Understanding the Sales Force
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How to Run a Killer Sales Incentive Contest
- February 6, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Incentive programs are still very powerful as long as you make sure they don’t last for more than 90 days. There are other factors that can make the difference between an effective and ineffective program. Consider the three most important concepts: Everyone must believe that they can win the contest, there should be more than 1 winner, and the rewards must be motivating enough for them to go into overdrive to win one.
Let’s begin with how you get them to believe they can win.
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World Series, Super Bowl and the Sales Force – The Rallying Cry
- February 5, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
With selling being such an individual sport, can any of this character and culture stuff be applied to a sales force? Let’s discuss it and figure it out.
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What is the Best Sales Model for Your Sales Force?
- January 28, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
On its own, the concept of a sales model can be confusing, especially when you mention it in the same breath as sales process and sales methodology. However, when the word “successful” precedes sales model, it lends more clarity to its purpose.
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Sales Selection Experiment – a Must Read Case Study
- January 27, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
They were assessed with OMG’s tools, and assembled into 5 teams, all selling the exact same product. They had to go door-to-door, sell an overpriced luxury item, in the same market, over a 3-day period.
5 people were placed on each team based on the following carefully selected scores from OMG’s Sales Candidate Assessment:
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What Does it Take to Become a Sales Manager?
- January 24, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
After his football career ended, Chatham went back to school and received an MBA from Babson in 2011. With that in hand, he said that he would prefer a front office job and wishes to become a GM. On the other hand, Fouria said that he would love to coach, but…
There were a lot of buts:
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Sales Execution – What Should You Pay Attention to?
- January 22, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan even wrote a best-selling business book titled, Execution. Yet in sales, we rarely hear anything as simple or basic. We’re far more likely to hear about competition, politics, relationships, price, marketing, or the product itself before we hear anyone utter execution as the reason for not winning an account or a deal. Why is that?
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Why Doesn’t Sales Methodology Get More Attention?
- January 14, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This brings me to my original question, “Why doesn’t sales methodology get more attention from authors, writers and bloggers, and why does sales process get most of the coverage?”
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What Percentage of Sales Candidates are Worthy of Being Hired?
- January 13, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s an interesting question and one that has more than one answer. I wrote an article back in September of 2013 that asked the question, Are Sales and Sales Management Candidates Getting Worse?
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Global Warming, Social Selling and The Sales Force of Tomorrow
- January 8, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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What Would You Do? Sales Force Attempts to Maintain Status Quo
- January 6, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This is what can happen when salespeople have zero concept of selling; when knowledgeable, technical people are moved into selling roles without being trained to sell; when the sales manager is more interested in selling than managing; when the president doesn’t hold the sales manager accountable; and when there isn’t a sales culture.