Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 25, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Cold calling. It sounds so.20th Century. Some industries still break-in their salespeople by putting them on the phone and having them dial - more than one hundred times a day - and attempt to schedule appointments. You still receive calls like this from new, and sometimes not so new salespeople selling insurance, investments, copiers, office supplies, commercial real estate and long distance phone services.

Cold Calling 240

Cold Calling Real Estate Insurance Insurance 240

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 11, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Earlier today we ( Objective Management Group ) held our annual Rockefeller Habits strategy meeting. At one point the management team was reviewing year over year growth to pinpoint where last year's growth came from. The segment of our business that survived the recession was our Sales Force Evaluation. Companies that had money they could part with wanted to work on sales and we own the Sales Force Evaluation market.

Hiring 205

Hiring Licensing Segment Groups 205

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 30, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Everyone has a plan. Some plans are better than others because they contain all or most of the necessary steps and sequence them in an appropriate order. Most plans have gaps where steps should be and the sequence doesn't lend itself to success. One area where we see this occur repeatedly is when companies are about to hire a Sales VP or Director AND they want to evaluate their sales force too.

Hiring 203

Hiring Company Report Exact 203

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 19, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan We instruct clients to have their sales candidates take the Sales Candidate assessment very early in the recruiting process. It's the first step after the client receives their resumes. Clients carefully spell out exactly how the entire process will work and explain that the assessment is simply the first step.

Hiring 203

Hiring Face-to-face Exact Opportunity 203

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 26, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan If you have been reading this Blog for a while, then you may remember my requests during the last half of 2011 to complete a survey for my Trust Project. My goal was to understand to what degree people did not like and/or trust salespeople and integrate that information into our future work. I thought it could signify the importance of additional findings in Objective Management Group's Sales Candidate Assessments, and it could influence how we train

Hiring 192

Hiring Insurance Insurance Survey 192

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 22, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan If you have been reading my Blog for a while you know that there is more to selling than just utilizing skills to execute the sales process, sales model, and sales methodology. The big, hidden, 600 pound gorilla in all this is the combination of hidden weaknesses that prevent salespeople from executing. Objective Management Group identifies five big ones and a dozen or so additional weaknesses that cause problems for salespeople.

Buying Cycle 192

Buying Cycle Sales Methodology Incentives Incentive 192

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 16, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Did a sales candidate ever accept your job offer only to backout prior to the agreed upon start date because the individual decided to stay with the current employer? This happened to a client and it had a tremendous ripple effect. They had already let the former inside salesperson go - now instead of an ineffective salesperson, they have nobody in the role.

Promotion 192

Promotion Loyalty Motivation Inside Sales 192