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Why Do So Many Salespeople Fail to Make Quota?
- April 26, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The statistics are staggering. In some sectors, fewer than 25% of all salespeople will make quota. Even best-in-class companies are lucky when fewer than 80% of their salespeople make quota. Are you OK with it when your own salespeople fail to make quota? There are a number of possible reasons for this widespread mediocrity and failure and, depending on the company, some or all of them may apply.
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Why Most Companies are Struggling to Grow Revenue
- April 25, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Dan Perry, writing at Sales Benchmark Index’s Sales Force Effectiveness Blog, wrote that “The single biggest problem with sales today is sales reps are mismatched to the buyer. They think like a sales rep and not like a buyer.”
Well, Dan, I don’t agree and I have the statistics to back me up.
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John Robinson’s Secret to Overcoming All Sales Obstacles
- April 24, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
But when it comes to sales success, I took away an even deeper message.
He said, “Every obstacle is an opportunity.”
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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.