• Top 10 Reasons Not to Test Your Sales Candidates

    • October 5, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Testing is not only normal, it’s expected.

    So why in the world is it so difficult to get Sales Leaders and HR professionals to test sales candidates?

    We hear everything, including this week’s top 10 reasons for not assessing:

    read more

  • Data Shows That Only 14% are Qualified for the Easiest Selling Roles

    • November 15, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Lays Potato Chips.  Movie Theater Popcorn.  Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies.  BBQ Ribs.  Fudge Brownies.  Rolos (a personal favorite from years ago).  All junk food which, after having the first one, you just can’t stop there. You must have more.  Lays even had that as a slogan back in the late 60’s – “Bet you can’t eat just one.”  Back then I couldn’t stop at one.

    Last week I wrote an article that said companies are hiring the wrong salespeople 77% of the time.  It was very popular and there was a great discussion on LinkedIn but similar to the junk food, you couldn’t read that one article and move to another subject.  You need to have some more.

    That article was filled with data to illustrate the differences between good salespeople versus those who actually get hired most of the time.  It was ugly and there were questions about the 77% like, “Where does that come from?”

    Some of the supporting data came from the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study.  Some of it came from Objective Management Group’s evaluations and assessments of 1.8 million salespeople.  And I’m going to show you some data that most people never get to see.  Take a look at these wild numbers!

    read more

  • Before Your Company Hires a Sales Leader…

    • January 30, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One area where we see this occur repeatedly is when companies are about to hire a Sales VP or Director AND they want to evaluate their sales force too.  For some reason, many choose to delay the evaluation until after the VP is in place when in reality, the evaluation should be used to help them select the new sales VP.

    read more

  • Can Sales Candidate Assessments Drive Results?

    • May 13, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    They claimed that salespeople who scored highest on their assessments had 69% higher close rates.  That’s impressive, right?  But their assessment didn’t drive the results. Those salespeople drove the results.  Their assessment simply indicated that those salespeople would be more successful.  That is what an assessment is supposed to do!  They could just as easily said, “Our assessments do what they’re supposed to do!”

    So let’s take a closer look at a 69% higher close.  It means that if the salespeople with a lower score close 1 of every 10 opportunities, then the strong salespeople, who scored highest on the assessment, will close 69% more of their 10 opportunities, or 1.69.  It’s not nearly as impressive as it sounds, is it?  

    read more