Search Results
-
When Enough Isn’t Enough
- June 11, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One client finally heeded some advice they hadn’t responded to for several years. They finally decided to replace 90% of their underperforming independent reps with direct salespeople. They certainly thought it through for a long enough time, considering the implications to the remaining reps, salespeople, customers and employees; programs, applications, legacy knowledge and costs. So on some magical day this year a transition will take place and the company will usher in the new era of performance and accountability. Or so it seems.
-
The Crosswalk Law
- June 3, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The sales version of the crosswalk law occurs when the growth strategy calls for recruiting new salespeople and management turns to headhunters. Instead of attracting, hiring and developing A-Players they decide to bring on salespeople with an existing book of business. Much like the crosswalk law, this works once in a while but more often it doesn’t.
-
When Big is Bad
- May 12, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A recent discussion with a top executive from a Fortune 1000 company provided some great insight – for him – as to the difficulties that large companies face when attempting to optimize their sales organizations.
-
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?
-
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: