dave kurlan Tagged Articles

9th of the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

#9 - STRATEGY Strategy comes in several forms and is required in different dosages depending on the position. For example, a line level sales manager may be more concerned with call strategy while a Worldwide VP Sales may be more concerned with market strategy. At the VP level, strategy is far more important than tactics while at the sales manager level, tactics are more important than strategy.

10th of the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

Sales managers tend to be very challenged in the area of tactics. There are two varieties of sales managers...more

Lance Armstrong's Metrics Applied to the Sale Force Equals Results

Recently, I completed Lance Armstrong's 2001 book on how he became a champion cyclist, was diagnosed with Cancer, beat the cancer, and then returned to become the greatest cyclist in the world. It was an inspiring, fast-reading book. While this won't come as a surprise to my cyclist friends, I was quite surprised to learn how metric-intensive competitive cycling is.

Sales 2.0 Competencies, Changes, Myths

There has been much talk about Sales 2.0 yet most sales experts can't agree on exactly what it is. But before we can even discuss Sales 2.0, I must confess that most companies have yet to get on board with good old Sales 1.x! Most companies are still selling without formalized sales processes, effective strategies and effective tactics. Most companies still have their salespeople show up, present, demo, quote and wait for the business.

Ultimate Comparison of Top Salespeople to Salespeople Who Fail

If you've been following this Blog you know I sometimes refer to the elite 5% of salespeople, the next 20% and the bottom 74%. After reading Super Freakonomics I was moved to take a new look at our data on the more than 400,000 salespeople we have assessed. Behavioral scientists would look at our data on the top 5% and report on some common findings. It might look like this...

Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions - What's Missing?

I also didn't include sales training or sales management training in those 10 sales management functions for generally the same reasons. Those are competencies best left to outside experts. Sales Managers can learn to coach - and it takes a long time to develop the ability to do it effectively - but

Are Sales Cycles Really Getting Shorter?

I read an article that claimed that winning sales cycles are getting shorter. While I agree with everything else in the article, I questioned the 23% shorter because our substantial data does not support this claim. So where could the discrepancy be? Let's start with the author's statement, "from qualify to close has reduced by a little more than 23%".

Sales Assessment Completion Time May Affect Validity

I just reviewed some new data that Jim Sasena, our Operations/Technical Director, dug up for me. This particular data set shows the percentage of Sales Candidate Assessments that are completed in a particular amount of time.

Your Sales and Sales Management Questions Answered

In an article last week, I provided the post to a sales competency contest. The final question in that survey asked the participants for any sales issues they needed help with. Today I'll answer the first four of those questions below:

Prospecting for More Sales in a Bad Economy

A poor economy has too often become an excuse for poor performance of many businesses. While the current economic situation is a contributing factor, many of these businesses can perform much better. Most businesses in the U.S. are small and have sales that equal less than 1% market share. If your business has less than one percent of market share, it should be able to grow in any economy. One hidden area in which to find more sales is right under your own roof. According to “Baseline Selling” by Dave Kurlan, 60% of all sales people are not prospecting consistently, and 50% of all sales people won’t prospect. Combine those figures with the fact that 60% of all sales people suffer from the habit of making excuses, and I think we have uncovered one of the secrets to bringing more sales to your top line.

Tom Peters' 9 Items for the Sales Force

Tom Peters' newest book, the Little BIG Things, is well worth reading. Recently, on his blog, he posted a more complete version of the Credo he included in the book. Several of the items which, if not sales or sales force competencies, are certainly crucial sales requirements (they are abbreviated here - follow the link to Tom's article for his complete descriptions):

CEO Impact on Training and Consulting Projects

Often we are asked, "What are the factors that caused the difference between our successful and unsuccessful projects?"

Harvard Business Review Hit and Then Missed the Mark on Sales

An analysis of Harvard Business Review's recent article regarding observations about sales skills and salespeople.

The Science of Achievement Applied to Sales Success

After reading Malcolm Gladwell's book, I found that his findings really resonated with what I had seen in my own observations of thousands of sales people and the qualities that translate into success. It serves to highlight the need for assessments and for sales training.

Sales and Sales Management Simplified

Let's get to the basics of sales and sales management and make it as simple as possible by using some of my favorite baseball analogies.

Pick Yourself Up and Dust Yourself Off

In my mind, there isn't a group of professionals more suited and more deserving of hearing those very words than salespeople. I have listened to more complaining, excuse making, whining, sob stories and negativity in the last 90 days than at any other time in the 24 years I have been in the sales development business.

12 Questions About Your Sales Process

A sales process is defined as a customized, formal process including the sequence of steps, to-do's, milestones and goals that must be achieved during your sales cycle. And your sales cycle is one of four cycles in your business that impacts cash flow (the other cycles: make/prepare to deliver, deliver, billing and collections).

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