Understanding the Sales Force
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Management’s Guide to the Top 10 Differences Between Sales Winners and Losers
- October 19, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Friday I wrote this post and today I wrote this longer article about the Top 10 Differences between Sales Winners and Sales Losers.
This post is the sales management version of the article referenced above.
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Sales Force Motivation – Learn From the Red Sox Miraculous Comeback
- October 17, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When salespeople have plenty of opportunities and have experienced plenty of difficult sales cycles, it’s not such a big deal when an important opportunity dies. But if it’s a salesperson that has very few quality opportunities or one who hasn’t experienced very many deals that went sour, they react – badly – by getting quite emotional, discouraged, and upset.
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The Sales Assessment as Crystal Ball
- October 16, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Not all sales assessments are created equal.
That’s an understatement.
Yet it’s when a client pushes back – not when they look at the recommendation or prediction and accept it – that we get an opportunity to bring our sales assessment to life.
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Getting Excited About Sales Metrics
- October 16, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
As we encourage our clients to do each day, both of my companies have daily huddles for their salespeople. The purpose of the daily huddle is to keep everyone focused on the measurable activities that drive results.
During the last couple of weeks, I’ve had our six-year old son in the car for about 6 of these conference calls and it only took one huddle to get him hooked. He wants to report his numbers – and he has them ready – each time he’s with me. It makes him proud to participate and he wants to report numbers that are better than theirs.
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10 Types of Sales Advisers and How to Choose the One That’s Best For You
- October 9, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ll bet you know plenty about agreements, contracts, and legal compliance in your industry. You probably know enough about accounting, taxes and audits to get by too. And I bet you know your way around insurance, investments and real estate.
Despite all of that knowledge, I’m certain you have a great corporate attorney, corporate accountant, insurance advisers for commercial, benefits and personal lines, and a Realtor. Some of these people may even sit on your board.
Do you have a sales expert on your board? On retainer? Working with your sales team? Your sales management team? On your sales infrastructure? On compensation and incentives?
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Will Your Salespeople Change Behaviors to Improve Their Effectiveness?
- October 9, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Can your salespeople change? Will your salespeople change? Do you have to change in order for any of this change to take place?
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Top 5 Reasons Why the OMG Sales Assessment is More Predictive
- October 1, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I was asked why Objective Management Group’s (OMG) assessments are so much more predictive of sales success and future performance than behavioral styles assessments and personality assessments. There is more than one answer to this question and I’ll try to explain the top 5 answers below:
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Sales Pipeline Can Provide Sight for Blind Executives
- October 1, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In a struggling economy, executives of sales driven companies are able to see weaknesses and shortcomings on their sales forces that they were previously either blind to or chose to ignore when the orders were coming in.
Now that these executives have sight, the question to be answered is can they invest the money to improve their revenue making machine or, is it too late because there isn’t any money left and what they see is what they get.
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The Sales Process, Closing More Sales, Raising Expectations
- September 29, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Today I was interviewed by Lee Salz, host of Secrets of Business Gurus, an internet radio talk show. Today’s topic was “Sales Process Home Runs”. (It’s so nice whem my interviewers tie baseball into our interviews!) We talked about the importance of a sales process and what’s involved in building one. We also talked about hiring the right salespeople to sell within that process. Click here to listen to this compelling 30-minute discussion.
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Sales Statistics That Reveal Sales Effectiveness
- September 26, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Jeff Angus, author of the Management by Baseball Blog, wrote this lengthy article in response to my Pitch Count post from last week. While Part I of his manifesto explores pitch count as it relates to injury and effectiveness, he brings up another important point. He talks about the best pitchers not learning how to win by not being expected or conditioned to finish the games they start.