Search Results
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Take Empathy Out of the Sales Hiring and Selection Process
- September 18, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If an applicant is a good candidate for a sales management position, does that make the applicant a good candidate for a sales position?
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Developing Salespeople – a Hidden Finding
- November 14, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When salespeople are thinking about what they need to do rather than just doing it (think golf lessons, tennis lessons, skiing lessons, etc. and how they affect your game), they will be emotionally involved – even when they are supposedly getting better in every other area.
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Curt Schilling’s Contract Has Implications for the Sales Force
- November 8, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you follow baseball you probably heard that Curt Schilling’s new contract for next year includes $2 million for meeting weight incentives. For $2 million even I could be motivated to lose 20 pounds! And therein lies the deeper message.
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Sales and Statistics
- August 22, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If we judged Bob on sales alone we would have to give him failing grades for the 2nd quarter. If we judged him on his effort and his willingness to change and adapt, he gets an A. How do you judge your salespeople? How you do make sure that salespeople aren’t being judged by sales alone?
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The Sales Force Evaluation – Not Everyone Appreciates the Findings
- May 23, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In the May 13 post, More Hirable Sales Candidates, there were some controversial comments posted by a disgruntled sales candidate who didn’t get a job and blamed the assessment. As long as we’re on the subject of disgruntled, perhaps we should discuss the very small minority of clients who actually dislike the findings of the sales force evaluation. It happens very infrequently, only two or three times each year; but when it does, there are usually similar circumstances:
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Developing Weak Salespeople
- April 19, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Some of your salespeople are chronically weak – they just under perform and you don’t quite know where to begin to help them. Perhaps, you don’t even know how to help them so you just tell them to do more, try harder or keep at it. Maybe you give them your best ‘moves’ and hope they take. More often than not, you won’t be able to help but you will develop a closer relationship in the process, making it more difficult to terminate them when you give up.
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Be Still My Pipeline
- May 1, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We evaluated a sales force this week that had pipeline problems. Most companies have pipeline problems; they simply lack the awareness to recognize how serious those problems are. Of even more concern is how long it takes to fix a faulty pipeline.