Search Results
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Top 5 Sales Management Best Practices
- January 15, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Best Top 10 Lists, Understanding the Sales Force
The first problem with today’s title is the “5” in “Top 5.”
They are not the 5 on which most sales managers spend their time, so let’s begin with the sales management practices on which most sales managers actually spend their time. By the way, that’s how so many “best practices” (that aren’t) actually get published. Authors ask (in this case sales managers) how they spend their time. The answers that are most often reported become best practices. So I repeat, the first list does not contain best practices, but includes those activities on which most sales managers spend their time.
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Top 5 Reasons Why Salespeople Don’t Qualify Effectively
- January 15, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Best Top 10 Lists, Understanding the Sales Force
Last week, I posted this article in reference to an Inc. Magazine article that was way off base about Consultative Selling. It led to a significant number of comments with one of them being this question:
“Dave, in your opinion, with all the training that is available and has been delivered to sales people over the years, how come sales people still fail at executing an effective approach to qualifying a prospect. Forget what we want to call the approach. Just basic fundamentals like asking questions. This is known throughout the selling universe but sales people still suck at this. How come?”
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Personality Assessments – They Still Don’t Get it
- January 14, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The following email was recently forwarded to me. As you read it, look at the descriptors which the client references in the personality assessments. They’re not sales descriptors, so in essence, we have another example of an assessment which claims to be measuring one thing, but actually is measuring another:
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Top 20 Reasons Why Sales Managers Suck at Coaching
- January 14, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Best Top 10 Lists, Understanding the Sales Force
The latest interview between Jonathan Farrington, CEO of TopSalesWorld, and me is available here.
We discussed why only 17% of all sales managers are effective at coaching and the conversation was very enlightening.
It only takes 15 minutes to listen to the entire Podcast and you won’t be disappointed.
So why aren’t more sales managers effective at coaching salespeople? Here are my top 19 reasons and I left #20 open so that you could add your two-cents worth.
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Science and the Length of Your Sales Cycle
- January 14, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When Objective Management Group (OMG) evaluates a sales force, 1 of the 26 questions we answer for clients is, Can You Shorten Your Sales Cycle?”
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My Top 21 Keys to Help Your Sales Force Dominate Today
- January 14, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve seen this happen in youth baseball so many times. Let’s say it’s a ground ball and the third baseman boots it for an error. Of course, the next ball is hit right at the third baseman again and this time he fields it cleanly, but makes an error on the throw. And just as if it were programmed to happen, the third baseman is suddenly a target, balls coming at him and him alone, as he appears helpless and unable to make a clean play to put a merciful end to an inning. You could say he has been busy, but not very successful.
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CSO, CRO or Senior Sales Leader
- January 14, 2015
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories:
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Why CEOs/Presidents Tolerate Ineffective Sales Management
- January 14, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One of the comments on my article, The Validiation of the Sales Assessment Validation, mentioned the reluctance of CEOs and Presidents to redeploy or terminate ineffective sales managers. That topic deserves an article of its own, making 3 of my last 4 posts about ineffective sales managers. That will surely upset and perhaps eliminate a significant number of my regular readers.
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The Sales Epidemic that is Neutralizing Salespeople Everywhere
- January 14, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The Selling Power Blog published a new article of mine, The Top 10 Steps Salespeople Can Take to Improve. The article includes a really terrific video on the importance of tonality. I thought it would be helpful to expand on item #5, Persistence, because selling requires more persistence than ever before.
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CEO or President
- January 14, 2015
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories: