Understanding the Sales Force

  • 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.

    read more

  • 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.

    read more

  • 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. 

    read more

  • 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:

    read more

  • Salespeople Should be More Like Children

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

    Wouldn’t it be nice if all of your salespeople simply made it their number one priority to find the opportunities required to keep their pipeline stuffed with quality opportunities?

    read more

  • More than Half of All Sales Managers Should Consider….

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

    After posting this article two weeks ago, showing the percentage of salespeople who are not trainable, who shouldn’t be in sales, and who are elite, it was inevitable that I would be asked to post similar statistics for sales managers.

    read more

  • Sales Experts Disagree on Right Way to Train Salespeople

    • May 15, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was involved in a nearly week long, on line discussion with about a half dozen other sales experts in the Top Sales Experts Group at LinkedIn that to date has included about 41 volleys.  The original question, raised by the UK publisher of modernselling.com, asked whether there was a right way or a wrong way to train salespeople.  While there was some agreement on some points, there was much disagreement on many points.

    read more

  • Why Corporate Sales Training Often Fails to Achieve Desired Results

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

    Why do you train salespeople and sales managers?

    Some companies want to educate them and improve their skills.  Some feel obligated to provide training while others provide training to improve results.  Some do it to help their salespeople, improve morale and feel good about making it available.  These are all very noble concepts, but usually achieve disappointing outcomes.

    Train your salespeople to change your salespeople.  Until THEY change, their beliefs, behaviors, strategies and tactics won’t change.  And there’s the problem.

    read more

  • How Many Salespeople Shouldn’t be in Sales?

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

    Our certified sales development expert in Singapore, Ray Bigger, of Think8, asked if we had data on what percentage of salespeople should be considered for a different role.  Of course we do, Ray!

    read more

  • What Should You Tell Your Salespeople in this Economy?

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

    From time to time I have written about what you must do with your salespeople in this economy.  Would you like to hear what that actually sounds like?

    read more