sales management

  • Trigger Events – The Anatomy of Sales Wisdom

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

    Some may call what I am describing nothing more than experience, wisdom or intuition.  It doesn’t really matter what you call it, as long as your salespeople do it during every conversation.

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  • Top 10 Reasons Why Sales Commitment Has Become More Important

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

    My recent analysis has shown that today, Commitment has overtaken Desire in importance and we will be reflecting that in assessments very shortly.  But Why?  What has caused this fundamental shift?

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  • The Delayed Impact of Lack of Sales Commitment

    • June 2, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    While commitment is a single data point – not the be-all-end-all – it’s a very powerful and predictive data point as well.

    If you are a client, upon learning that a top producer lacks commitment you might be asking, “How can that be?”

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  • Best Sales Strategy For Your Company

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

    What would you do if one of your sales reps called at 5 PM on a Friday, the last day of the month, on the final day of a bad quarter and said, “Good News – I closed ___________!”(insert any huge company here)

    You’d get excited, your heart would beat a little faster, you’d feel relieved because things seem to be turning around, and you’re thinking, “This is good, damn it.”

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  • Derek Jeter Shows Salespeople How to Convert Leads to Opportunities

    • May 13, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Derek Jeter, the leader and all-star shortstop for the New York Yankees, goes all out running hard to first base on every ball he puts into play.  As a result, it’s easy for management to expect the same kind of hustle and effort from everyone on the team.  After all, if the star does it, then everyone should do it. Other teams?  Not so much.  David Ortiz of the Boston  Red Sox never runs hard on a ground ball so what does management say to a younger player who also fails to run hard?

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  • Sales 2.0 – The Answer to our Prayers or a Costly Distraction?

    • May 5, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Let’s take a look at this phenomenon from another perspective.  Sales 2.0 is simply a high-tech, 21st Century version of the low-tech, 20th Century method for approaching, engaging and getting in front of prospects.  You know what I’m referring to:

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  • How Do Companies Retain Their Underperforming Salespeople?

    • April 30, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I explain the difference between lousy salespeople and good salespeople in terms of line items and investments in this article.

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  • When the Sales Goals Change but the Behavior and Results Don’t

    • April 19, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Suppose that you need your salespeople to find significantly more new business.  Perhaps you’ve wanted this for a while but it’s only recently that you communicated this to your salespeople.  You’ve changed the goal but after a month your salespeople’s behavior and results haven’t changed at all. 

    Let’s compare this to weight loss. 

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  • Customer Service Neutralizes Efforts of Your Sales Force

    • April 14, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I am more convinced every day that the most overlooked and under-rated sales function in most companies is their customer service department.

    This extends beyond toll-free phone numbers and includes the people you meet when you walk into a company’s retail locations too.

    When was the last time you ended a conversation with customer service feeling thrilled that you were a customer of companies like Dell, Verizon, USAirways, Charter or Microsoft?  Would that change if I typed Apple instead of Dell?

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  • Effect of Optimism and Commitment on the Sales Force

    • March 31, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’m reading Sarah Miller Caldicott‘s book, Innovate Like Edison.

    There are some noteworthy quotes which, although written in the context of innovation, apply equally, if not even more to selling and sales management.

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