Search Results
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Sales Pipeline – Reality vs. What Your Salespeople Know and Think
- January 8, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
They are three separate things but not three distinct data points:
What your salespeople know – for certain – a data point. This is the information that prospects and customers provide – that proves to be valid – in response to your salespeople’s questions. For example, if one of your salespeople asks which competitors the prospect is speaking with, the answers could be as varied as:
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Should You Restage Your Sales Pipeline?
- January 8, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
As part of its sales force evaluation process, Objective Management Group (OMG) conducts a pipeline analysis and determines both the quality of the pipeline and the quantity of the pipeline. We ask each salesperson to submit 4 proposal-ready opportunities and then we run the analysis.
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Top 10 Reasons for Inaccurate Forecasts
- January 8, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For double article Friday, in addition to my Sales Pipeline Nazi article, I have the following bonuses for you:
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Achieve More Accurate Forecasts and Sales Results Today
- November 12, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Last week, a new client was explaining how he called several of the nearly 300 opportunities that one salesperson had in his pipeline. My client identified 7 opportunities that had no recent activity, but had been in the pipeline for several months and were supposed to close. Imagine my client’s surprise when:
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Top 10 Reasons For Inaccurate Forecasts
- February 28, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We joke a lot about sales forecasts being no more accurate than weather forecasts, but everything is relative. An inaccurate forecast of cloudy won’t have much of an impact on anyone, but an inaccurate forecast of sunny and warm might. An inaccurate forecast of flurries might not cause a problem if they don’t materialize, but an inaccurate forecast of a foot of snow – in either direction – has serious consequences.
Inaccurate sales forecasts are legendary. Here are the 10 most common reasons why salespeople, sales managers, Sales Directors and CEO’s suffer from this:
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Sales Leadership Observations about Pipeline and Terminations
- June 3, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It gets a bit scary when people who are experts in one thing write about another. Today’s example was sent to me by OMG partner Mike Shannon. He sent along a recent BtoBonline.com post by Jeff Perkins. Jeff suggests that the sales funnel is a thing of the past, but his examples, and therefore reasons, are way off base. He seems confused about what the sales pipeline or funnel is supposed to do for us.
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Sales Pipeline – Reality vs. What Your Salespeople Know and Think
- November 28, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
What your salespeople think or believe – not a data point.
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What it Takes to Make Your Sales Pipeline Accurate & Predictive
- August 5, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, while speaking in DC, I asked my usual questions, but the response to one of the questions left me scratching my head. It wasn’t a new question; as a matter of fact, I’ve been asking it for years. And, as you can see below, I’ve been writing about the pipeline in various ways for years:
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Why Was the Sales Forecast So Unreliable?
- February 11, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The snow storm never happened. We got an inch – over a 12 hour period – and the state shut down for nothing. And it’s not like we can’t handle a snow storm here in New England. We can handle anything! They just blew it. How was this forecast similar to the sales forecast?
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250 Best Articles on Sales and Sales Leadership by Category
- April 4, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
These are the top 10 articles in 25 categories on sales, sales leadership, sales assessments, sales performance, sales excellence, sales process and more.