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Dunkin Donuts – Time to Make Sales Compensation and Sales Competencies Work
- March 11, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You don’t have to be a fast-food franchise to learn from this lesson either. Most companies are short-sighted when it comes to compensation and don’t see how paying more gets you more. Of course a top salesperson costs double what an ineffective salesperson costs. But a top salesperson will sell three to five times more than an ineffective salesperson. In that case, how could you not structure your compensation around a top salesperson?
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Salespeople – The Difference Between Over Achievers and Under Achievers
- March 9, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I often post about overachieving and posted a comprehensive article on over achieving a few weeks back. I’ve also written about under achieving and, for the first time, want to draw some comparisons between over and under achieving.
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Sales Compensation – Exceptions to the Rule
- March 8, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve previously written about sales compensation, with the average salesperson earning $96,000, a good salespeople earning $135,000 (varies by industry and geography) and poor and entry level salespeople earning around $67,000. Several companies have recently asked me about how to hire salespeople when you can’t afford to pay even the entry level sales compensation.
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Salespeople – Can Their Work Ethic Be as Good as BB King’s?
- March 5, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
His skills have not eroded one bit. He is the King of the Blues.
Most of your salespeople are at least fifteen years younger than BB King. Can you say the same things about them?
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Top 10 Rules for Successfully Building a Sales Culture
- March 3, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
More and more firms that aren’t traditionally sales-driven are finding it necessary to finally build more of a sales culture. They know they need to do a better job at selling in order to deal with increasing competition, fewer call-ins, commoditization of their products and services, aging rainmakers looking at retirement, etc. Management seems to understand that they need to be more proactive bringing in business, cross-selling and up-selling. They’re saying the right words. They’re asking the right questions. But can they pull it off?
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Myths About Top Performing Salespeople
- February 28, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Most companies have “them”. Most managers brag about “them”. Most of “them” toot their own horns. Most are their company’s role models. Most companies would love to have more like “them”. They masquerade as the top salespeople in their companies, a claim supported by data, spreadsheets, commission statements, awards and accolades. But who are they really?
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What Can a Trip to Cancun Teach You About Managing Salespeople?
- February 25, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One of my most popular posts, from September 2006, What Can a Trip to Italy Teach You about Managing New Salespeople. Well we just returned from a trip to Cancun and I have some new lessons to write about today.
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Sales Candidates – Their Assessments Come to Life
- February 16, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In most interviews, you can watch a sales candidate’s assessment come to life. The more weaknesses they have, the more you’ll see them behave in a way that demonstrates those weaknesses. You’ll never see those weaknesses in more detail, than when the candidate objects to some part of the recruiting process. I posted an article last May 13 that a candidate took issue with. If you read the thread of comments below the article, you can see how the candidate’s weaknesses were extremely evident in his writing.
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How Salespeople Contribute to Losing Accounts – Post Mortem
- February 13, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Last week I posted an article about horrific customer service and non-existent follow-up by salespeople. Today, I offer you the post-mortem, the “I can’t believe this is still not completely resolved after everything that happened in the last two weeks” post.
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Successful Salespeople & Will Smith
- February 13, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Reader’s Digest ran a feature story on Will Smith, star of the hit movie, The Persuit of Happiness. Will’s character is not the only one in this story obsessed with winning. It turns out that Will is also obsessed with winning, being the best and being the most successful. He believes that he can be the best at anything he chooses to undertake. He not only shares this trait with the likes of Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump and other well known celebrities, but with some of the most successful salespeople as well. I posted an article on this subject in October.