• 3 Powerful Excuses for Maintaining Mediocrity in Your Sales Hiring

    • January 26, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When I answered questions from the audience, the best one, in my opinion, was the most obvious. It went something like this:

    “If your recruiting process works so effectively, and your assessments are so predictive, and they save so much time and money and consistently identify top performers, then why don’t more companies use them?”

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  • What Makes You Think You Have a Sales or Recruiting Process?

    • January 22, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It’s true.  Executives brag about their processes.  “Oh, yes, we spent the last 15 years developing our process and it’s wonderful – wait until you see it!”  It never matters whether they’re talking about a recruiting process or a sales process, the common denominator is the pride they take in what they created.

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  • 18 Business Trends For Your Sales Force

    • January 21, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Before they handled one caller’s sales force challenges (excellent stuff) , they commented on the state of business out there right now.

    They see:

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  • How to Get Business to Fall From the Sky

    • January 20, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It’s predictable, phenomenal, and fulfilling. I’m talking about the magic that occurs when you and your salespeople leave their comfort zone and work hard to perform the very activity, behavior and actions which, when left to your own devices, you would choose not to do.  Whether it’s a salesperson who finally:

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  • Sales and Selling – Which Has Evolved More?

    • January 19, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Let’s compare the evolution of selling to the evolution of salespeople.

    Which do you think has evolved more?  After all, both have been around since there has been anything to sell.

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  • The Defining Moments in your Sales Cycle

    • January 13, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What are some of the more subtle, but important, key moments in your sales process that affect every sales outcome?

    If I were to review some recent conversations with clients and their salespeople, crucial accomplishments included:

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  • What is Maximum Effort on the Sales Force?

    • January 11, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    here is a third type of salesperson, one of the elite top 5%, who can consistently maintain maximum effort for much of the year.  But that salesperson isn’t the norm.  So the questions that come from this are these:

    Are the top 5%’ers A players or super human players?

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  • Can the Beatles Help You Close Big Deals?

    • January 8, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Some people didn’t care for any of the three and bought from alternative sources.  Some preferred just one or the other.  And some bought from all three.  They were the big winners of their day.  Who were they?  Try The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones.  Check out the following table which, if they were traditional sellers, could have been used to tout their features and benefits.

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  • When, How and Why Salespeople Discount Products and Services

    • January 6, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When I pick up the dogs, Heather gives me the bill.  When it’s $140, I pay, she gets the dogs for me, and we leave.  However, when the bill is $800, Heather gets really uncomfortable, and begins editing the invoice and always seems to get it under $650. Nice, right?  Only if you’re a customer.  If you’re Bob, the owner, who has no clue she is doing this, what must it be like for him?

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