Jim Collins

  • Should Special Effects Determine If You Have the Right Salespeople?

    • February 18, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When we evaluate a sales force, one of the answers we usually provide is whether or not a company has the right salespeople.  Right for what?

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  • Jim Collins Fortune Interview Translated for the Sales Force

    • March 2, 2009
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    So, if you must do something, as opposed to nothing, what can you do? You can only cut so many costs.  You can only sit back and wait for so long.  You can only hope so much.  At some point, you must do something about the one thing you can control – your sales force – the single connecting point between you and your revenue.

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  • Right Sales People in the Right Roles and the Right Seats

    • January 12, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was on site at a client’s last week to kick-off their training.  At the end of the kick-off I asked each salesperson for their three biggest lessons learned.  One salesperson had difficulty coming up with anything of substance.  It turned out that he was new to sales and when we assessed him two months earlier, our assessment indicated that he was not trainable.  The client wanted him in the program anyway because he had a hunch it would work out.  “Not trainable” manifests in different ways but usually has the same outcome – salespeople don’t improve.

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