• Resistant Salespeople Can Prevent Consistent, Strong Sales Results

    • June 27, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    resistance

    CEOs and Sales Leaders whose salespeople aren’t responding need to understand that their veteran salespeople are the same as my son when he was thirteen. 

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  • The Difference Between Sales Competencies, Sales Capabilities and Sales Outcomes

    • February 14, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you watched Super Bowl 57, you observed two teams that simply refused to give up or give in.  Sometimes, that’s the feeling I get when I’m writing articles and I have solid data on my side, while dozens of competing authors just won’t stop their constant barrage of articles using junk science, anecdotal evidence, and alternate facts.

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  • This Company’s Best Salesperson was 2500% Stronger Than Their Worst

    • February 1, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It’s been four months since the baseball season ended but college baseball begins in less than 4 weeks and it will be fun to watch our son play for his college team (while freezing our asses off!).  It’s also been a while since the last time I shared a top/bottom analysis but I completed one this week that I had to share.

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  • Sitcoms, Sales Process, Sales Assessments and Sales Competencies

    • January 11, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Hubspot, an inbound marketing company published a list of 18 Sales Core Competencies which include non-sales competencies like customer service and data analysis.  Job site Indeed published a list of 18 Sales Core Competencies which include non-sales competencies like leadership and change management.  I’m not suggesting that these capabilities aren’t important, but in no way, shape or form should they be considered core sales competencies.  Why would people turn to any of these lists of opinions when there is a widely accepted, definitive list of 21 Sales Core Competencies backed by science and data on more than 2.3 million salespeople? 

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  • Top Recommended Personality Assessments for Sales

    • January 9, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    My Chrome home page often displays articles that Google thinks I might be interested in. Red Sox, Patriots, politics, software applications, gadgets, and for the first time, sales assessments!  I thought, “Is this for real?”

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  • Can Malcom Gladwell Explain the Sales Hiring Problem?

    • January 4, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    For the sales leaders who claim they trust their gut, this book and its many examples demonstrates that there is no such thing as accurate gut instinct.  Like a coin flip, you’ll be right half the time.  So what can companies do to improve on these odds?  Assessments.

    Consider these statistics from several sources:

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  • The Connection Between Road Signs, Sales Data, Consultative Selling and Sales Recruiting

    • December 6, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Salespeople who are learning to take a consultative approach to selling hear a stated issue – the consultative selling version of a road sign – but think they have arrived at their destination – the compelling reason to buy.

    This is supported by the data.  Objective Management Group (OMG) has data on 2,280,260 salespeople that have been assessed from more than 30,000 companies.  The findings are horrific:

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  • “Spirited” Has So Much in Common with Most Salespeople

    • November 29, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Only 13% of all salespeople take a consultative approach to selling and almost none of them can be found in the bottom 50% – the group that fails to meet quota each year.  A coincidence? On the other end of the spectrum, the top 10% of all salespeople are 4300% more likely to have the Consultative Seller competency as a strength!

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  • 5 Reasons Sales Teams Underperform Like My Old Wiper Blades

    • November 17, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I speak with a lot of CEOs and Sales Leaders from companies whose sales teams are underperforming.  One thing they seem to have in common is the mileage problem.  When I ask how long the sales team has been underperforming, it is usually the equivalent of 60,000 miles.  It’s not a new problem, the signs have been there for YEARS but something recently changed to the extent that they couldn’t tolerate it any longer.  The sales team’s performance was finally presenting a threat (safety) whereby one or more of revenue, earnings, sustainability, personal income, stock prices, turnover, market share, morale and more were at risk.

    What causes executives to wait so long?  Here are five potential reasons:

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  • The Irony of Free Passes for Under Performing Salespeople

    • October 21, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A typical US sales team consists of 15 people, including a Sales VP, 2 Regional Sales Managers, and 12 salespeople.  Of course, there are exponentially larger and smaller sales teams, but this is the version that we most frequently encounter.  This team will have no more than 3 performing salespeople, another 3 who sometimes hit their numbers, and 6 who chronically under-perform.

    Let’s assume that the salespeople who are ranked 10-12 are not just under-performers, but pathetically ineffective salespeople.  At the end of the year, they receive their annual review – the equivalent of an arrest and release – and are back on the street to underperform for another year, making the company both both the victim and the enabler.  This is insanity!

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