Understanding the Sales Force

  • Ten Tips for More Hirable Sales Candidates

    • May 11, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The job market is getting tighter, but more so in certain cities and especially in certain industries. With the shrinking supply of candidates, those companies in industries that salespeople find less desirable are seeing fewer applicants as candidates opt for more desirable jobs. Industries that may find themselves having a more difficult time attracting hirable sales candidates are insurance, financial services, telecommunications and others. What can you do if the flow of candidates has slowed? The only things that need to change are:

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  • SPIN Selling and Miller Heiman Compared to Baseline Selling

    • April 28, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A reader asked me about my book, Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball, and how it compares with SPIN Selling and Miller Heiman’s Strategic Selling. Both books – SPIN Selling AND Strategic Selling are good; but neither of them are selling systems or processes.

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  • Sales Management Woes – Depression over Impression

    • April 27, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You want all of your salespeople to make a good first impression but even more, you want them to make a lasting impression. It’s difficult, if not impossible to recover from a bad first impression but what happens when your salespeople are making a less than impressive lasting impression?

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  • Lost Sales Analysis Tool

    • April 25, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Paul DiModica is one of the forward sales thinkers I like and he has a weekly sales newsletter called BDM News. He recently wrote about his Lost Sales Analysis Tool which is a formula for calculating sales rep contribution rather than sales rep revenue.

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  • Sales and Sales Management Advice

    • April 24, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I recently discovered Joe and Mike’s Sales Roundup podcast, targeting the IT industry. You can subscribe to Sales Roundup and have each one-hour show delivered right to your desktop or handheld. It’s entertaining and packed with good advice.

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  • Not Enough Hirable Sales Candidates

    • April 21, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you want to take full advantage of the power of the assessment, you must be certain that the ad will attract, not repel, the candidates you targeted.

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  • Reasons Why Prospects Don’t Buy

    • April 20, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Regardless of the reasons your salespeople didn’t get the sale, the issues listed above could have all been dealt with earlier in the selling process. Your job, should you decide to accept a true sales management assignment, is to make sure your salespeople recognize these issues before presenting or proposing a solution.

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  • Developing Weak Salespeople

    • April 19, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Some of your salespeople are chronically weak – they just under perform and you don’t quite know where to begin to help them. Perhaps, you don’t even know how to help them so you just tell them to do more, try harder or keep at it. Maybe you give them your best ‘moves’ and hope they take. More often than not, you won’t be able to help but you will develop a closer relationship in the process, making it more difficult to terminate them when you give up.

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  • When Salespeople Think the Deal is Closed

    • April 11, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A salesperson predicts that an opportunity ‘will close’ or, they do close an opportunity only to have the prospect delay or back out. What causes prospects to change their minds? More importantly, how do your salespeople respond when this happens? Do they follow up at the time suggested by the prospect? Do they wish their prospect luck? Do they walk away with their tails between their legs? Or do they recognize that this is merely another challenge to be overcome?

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  • Not Closing Sales – Sales Management Problem Solving Strategies

    • April 7, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When some of your salespeople aren’t closing sales of certain products or services what does it mean? First it helps to identify the possible causes:

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