Dave Kurlan's Blog - The Authority on Sales Force Excellence

The Sales Force with Over Achievers That Don't

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Wed, Mar 25, 2009 @ 22:03 PM

Huh?

That's right. Today I heard about a CEO who told one of my colleagues that all of his salespeople over achieve. In the same phone conversation he mentioned that sales are down 20%. Can you imagine where sales would be if his salespeople under achieved?

I think that many CEO's are in a time warp.

Despite the struggles of their sales force in this economy, they still view the sales force as they remember them when times were good.

The problem with this is that even the good times did not accurately define these salespeople. Salespeople who succeed when times are good but struggle when times get tough are not over achievers. They are mediocre salespeople who simply don't get in their own way. Over achievers find ways to succeed in all conditions, good and bad.

I think that many CEO's are in denial.

Despite the struggles of their sales force, they continue to look at the pipeline and say to themselves, we'll be okay as soon as these deals close. But the deals aren't closing and with each passing day companies are less okay then they were the day before.

I think that many CEO's are scared shitless (the only truly accurate word I could type there).

Because of the struggles of their sales force, they look at the numbers, down 90%, down 75%, down 50%, down 25% and wonder how they can turn it around. It can be turned around but they have to be proactive, not reactive. They have to be aggressive, not passive. They have to work on the right end of the problem - revenue - not just costs.

Truth is, our data shows that only 6% of all salespeople over achieve. And another 20% can become over achievers. Who do you want on your sales force and what are you willing to do to develop them or recruit them?

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Topics: Dave Kurlan, sales hiring, assessments, selling, Management, Sales Force, leadership, over achievement, declining sales, improve sales, assessment, sales candidates, over achieve, Under achievers, hiring salespeople, mediocrity, overachievers, sales increase, Performance, Economy, sales assessments, declining revenue

The Secret - The Ancient Scrolls and its Impact on the Sales Force

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Tue, Mar 24, 2009 @ 12:03 PM

Al Turrisi was kind enough to give me a book called the Power of the Kabbalah. Its ancient scrolls originated around 4,000 years ago, inspired The Secret and predates Moses and the Bible! Since this book is not the Kabbalah itself, rather a Cliff Notes version, it tends to read more like a self-help book. It is far more powerful than a self-help book though as it points to a number of rules that will cause a transformation in one's life.

Seven of the desired behaviors are consistent with the philosophies in Baseline Selling - How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball as well as Objective Management Group's Sales Assessments:

The importance of Desire. Read the Top 10 Factors for Salespeople to Overachieve.

It's not about you. Over the past several months I have found myself telling an awful lot of salespeople and sales managers that it's not about them. It's even become a finding in Objective Management Group's Sales Manager's Evaluation - The It's All About Me finding.

Need for Approval or what happens when you need people to like you. This is the second most powerful weakness in all of selling. Here's an article about that.

Becoming Emotionally Involvedor reacting instead of proacting.This is the third most powerful weakness in all of selling. I wrote an article about this.

Resistance or the great challenge that presents itself rather than an obstacle. I wrote a an article about this earlier this month and another one a couple of years ago.

Certainty or having faith that what you say, ask, or do will get the desired outcome.

Doing What's Uncomfortable. I wrote an article about this a while back too.

Many of the articles I linked to were Baseline Selling Tips. Speaking of Baseline Selling, this is the third anniversary of the publish date of the book, a good reason to reread or order it.

So in summary, simply by having your salespeople overcome their sales weaknesses, doing the very things they are uncomfortable doing, having faith in their abilities and having a strong desire for success will cause those very same people to experience life changing experiences.

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Topics: sales assessment, Dave Kurlan, Need for Approval, Baseline Selling, assessments, sales skills, Salesforce, Sales Force, Changing_Behavior, over achievement, sales weaknesses, Motivation, sales core competencies, assessment, sales evaluation, over achieve, improve sales performance, sales winners, overachievers, sales assessment test, Baseline_Selling, sales assessments, sales test, objective management group

Management's Guide to the Top 10 Differences Between Sales Winners and Losers

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Sun, Oct 19, 2008 @ 22:10 PM

Friday I wrote this post and today I wrote this longer article about the Top 10 Differences between Sales Winners and Sales Losers.

This post is the sales management version of the article referenced above.

In that article, I asked sales professionals to rate themselves.

In this article, I'll ask you to rate each of your salespeople using the same scale. Top producers score 40-50. B players score 30-40. C Players score 20-30. Below 20? Losers.

Now, use this scale to rate your sales force.

80-100% A Players - You have an over achieving sales force. Congratulations!

50-80% A Players - You have a core of A players to build around. You're on the way.

30-50% A Players - You know what they look like, now go find some more!

Less than 30% A Players - You are working to hard, hoping for more but often getting less and your pushing the 18 wheeler up hill. You may need to start from scratch!

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Topics: sales, selling, Salesforce, Sales Force, over achievement, sales motivation, sales evaluation, sales personality, under achievement, sales winners, sales losers, sales assessments, salespeople, sales success