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Top 5 Reasons Why Sales Managers Don’t See Their Salespeople Objectively?
- January 10, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A question was posed as to why sales managers don’t view their salespeople the same as we view their salespeople when we evaluate them. It’s a great question too. And I wish I had the answer. I have some theories…
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Salespeople – Vacations and the Lack of Urgency
- January 4, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Take the recent holiday for example. The successful salespeople closed a ton of business right before Christmas. The unsuccessful salespeople left a lot of business on the table in December, expecting to have giant Januaries, and today may be thinking February will be the month.
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Evaluating the Sales Force – Reasonable Expectations
- December 19, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s to take a real look under the hood of the sales pipeline and determine its quality. It’s to uncover hidden problems that prevent the sales force from achieving its potential and so much more. It’s to provide more important, relevant information than “did we screw up five years ago?”
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10 Reasons for HR and Sales Management to Hire Winning Salespeople Using Assessments
- December 15, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are two variables that have a huge impact on your success using an assessment in the hiring process. The first is which assessment you use. The second is where in the process you use it.
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Entering Sales – a Ten-Year Old’s Perspective
- December 11, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The collection of beliefs, possessed by your salespeople can either support or sabotage their outcomes. It’s important to know and understand their beliefs so that you can better understand why they get the outcomes they get. Objective Management Group, in its analysis of each salesperson, uncovers up to 64 self-limiting beliefs.
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Sales Force Accountability
- December 10, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For those of you who are afraid to hold their salespeople accountable, let this lesson prove that the worst that can happen is already happening. In response to the likely, “What if it backfires?” question, how can it backfire any worse than most of your sales force making excuses and underperforming.
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Sales Assessment – More Accurate Part II
- December 5, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There’s much more at stake than whether your gut instinct may be better/smarter than the assessment. Making an exception compromises the integrity of the entire hiring process.
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Sales Competencies – Are They Changing?
- December 2, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We established 21 Core Competencies for Selling about a decade ago. They’re still important but they might be evolving. A salesperson’s ability to use the internet may now be just as important as his ability to prospect, develop a relationship, qualify and close business.
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Sales Assessment – More Accurate Than Sales Management Thinks
- December 1, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There’s a moral to this story, a lesson learned right in my own back yard. If the OMG Sales Candidate Assessment says, “Not Recommended”, do not, under any circumstances, hire the candidate.
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Pfizer Reducing Size of Sales Force by 20%
- November 29, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Based on the data we have collected on salespeople from 32,000 companies, it would be fair to say that 20% of the salespeople in most companies can be eliminated without a loss of revenue. But the real key is in choosing the right 20% and most companies use the wrong information to make those decisions.