Understanding the Sales Force
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Assessments – When is Knowledge a Good Thing?
- September 18, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Some clients want to learn as much as they can regarding how the assessments work; what makes a candidate hirable, where the findings come from, how their profile impacts the hiring decision, what is the OMG criteria, etc. Some clients crave this information because of their need to know stuff. Others want it to figure out how they manipulate the test to get more hirable candidates. One group wants to know if they can deploy candidates that aren’t recommended in some other meaningful way.
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Using the Assessment without the Process
- September 15, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The assessment accurately identified their top two candidates and they questioned the assessment? After a whopping sample size of 14? And they chose to stick by the recruiter who somehow managed to weed out 1,986 candidates prior to the 14 they assessed?
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101 Ways to Improve Your Life Volume 2
- September 12, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The great new book, 101 Ways to Improve Your Life – Volume 2, has just been released. While I am a contributing author to the book, there are also articles by 100 other experts including Jack Canfield. Volume 1 included contributions from Zig Ziglar, Dennis Waitley, Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn.
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Rating Sales and Sales Management Performance
- September 12, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Rick Roberge, in his September 3 post on TheRainmakerMaker.com Blog, reported that most people, when asked to rate themselves for a survey, rate themselves much higher and better than they are.
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Personality Tests – Are They Worth the Risk?
- September 12, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Kathryn Davis published an article warning that companies proceed with caution before they use personality tests. While she cites ‘no adverse impact’ and ‘questions that could violate privacy’ or ‘questions that could uncover mental disorders’, she really questions whether personality tests are worth the risk.
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New Salespeople – The Rules of Engagement
- September 11, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We debriefed the trip and identified 43 lessons learned. Debriefing your coaching, accountability, motivational or recruiting events should always produce lessons learned or, as the doctor in our group would call it, morbidity and mortality rounds.
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What Can a Trip to Italy Teach You About Managing New Salespeople?
- September 11, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We debriefed the trip and identified 43 lessons learned. I you strive for perfection, debriefing your coaching, accountability, motivational or recruiting events should always produce lessons learned or, as the doctor in our group would call it, morbidity and mortality rounds.
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Sales Hiring Efficiency
- August 31, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve addressed the lack of hirable candidates before – but in different ways! Today, I introduce a new metric, Sales Hiring Efficiency.
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Terminating Salespeople for Non Performance
- August 30, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
More than any other employees in the company, you can easily prove it when salespeople are underachievers.
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Sales and Statistics
- August 22, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If we judged Bob on sales alone we would have to give him failing grades for the 2nd quarter. If we judged him on his effort and his willingness to change and adapt, he gets an A. How do you judge your salespeople? How you do make sure that salespeople aren’t being judged by sales alone?