Understanding the Sales Force

  • 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.

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  • When Salespeople Perform Poorly on OMG’s Sales Assessment

    • September 24, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When a top producer doesn’t assess well on Objective Management Group’s Sales Assessment, how can it be explained?

    These are some of the possible explanations:

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  • Sales Appointments to Sell Free Services

    • September 22, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Barbara left a voice mail for me today.  10 points for Barbara.

    She got me to call back.  10 more points for Barbara.

    When she finally had me on the phone she asked, “and who are you with?” 

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  • The Sales Management Equivalent to Baseball’s Pitch Count

    • September 19, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One friend suggested I find a way to correlate pitch count to sales.

    No problem.

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  • Take Empathy Out of the Sales Hiring and Selection Process

    • September 18, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If an applicant is a good candidate for a sales management position, does that make the applicant a good candidate for a sales position?

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  • Hiring Salespeople is Like Baseball Expansion

    • September 15, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Earlier today I was interviewed by Hank Walshak for a white paper on Sales Process, Sales Production and Sales Performance. As we discussed sales production – the concept that more salespeople equals more revenue, I explained dilution as it related to Baseball.

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  • Your Sales Force – Who is Playing on Your Team?

    • September 11, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What happens to your salespeople when a big deal or account they were hoping to close, counting on to close,doesn’t?  What happens to them psychologically, emotionally and even physically?

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  • How to be More Effective Selecting Sales Candidates

    • September 8, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When it comes to assessing sales candidates, I strongly discourage benchmarking and here’s why.

    Let’s start with recruiting salespeople.

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  • Top 10 Reasons Why Opportunities Die

    • September 4, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve provided examples before of bringing seemingly lost opportunities back from the dead.  That may be the reason a client asked me to help bring one of his company’s deals back from what might be a near death experience.

    I’m not going to reveal the details of this opportunity (yet) but opportunities like this usually have some common themes.

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  • Obama and Friends On Stage – Implications for the Sales Force

    • August 28, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Back to Denver. Why would those presentations close all of their prospects?

    It met all of the rules for a Baseline Selling presentation:

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