to Hold the Sales Team Accountable Under New Rules of Sales Engagement

    • June 17, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you read yesterday’s post, there was a comment from Teicko who asked how you can hold the sales team accountable under these new rules of sales engagement where you must work three times harder, three times longer, be three times more effective and have three times more opportunities in the pipeline to get the same results as you used to.

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  • Put on Your Helmet – 3 Great Tips for Selling in This Economy

    • June 14, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What a great interview I had with Bill Murray, Founder and CEO of Winning Incorporated, Friday on my Meet the Sales Experts Radio Show!  He was awesome.

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  • Sales Assessment Says He’s Weak but He Made President’s Club

    • June 12, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Yesterday a well meaning Sales Manager, in defense of his salesperson, asked me how a salesperson who made “Club” could possibly assess so poorly.  It’s a great question with a dozen or more possible explanations.  Here are some: 

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  • 180 and 360 Degree Assessments on the Sales Force

    • June 4, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    There are not a lot of companies that undertake 180 degree or 360 degree assessments of the sales force and that’s a good thing because there are so many limitations.

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  • Salespeople and Requests for References

    • June 3, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    For the first time in months, I was recently asked for references.  No problem!

    But it got me thinking about who asks for references, why they ask for references and when they ask for references…and what salespeople do when they’re asked for references, and whether those references lead to closed business.

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  • Sales Cycles and Time – Is it Running Out?

    • June 1, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We are always focused on sales cycles.  Are they optimized?  Are they taking too long?  Can they be improved?  How many calls should they take?  Are we doing things that make the sales cycle take longer than necessary? For example, the sales cycle can be shortened in direct proportion to how high your salespeople call in the company. 

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  • Hire the Best Salespeople on the Planet

    • May 28, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Several months ago Objective Management Group began to identify hirable candidates that are ideal – they will ramp-up more quickly than a normal hirable candidate. A normal candidate should ramp up according to this formula I devised many years ago:

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