sales assessments

  • Harvard Business Review Hit and Then Missed the Mark on Sales

    • November 16, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Their conclusion was that everyone receives sales training on presentation and pitch but not on rising to the challenge and customer interaction.  They recommended that salespeople should get more training in those areas where they haven’t developed the other skills.  You don’t say…

    OK, I can’t wait to share my perspective.  Here is how HBR missed the mark:

    In no particular order:

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  • The Hidden Power of the Sales Candidate Follow Up Letter

    • November 15, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You receive follow up letters from your sales candidates all the time, right?  And you probably make notes in their files that they sent those nice follow up letters and you might even rank them higher as a result.

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  • Can Your Salespeople Sell More Effectively by Asking More Questions?

    • October 22, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    By now most executives understand the role and importance of questions in the sales process.

    More questions?  Okay.

    Better questions?  Sure.

    Tougher questions?  Makes sense.

    Questions that result in the kind of conversations that none of your competitors are having with your prospects?  Sounds great.

    But can your salespeople do this?

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  • The Impact of Coaching Salespeople and Sales Managers

    • October 7, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I thought back to my childhood and thought about the the coaching I had then, and later in life, and the impact it had on my success.

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  • Tale of Two Clients – Sales Training:) versus SAAAlesTraining:(

    • October 6, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Strong CEO’s see all the flaws their people have and are committed to developing them or upgrading.  Weak CEO’s see beauty, and flowers, and blue skies – yes, that’s the ticket – blue skies through rose colored glasses.

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  • The Single Biggest Mistake that Salespeople Make

    • September 28, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Ask 10 people and you’ll get 10 different answers about the biggest mistake that salespeople make. Ask the question a bit differently and I will give you a different answer too. But ask the question in the title – “What is the single biggest mistake that salespeople make?”, with the key word being mistake – something they do incorrectly rather than something they do because of a weakness – and I can provide data to back it up. There are actually 3 mistakes that are almost always made but 2 of them occur as a result of the single biggest mistake.

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  • Do Your Salespeople Have to Give Up Control to Their Prospects?

    • September 17, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I disagree with his article when he implies that we should be resigned to the fact that there isn’t much to be done except building trust until the prospect is ready to engage. 

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  • 10 Sales Personalities and How to Manage Them

    • September 16, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    There are diverse individuals that you will have to manage and they aren’t really personalities as much as they are characteristics.  You might call them one or two word descriptions of people instead of characterizing them as personalities.  Following are 10 Sales Characters and how you can manage them more effectively.

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  • Salespeople Become More Effective Part 2

    • September 10, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Yesterday’s article discussed the possibility for salespeople to develop weaknesses AFTER being assessed and during the period of comprehensive sales training, coaching and development.  Today, we’ll discuss some of the areas where you should see fairly early improvement, as well as the areas where you need to see it but may not.

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  • Salespeople Become More Effective But Can They Become Worse?

    • September 9, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Objective Management Group (OMG) provides Progress Evaluations to determine how much improvement has taken place during the period of time since an individual or a team was originally assessed.  In most cases, especially when effective training and coaching has taken place, significant to dramatic improvement occurs.  Occasionally though, a salesperson will appear to be worse – weaker – than the first time.  How could this be?

    I’ll explain some of the scenarios where this should not be alarming, as well as some where it should.

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