Understanding the Sales Force

  • 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.

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  • Sales and Customer Service are Just Like Steriod Use in Baseball

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

    Sales is just like Steroid use in Baseball.

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  • Sales Assessments vs Personality Assessments Episode III – The PHD’s Strike Back

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

    Are PHD’s more sensitive to criticism than the rest of us?

    I heard from a few over the past week and they weren’t happy with what I wrote here and here.  I rocked their world and they couldn’t cope.

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  • How to Turn Around Flat or Declining Sales Revenue

    • February 2, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I am in the process of reading a New York Times bestseller called 90 Minutes in Heaven.  The first chapter, where Don Piper describes his 90 minutes in heaven, is by far the best part of the book.  Page after page of the rest of the book (so far), details his horrible ordeal, the accident, his years of pain and recovery and his depression.  This section of the book is not that enjoyable.  But today, I came to a passage of about 3 pages that made the drudgery worthwhile.

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  • Exposed – Personality Tests Disguised as Sales Assessments

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

    Yesterday, I met with a long-time client who, in his previous company, used OMG’s Assessments to identify what needed to change in order to double revenue from $30 million to $60 million.  In his new company, which is already about 12x that size, he wants to double revenue again.  He said, “I just wasted two years with the _____ Assessment.”  The assessment to which he referred was a personality assessment marketed as a sales assessment.  It could have referred to any personality or behavioral-styles assessment.

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  • Who Should Your Sales Force Call On?

    • January 27, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It’s not always obvious.  If your company sells oil drilling rigs to oil companies, then your salespeople know who to call on.  If your company sell luxury cars to wealthy people, you know where to find your prospects. But what if you sell products or services that could be sold to a much broader range of customers or clients?  Who should your salespeople call on then?

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  • Identify the Perfect Sales Candidate for your Sales Force

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

    Several years ago I wrote a White Paper that described both the original research as well as the ongoing research that drives our world-class, incredibly predictive, customizable sales specific candidate assessments.

    When it comes to our assessments, we strive for excellence, by venturing wider and deeper than anyone else.  We can be aggressive for two reasons:

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  • A Call to Action for the Sales Force

    • January 21, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Al Gore has become more famous for his call to action against global warming than he ever was as Vice President of the United States.

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  • Change Ready Companies Experience Faster Success in Sales Development

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

    I was thinking about the difference between the clients that achieve rapid progress, with very measurable change, in the first six months of sales development versus those that show more typical progress where change has begun to take place but it might not be measurable yet.

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  • Experts Provide Sales Management Help for 2009

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

    Here are my thoughts of the day: This economic climate isn’t impossible, it’s just not easy. 

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