Salesforce
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The Biblical Sales Force Part 3 – Numbers: Metrics and KPIs
- November 23, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In my experience, most companies have KPIs in their sales organizations but the real issue is usually whether or not the KPIs they trot out actually drive revenue. In most cases, they do not.
KPIs must be forward looking indicators, not lagging, or backwards looking results and most companies fail to make that key distinction. While last month’s revenue and gross profit numbers are an indicator of how the company performed (past tense), they do not indicate how the company WILL perform (forward looking).
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“Spirited” Has So Much in Common with Most Salespeople
- November 29, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Only 13% of all salespeople take a consultative approach to selling and almost none of them can be found in the bottom 50% – the group that fails to meet quota each year. A coincidence? On the other end of the spectrum, the top 10% of all salespeople are 4300% more likely to have the Consultative Seller competency as a strength!
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How Gas Grills, Gardening, Masks, and Baseball Mimic Your Sales Team
- May 3, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
My project corresponds so well with how many executives approach their sales teams.
They do nothing for years, and then, after growing frustrated with complacency and inability to grow revenue, finally decide to make changes and rebuild their sales teams.
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31 Conditions That Predict Your Sales Opportunity is in Trouble
- April 16, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Last week, a crazy driver pulled out right in front of me and despite the fact that I anticipated his stupidity and would have been able to stop before smashing into this moron, my car wasn’t as certain as I was. My Genesis took matters into its own hands and went into all out protection mode – making sure nothing happened to it or me.
As advertised, it took over the braking and steering to protect itself, sounded all the alarms to alert me to its strategy and then did two things that really surprised me. All at once, the seat enveloped me in a cocoon and the seat belt tightened around my shoulders so that there was no chance that I was leaving that seat. Going through the windshield? Not a chance unless the whole seat was coming with me!
That was cool.
And it got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be cool if salespeople had a sales version of an early warning system/driver assist like my car has?
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10 Critical Best Practices for Your Sales Force in This Crisis
- April 27, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
But if the past 6 weeks have taught us anything, it’s that with the right tools, strategies, mindset and tactics, we can adapt and even thrive. For those who may read this after May 1, 2020, the following best practices are based on where we are as I write this on April 27, 2020.
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3 Steps You Must Take Today to Save Your Company From This Economic Downturn
- March 12, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You know the stories of the Three Stooges, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, and baseball fans have just heard about The Three Batter Minimum (how stupid!). We’re not going to discuss any of those threes today but we will talk about the three things companies must do, right now, in this quickly disintegrating economy, to drive revenue.
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Does Efficiency or DNA Help to Increase Sales?
- July 24, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The Salesforce Blog published a new article of mine today – Read How to Create Perfect Sales Conditions. It’s really an article about how to use tools and efficiency to increase your focus and sales. Speaking of efficiency, Kyle Dougherty, from Prialto, sent me this very cool video today. Talk about a tool that helps you to be efficient!
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Top 16 Problems with CRM
- October 23, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Today, I’ll write about solving the CRM problem. CRM is very problematic, not because there aren’t choices, but more because companies make bad decisions. Just a few of the problems with CRM are listed here:
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Kindle – Lessons Applied to the Sales Force
- February 22, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Readers who have purchased the Kindle have totally embraced that device. Some think it’s the Kindle, not online sellers, that is the biggest threat to brick and mortar book stores. Those of us who own a Kindle are reading more books, and reading them more easily and conveniently than before we had the device.
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Key Account Sales – More Than Just Important Accounts
- November 2, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Over the last several months I have engaged in several on line disagreements about the importance of asking questions early in the sales process. More than one sales expert has claimed that asking questions violates trust.