Search Results
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Why Top and Bottom Salespeople Have the Same Scores
- November 21, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A question was brought to my attention about Objective Management Group (OMG) assessments. For context, OMG has assessed more than 2.4 million salespeople, their accuracy is legendary and they’ve earned their stripes for predictive validity as well. I was shown two sales candidate evaluations that at first glance had important findings that looked the same. Both individuals lacked Desire for Success in Sales and Commitment to Achieve Sales Success. The problem is that individual number one is their top salesperson and individual number two is their worst salesperson. The question I was asked was, “How can that be!”
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Movie Contrasts the Best and Worst Salespeople
- November 14, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We watched GameStop: Rise of the Players and despite it being a documentary, found it to be quite entertaining. It was David versus Goliath. It was Amateur versus Professional. It was about an improbable outcome accomplished by people who were unlikely to succeed and even more unlikely to win the big payoff.
While I thought it had a lot in common with selling, the twelve central figures:
Were not professional investors although they did invest in GameStop.
Were not skilled traders although they did conduct some research.
Did not trade as a full-time job or hobby.
Were making decisions based on hunches, not history or science.
Found in each other kindred souls with a shared passion for GameStop.The five statements above suggest that skills, attributes, competencies and capabilities were NOT part of their success so what could this possibly have in common with selling?
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Apple Fritters and the 10 Keys to a Successful Sales Transformation
- October 25, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For the first time, I knew what it felt like to totally suck at something other than golf.
The fritters came out mushy, like pudding. They lacked flavor, like cauliflower crusts. Instead of looking like apple fritters, they looked like cookies. You can’t believe what an epic failure this was! I would have been better off to outsource which, in the apple fritter world, would have meant a trip to Dunkin or Starbucks and it would have been perfect! And that, somehow, leads me to sales performance.
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Milestones in the Sales Process are Like the Stones in a Wall
- October 5, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
An ideal sales process has 4 stages, each with anywhere from 4 to 10 milestones that must be met in order to move to the next stage.
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How to Achieve Greater Sales & Sales Leadership Success
- September 20, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Salespeople need to be much better at prospecting instead of hiding behind emails and LinkedIn messages. They need to be better at the discovery call and qualifying. They need to improve their listening and questioning skills. They need to improve their ability to reach and build stronger relationships with decision makers. They need to improve their ability to sell value. They need to improve their ability to execute the company’s chosen sales process and sales methodology. They don’t need the distractions of off-topic reading.
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The Philosophy of the Red Sox and Gallop Will Lead to Increased Revenue
- March 30, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Leadership believed they were very good at doing these things. However, everything is relative. The key question is, good compared to who?
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The Science of Sales Effectiveness
- March 1, 2023
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories:
The Modern Science Behind Sales Force Excellence provides insights, commentary and conclusions reached from our Sales Force Effectiveness Study, conducted during the latter part of 2014.
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This is What Would Happen if Bob Got Promoted to Sales Manager
- February 7, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For those of you who are familiar with my series of articles about Bob – the worst salesperson ever – you can catch up by enjoying, laughing, and making fun of him here. 12 of the articles that show up on that page are about Bob!
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Made Up Sales Statistics and Their Contrast to Real Data
- February 2, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A sales consultant who knows that I geek out on sales data read that 84% of salespeople suck because they don’t enjoy what they do. A huge percentage of salespeople do actually suck but the actual number is closer to 75%. Is it really because they don’t enjoy selling?
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The Science of Salesperson Selection
- January 17, 2023
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories:
In 1964, Harvard Business Review published “What Makes a Good Salesman”, an article by Herbert M. Greenberg and David Mayer. They detailed their four-year study of salespeople and explained the commonalities they observed in better salespeople. They learned, for the first time, that good salespeople had the following two characteristics in common.