sales hiring
-
The Rise of Socialism in Sales: How Equal Outcomes Are Killing Merit and Performance
- July 1, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Baseball and Sales, Dinger the Dog, Politics and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
Socialism has quietly crept into sales organizations through equal-outcome compensation plans, weakened accountability, tenure-based promotions, and identity-focused hiring. The result? Lower performance, entitlement, and frustrated top producers. Here’s what’s happening and what smart leaders can do about it.
-
How Sales Management Mirrors Little League Baseball
- May 29, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
Most sales organizations operate just like Little League Baseball — cheap, convenient, and great for the top performers while everyone else stays stuck. Here’s why promoting your best salesperson to manager is usually a costly mistake.
-
25 Factors Indicative of a Strong Sales Culture
- May 11, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Music and Sales, Sales Compensation, Sales Process, Understanding the Sales Force
Executives love the idea of a sales transformation until it’s time to actually change. Here are 25 proven factors that separate a truly strong sales culture from one that’s stuck making excuses.
-
How Salespeople Can Differentiate Themselves with Their Introduction
- November 4, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
Discover how adopting a catchy moniker—like my new “Sales Analogy King”—can set you apart in sales intros. Inspired by Verne Harnish and a “Tree-Stump Guy” hire, this reflective piece explores personal branding, legacy, and uncovering hidden talent with assessments like OMG.
-
Wild Shifts in Sales Hiring Drive the Hire Rate From 3% to 0.5%
- July 21, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Sales Data and Science, Understanding the Sales Force
Struggling to hire sales pros? Dive into real stats from a recent sales manager search: 169 candidates narrowed to 1 hire (0.5% rate). Uncover dramatic changes in response rates, drop-offs, and why a rigorous pipeline with tools like OMG is essential for nailing the right fit.
-
Fire Your Top Salesperson: The Red Sox Lesson for Better Sales Teams
- June 18, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
Can firing your top salesperson transform your team? The Boston Red Sox’s bold trade of Rafael Devers reveals how letting go of a problem performer can lead to big wins. Discover the sales team lesson in this surprising move.
-
Poison Ivy and 2 Powerful Lessons for Hiring Salespeople
- April 18, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Music and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
Paul McCartney hoped it would work out with Linda in the band, and while Wings were very successful, let’s be honest. Linda would not have been hired to perform on vocals or keyboard in any other band – not even a local wedding band! Why? She was a photographer and shouldn’t have quit her day job.
We see nepotism in every family owned business where the founder/CEO/President gets the entire unqualified family involved. The family learns to adequately perform in most of the roles but the brother in charge of sales, the nephew managing major accounts, the daughter in account management, and the wife doing estimates just aren’t cutting it.
Let’s not forget the Hope part of this…
Hope is used when sales leaders interview and select sales candidates. They decide that from among the following 10 characteristics and qualifiers, the candidate:
-
Shania Twain’s Lesson for Sales Leaders Who Want to Hire Stronger Salespeople
- April 14, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Music and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
Instead of seeking industry experience, a degree, and related characteristics, sales leaders must vet for the ability to succeed at selling to your specific audience, at your price point, and against your competition. That one difference takes the entire sourcing, screening, vetting, interviewing, selecting, hiring, and on-boarding process and turns it upside down. Different tools. Different process. Different sourcing. Different questions. Different answers. Different results.
-
How I Learned I am a Sales Consulting Imposter
- November 11, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I didn’t like this candidate. He was way too cocky and aggressive, he wasn’t prepared, and he didn’t like all of my questions. I ended the call after about a minute and a half because I already knew he wasn’t going to proceed in the process. I told him that if he didn’t hear back from me by the end of business on the following day, then he didn’t make it to the next round (an interview with me).
Considering the findings on his OMG assessment, imagine what could happen if he felt rejected from the way I ended the call, and when he didn’t get the follow up call the next day. Consider how his lack of patience, along with not being a relationship builder and not needing to be liked, could manifest.
Did you imagine what could happen?
-
Hiring Salespeople – How Deadpool Would Fare as a Sales Candidate
- August 16, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Books, Movies, Theater and Television, Understanding the Sales Force
Hiring salespeople doesn’t have to be complicated but most companies get the entire process wrong from expectations, to job description, specs, job posting, vetting, phone interview, first interview, final interview, selection and on-boarding. The companies we help attract more candidates, better quality candidates, conduct fewer interviews, have significantly less turnover, and new salespeople producing out of the gate. We could probably help you too, but you must want the help. That means getting your ego out of the way, embracing a different way to hire salespeople, paying for the help, and being more patient than before. If you are willing to do that, you can be a big winner and build a kick-ass sales team.
