• 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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  • 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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  • Gaining Sales Traction is Like Talking to Kids

    • February 29, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    On a recent coaching call, I was explaining how to handle the prospect who doesn’t admit to having an issue on which they need help.  During a first call where the salesperson is taking a consultative approach, it’s not unusual for a prospect to become protective or defensive by denying having issues.  At this point, most (74% according to Objective Management Group) salespeople will choose one of the following three paths:

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