Understanding the Sales Force
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The Sales Assessment Client Who Didn’t Renew after All These Years
- March 5, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
He has been a client of Objective Management Group (OMG) for over 20 years. He had a license to use OMG’s Sales Candidate Assessments and, as most clients do, had renewed it each year. When we met for breakfast recently, he told me that he had a new VP of Sales and would not be renewing his license this year. I was surprised for two reasons:
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Sales Team Morale is Overrated
- March 2, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Someone posted the question, “Are you already behind on your YTD sales goals?”.
One responses was another question, “What are some different ways you keep morale high when the team is behind on goals?”
I responded to this question with the following answer:
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Sales Education – New Events, Articles and Books
- February 28, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Today’s article has a collection of links to help you, your sales managers and your salespeople become more effective.
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How to Use Playlists to be More Effective at Selling
- February 27, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Clients don’t usually know what they really need, but instead often identify what they think they need. Clients hardly ever know what their problems truly are, but some have identified symptoms.
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What Makes a Lead a Good Lead?
- February 22, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A dozen leads came in today and among them were leads from DELL and Bose. Both are large companies and might even make great clients but are they good leads? That all depends on who you ask.
So I pretended to ask 6 salespeople that I’ve worked with over the past several years. I pretended to say, “I have leads from DELL and Bose – are you interested in either of them?” And here is how the imaginary conversation went from there:
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What It Really Means When CRM Isn’t a Sales Force Priority
- February 15, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s rare when a company isn’t using something for CRM, even if it’s an old version of ACT. In most companies, it’s not whether they are using CRM, it’s which CRM they have chosen to use and whether the CRM has actually been adopted. The CRM application of choice is completely useless to management unless the entire sales force is using it as intended.
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Top 7 Reasons Why Ineffective Salespeople Get By
- February 14, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
the typical salesperson receives, on average, 3 days of sales training in their entire career. I’ve interviewed thousands of salespeople (the good ones who have been recommended by the Assessment and performed well on a phone interview) and most of them have never had a single day of professional sales training. And practice? I can tell you that in the past 26 years, there has not been a single client whose salespeople had been practicing the art and science of selling before I required them to start practicing.
Why aren’t salespeople getting enough professional training before and during their employment?
Why aren’t they getting coached the way they should?
Why aren’t they practicing?
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10 Sales Coaching Examples
- February 13, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Your system for coaching – the frequency, duration and process – should remain consistent, but it is important to remember these variations. All of the people whom you coach or should be coaching are unique individuals and need you to work with them in a way that is most beneficial to them, not you.
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How Many Sales Candidate Assessments Does it Take?
- February 9, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Why wouldn’t you just wait until the end of the process to assess the candidates? Three reasons: