Understanding the Sales Force

  • New Analysis Shows the 5 Biggest Gaps Between Top and Bottom Sales Performers

    • May 1, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It didn’t take very long for this to happen.  When Objective Management Group (OMG) announced that it was making its findings data available to the public, we knew that it wouldn’t take long for someone with a flair for analytics to dig in and come up with something cool.  Last week, John Cousineau, creator of Amacus, got me on a video conference and shared what he came up with.  Hint:  Another way to differentiate top performers.

    He

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  • Closing and Negotiating Challenges – Symptoms of Another Selling Problem

    • April 25, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One of OMG’s sales candidate assessment clients in Europe purchased two goldfish. In keeping with their tradition, the client named the two fish, Recommended and Not Recommended.  Surprisingly, recruiting salespeople was not one of the topics addressed in the Richardson 2017 Selling Challenges Study.  Meghan Steiner, from Richardson, was nice enough to send me a copy of the results.  There were a number of interesting findings and of course I had some insights from the report.

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  • Which Salespeople are Easier to Train – Millennials or Veteran Salespeople?

    • April 19, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We brought home a puppy and we had him completely housebroken in 4 days.  He’s really smart and we’ve done this before, a combination that makes it nearly impossible to screw up.  To see him go to the door and touch it with his little paw, whimper when he is in his crate, go outside and do his business, and run back to the door is great. But it got me wondering, why is training a puppy relatively fast and easy while it is so much harder and takes so much longer to train salespeople?

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  • What B2B Companies Must Learn from 10 Reasons Why Amazon is Destroying Retailers

    • April 17, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Amazon generated almost $44 Billion in net revenue last year and it had to come from somewhere. That’s not $44 Billion that people wouldn’t have spent if not for Amazon.  It’s money that people would have spent, at some retailer, probably within an hour of their home or office, but chose to buy from Amazon instead.  

    You may think it’s because Amazon saves them money but that isn’t necessarily true.  And you may think it’s simply more convenient to order from your laptop or mobile device but that might not be the case either.  I’m going to share my 10 reasons why this is happening and you might be very surprised with my conclusion at the end of the article where I provide an important warning for B2B Sellers.

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  • The Future of Selling – Understanding This Crucial Sales Competency is More Important Than Ever

    • April 12, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Sales Motivation is one competency where the changes have been dramatic over a very short period of time and today I want to share those changes, as well as how the changes impact salespeople, sales leaders and sales organizations.

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  • How to Eliminate the Need for Sales Motivation, Accountability and More!

    • April 10, 2017
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What if I told you there was a way to completely eliminate the need to manage the pipeline, motivate, recruit and hold salespeople accountable?  There is and I’m going to share it with you!

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  • How Your Salespeople Measure Up in the 21 Most Crucial Sales Competencies for Modern Selling

    • April 4, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is really about sales professionals who place more faith in the traits that are consistent with their beliefs, fearing that their actual capabilities won’t match up with the science.  People want to see themselves in the most popular, positive way.  They don’t want to discover that they might be lacking in 10 of the 21 Sales Core Competencies or have gaps in all 21.

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  • Successful Movie Franchises and the 10 Keys to Impactful Sales Coaching

    • April 3, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Today’s coaching session must be so good that the salesperson does not want it to end.  Not only that, but the salesperson can’t wait to come back for more coaching.  Now, be honest with yourself for a moment.  Assuming that you regularly and consistently coach all of your salespeople, is your coaching so powerful that your salespeople can’t wait for another session with you?

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  • New Book Improves Sales Excellence and Grows Revenue

    • March 21, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    New Book Improves Sales Excellence and Grows Revenue

    Jeb Blount’s eagerly awaited new book goes on sale today and I recommend that you order it!

    The book is called Sales EQ and it provides sales leaders with tools to identify their team’s sales specific emotional intelligence needs along with strategies, techniques, and frameworks to gain control of the sales conversation and a decisive competitive advantage.

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  • The Official 2017 List of 21 Sales Core Competencies

    • March 15, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    These days, changes happen faster than ever and the same can be said about professional selling.  Selling is evolving, the rules of business are changing, there is more information available on line than there was last week and sales organizations must evolve accordingly.

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