sales hiring

  • Golden Nuggets from the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study

    • October 25, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I had a chance to review the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study and extracted some fascinating data.  I thought it might be interesting to take their data, overlay some of Objective Management Group’s (OMG) data, and see what we can take away from that.

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  • Are Millennials Who Enter Sales Better or Worse Than the Rest of the Sales Population?

    • August 31, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Millennials are more independent, more spoiled, have a shorter attention span, tend to be more into their technology than into people, don’t like working traditional hours, and don’t enjoy working in traditional ways.  That said, would you expect them to be better or worse suited for selling than the generations who came before them?

    I took to the data to see what story it might tell. I found data on more than 43,000 millennials in sales and here is what I learned.  This information should be very helpful for hiring new salespeople and developing them as well.

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  • Five Great Lessons That Apply to Every Company That Hires Salespeople

    • November 2, 2015
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I turned sixty years old today and everyone is asking me how it feels to be sixty. To be honest, it feels exactly the same as it felt to be fifty-nine – which is essentially the same as it felt to be 40. Nothing has changed. And speaking of nothing changing, nothing has changed over at BigBrains where two updates have come my way. The first came from someone who knows the real identity of BigBrains and suggested that I refer to them as ShitForBrains instead. She must have met them!

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  • Part 4 – The Real Story Behind the Sales Selection Fiasco

    • October 21, 2015
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This week we discovered a statistical difference between those salespeople who currently work for a company whose sales force was evaluated, and those sales candidates who were applying for sales positions.

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  • Did You Know That There is a Season for Hiring Salespeople?

    • September 17, 2015
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Did you know that when it comes to hiring salespeople, there are also seasonal trends we know to be true ?

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  • Why My Golfing May be Just Like Your Sales Recruiting

    • October 14, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    On the rare occasion that I have the opportunity to golf, it doesn’t matter what I choose for clubs, balls, gloves, tees or clothing.  At this point in my life and very short golfing career, just being out with a friend is good enough for me and if we count his strokes, and my lost balls, our final scores might even be competitive!

    That’s how some companies recruit salespeople.  It doesn’t matter who they are, where they come from, if they have selling skills, and whether or not they have any experience.  These companies treat sales recruiting like the instructions on their shampoo bottle – they rinse and repeat.  

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  • Keys to Improved Sales Performance – Part 2 of 4

    • September 3, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    Keys to Improved Sales Performance - Part 2 of 4

    If you are like most folks, you were away for at least part of the summer, took as many long weekends as you could, and worked fewer hours on the days you actually did work.  As part of getting the work done, you deleted as many emails as you could where a reply wasn’t required and visited fewer websites and blogs.

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  • As Good as Your Last Successful Hire – 10 Tips for Consistency

    • July 31, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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  • What Percentage of Sales Candidates Are Hired?

    • July 21, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    In very simple terms, 6% means that 20 candidates must be assessed for each one who is hired.  With an overall recommendation rate of 28%, those 20 assessments will yield approximately 6 candidates who are worthy of your time.  But there is much more to consider.

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  • Top 10 Sales Recruiting Lessons to Hire Great Salespeople

    • July 17, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One of the first emails I came across this morning was a LinkedIn update telling me that 16% of my network had started new jobs.  16%.  That’s one of every 6.25 people I am connected to.

    That brings us to this question.  Who’s in a LinkedIn network?

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