Understanding the Sales Force

  • Challenges Don’t Always Require a Complete Sales Force Makeover

    • April 19, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Many of the Sales Force Evaluations provided by Objective Management Group (OMG) reveal that the company’s problems run so deep that they will require a complete sales force makeover.  However, it doesn’t always have to be that way.  Sometimes, a single word, question or statement will change how every prospect responds.

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  • Sales Leaders Got These Issues All Wrong

    • April 16, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I couldn’t help but notice that for most companies, including the best-in-class, their initiatives were not in alignment with the business pressures which they reported having.  Here are their business pressures:

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  • Does Your Sales Force Look Like This?

    • April 12, 2012
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I shared just a few of the charts, graphs and tables, which we include in a sales force evaluation when we are answering common, but difficult, business questions such as:

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  • A Different Look at Sales Compensation

    • April 6, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    With a salaried position, salespeople are essentially on a fixed income – perhaps a more attractive fixed income than a retiree, but fixed none the less.  And these days, with most people living at or above their means, fixed simply becomes another word for broke!  The thought of coming up with $75,000 in discretionary funds is daunting unless a salesperson is the rare exception who has been squirreling away most of his income.  This is the world of the salaried salesperson.  Play it safe, but don’t expect any big commission checks.

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  • Another Sales Assessment Takes on OMG – What Does it Reveal?

    • April 4, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I received an email asking if I could explain why OMG’s assessment said “Not Recommended” and the SalesAP said “Highly Recommended”.  In general terms, SalesAP, like all personality assessments, makes assumptions about its sales findings. 

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  • Are Women in Sales Less Trainable?

    • April 3, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Before I get into trouble for the title of this blog, let me 1.) explain from where it comes and 2.) direct you to another of my articles where I wrote that women make better salespeople than men.

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  • Can Too Many Opportunities be a Negative for Salespeople?

    • April 2, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Many of us in this space write about the obvious importance of filling the sales pipeline and keeping it filled. But what about too many opportunities in a salesperson’s pipeline?  Isn’t that a positive?

    Maybe not.

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  • Illuminate and Dust Off Your Sales Force

    • March 14, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Have you ever noticed the same thing in your home, apartment or office?  The air looks clear, but when the sun comes beaming through, it suddenly illuminates billions of tiny dust particles that you didn’t know existed.

    Sometimes, you get an even rarer peak into that confused state when you are between awake and asleep.  You know you just caught a glimpse of a conversation that even seconds later you can’t recall.  But it was there.

    It’s the illumination factor that I want to talk about.

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  • Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and the Sales Assessment Industry

    • March 12, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

     There are some wonderful assessment companies that have been doing their thing – personality assessments and behavioral styles assessments – for decades.  The companies do those two types of assessments quite well.  They are accurate, informative and useful when used as originally intended – to understand people better.  Over the past decade most of them have attempted sales assessments and the results are very similar to the Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson albums.  They should stick to what they do best!

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  • Top 10 Reasons Salespeople Struggle to Get Decisions

    • March 7, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you were to remove the easy “yes” and “no” decisions that your salespeople hear during the course of the year, 80% of the opportunities that have been stalled in your pipeline would still be there.  Why is it so difficult for your salespeople to get decisions made on those opportunities?

    The simple answer, the one you already know, is that those prospects aren’t ready to buy.  Here are ten reasons why your salespeople have them in the pipeline:

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