-
Something’s Gotta Give
- May 10, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Today we learned about a company that has 100% turnover – and they aren’t in the insurance business! This company burns out its 6-figure performers as well as the other 85% of the sales force, those who fail inside of 60 days.
-
Gut or Guts
- May 5, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
While history proves that the gut is unreliable for predicting sales success and science provides accurate information to predict sales success, the smart, modern sales manager must take advantage of that information until he can prove that his gut is more reliable than science. Are you a smart, modern manager or a gutsy manager who relies on gut?
-
Retooling the Sales Force
- May 4, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The executive team of a company whose sales force we recently evaluated wanted to ‘retool’ the sales force. Their salespeople were comfortable selling into one of the three markets on which they needed a presence, but not the other two markets. The executive team wanted to know whether it was easier to hire new salespeople or to develop the existing salespeople.
-
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.
-
Creating a Sales Culture
- April 28, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
So what are the challenges a company will face when management decides to create a more proactive sales culture?
-
Is He or Isn’t He?
- April 27, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A company that wanted to evaluate their sales organization was having a not so uncommon identity crisis: their sales managers don’t have any salespeople reporting to them. What’s wrong with that you ask? Five things:
-
The Passing of Time
- April 25, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I noticed that one of the sales forces we evaluated this week had a lot of salespeople that were fairly new – either to selling or to the company – which, by itself, is not particularly alarming. However, the sales manager was investing only 10% of his time on coaching and accountability.
-
Let’s start with the Sales Managers
- April 23, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I spoke this week with a leader who wanted to assess his sales managers for potential development. He felt it would be better to start with sales managers – that’s how they always proceed with development. Who was it that started the misguided belief that you have to start with managers?
-
“Man About Town”
- January 1, 2005
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Category: Magazine/Newspaper/Interviews
-
A Better Test
- March 12, 2004
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Category: Magazine/Newspaper/Interviews
Hiring new salespeople can be the most important decision a sales executive makes on a routine basis. Effects of a bad decision can include lost sales, wrecked customer relationships and the heavy cost of replacing a rep who’s below par. Even average hiring decisions leave money on the table – the money your firm could make by hiring people who have the potential to become top performers.