sales management

  • 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
    • Categories: Customer Service as Sales, 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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  • Baseball’s General Managers versus Business’ Sales Managers
    • March 30, 2010
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The 2010 Major League Baseball season officially gets underway this Sunday evening with its greatest rivalry, the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees, at Fenway Park. It gives me a great excuse to write a baseball themed article. But hey, what else would you expect from the author of Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball?

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  • My Salespeople Won’t Use CRM
    • March 17, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Yesterday, we discussed whether you can really get salespeople to change. I mentioned that the key rule was #9, Consequences, and that I would discuss consequences today.

    There are three primary ingredients to having Consequences.

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  • Can We Really Get Salespeople to Change?
    • March 16, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    People change when they are ready to change.

    For example, I needed to lose weight and become healthier for several years.  I had been reading the literature on healthy eating for months.  I knew that this was important but until the day came when I was ready to commit to being healthy and eating healthy, nothing would change.

    By default, salespeople are the same way. 

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  • A Missing Link to Sales Improvement?
    • March 15, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was walking through the Airport when I saw what could be the missing link to sales improvement.

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  • What Are Reasonable Sales Management Expectations?
    • March 12, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I am often asked which of the various services we provide to companies can be done in-house, by the executive team.  Fair question.  Answer: All of them.

    So why would companies use us or others with our expertise?  Answer: Because when they try to do it in-house they aren’t able to get most of it right:

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