Understanding the Sales Force

  • Money Motivated Salespeople
    • October 22, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The other day a client asked me about a salesperson about whom the assessment indicated wasn’t money motivated. He went on to tell me how often this salesperson tells him he needs to make more money and wants a larger

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  • Some People Aren’t Motivated by Money
    • October 22, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One sales manager indicated that he had a salesperson who wasn’t motivated by money but was motivated by providing great customer service and making people happy. I told him that I was certain that he could not possibly be describing

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  • When Sales Expectations Aren’t Communicated
    • October 17, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The president of an architectural design firm wanted to know how to hold the professionals in his firm more accountable for bringing in business. While this is not an unusual question, one has to dig a little deeper to uncover

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  • Black Hole – In the Dark Over Assessments and their Applications
    • October 4, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was as surprised as anyone when I learned about my unique assessment knowledge. Most in the assessment business know their own assessment and it’s competitive advantage. They know the category of assessment that theirs is a part of. But

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  • Disbelief – Weak Salesperson
    • October 2, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I received another call from a CEO who couldn’t believe that his salesperson was as weak as the assessment indicated and the assessment did unveil a very weak salesperson. The CEO contended that Billy was doing quite well.

    We collect

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  • When Their Best Isn’t Good Enough
    • September 29, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Salespeople have many skills, some ranked much higher than others. If you had the choice, would you rather have salespeople whose top ranked skill was closing or salespeople whose top ranked skill was either:

    • doing what it takes to reach
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  • Embracing Assessments
    • September 27, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A sales VP from a Fortune 500 company asked what it takes for a company to embrace assessments when the company’s culture was not to use “such things.” Surely, there are some assessments that do fall into the category of

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  • I Want Sales Training
    • September 13, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It’s not unusual for an Executive to ask for Sales Training as a means to improve sales performance. After all, the executive knows the salespeople should be performing better. It’s also not unusual for the executive to be disappointed with

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  • More on the Pipeline
    • September 4, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I recently wrote about the importance of a balanced pipeline but, in that article, didn’t comment on the required size of the pipeline.  Size will vary by company, industry, average order, and salesperson but I’ll attempt to provide a common

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  • That’s The Way It’s Supposed to Be
    • September 1, 2005
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I write a good percentage of my articles about the things companies do incorrectly, the errors in their thinking and the awful job of executing by the sales organization. Sometimes, I forget to point out that some companies do things

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