Understanding the Sales Force

  • Be Still My Pipeline

    • May 1, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We evaluated a sales force this week that had pipeline problems. Most companies have pipeline problems; they simply lack the awareness to recognize how serious those problems are. Of even more concern is how long it takes to fix a faulty pipeline.

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  • Creating a Sales Culture

    • April 28, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    So what are the challenges a company will face when management decides to create a more proactive sales culture?

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  • Is He or Isn’t He?

    • April 27, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A company that wanted to evaluate their sales organization was having a not so uncommon identity crisis: their sales managers don’t have any salespeople reporting to them. What’s wrong with that you ask? Five things:

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  • The Passing of Time

    • April 25, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I noticed that one of the sales forces we evaluated this week had a lot of salespeople that were fairly new – either to selling or to the company – which, by itself, is not particularly alarming. However, the sales manager was investing only 10% of his time on coaching and accountability.

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  • Let’s start with the Sales Managers

    • April 23, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I spoke this week with a leader who wanted to assess his sales managers for potential development. He felt it would be better to start with sales managers – that’s how they always proceed with development. Who was it that started the misguided belief that you have to start with managers?

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