Brad Bolino provided a link to an Inc Magazine article about the Peter Principle.  For their example, the author used salespeople who were promoted to sales managers based on their sales performance, but not because they had any specific skills or capabilities to be effective sales managers.  Their sales management performance was poor. This correlates very well to Objective Management Group’s (OMG) data on sales management effectiveness.  I have previously written about the sorry state of sales management.  Some of the data I have shared includes: only 18% of sales ..read more

During most of April, I’ve been frequenting a Smoothie Bar near the place we are staying and when I take my first sip each day, one thought occurs to me each time.  “Why don’t the smoothies I make at home taste this good and why doesn’t the texture of my made-at-home smoothie compare?”  I asked the owner and he said, “I use the same ingredients!” Thirty-two years ago, when we decided to make major landscaping improvements to our first home, the landscaper got out of his truck, looked around and yelled loudly enough for every neighbor within ten miles to hear, “Homeowner landscaping ..read more

The Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra is known for his many “Yogisms.” The one we are most familiar with is, “It ain’t over til it’s over.”  He is also known for saying, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Based on the conversations I have been having with sales experts, CEOs and CROs over the past two weeks, the common themes are: The first quarter sucked Way more delayed closings than we’ve ever seen Budgets being slashed It’s harder to book meetings It does seem like déjà vu all over again as the memories of  late 2008 and early 2009 come to mind.  The stock market has lost nearl ..read more

I walked into the house with Dinger and a baby toad hopped in with us, snuck under the closet door and disappeared.  When I first spotted the toad, I thought it was a tiny piece of mulch and didn’t give it a second thought.  When it disappeared into the closet, I thought about it a lot! Eventually, I found it and reintroduced it to the great outdoors. A couple of hours later, Dinger and I were walking back into the house and I spotted it again, waiting to hop into the house with us!  The baby toad was strategic, persistent and committed. Salespeople could learn a lot from the b ..read more

Assessments Compared Data on Sales Excellence Coaching Salespeople MUST READ: Are Assessments as Evil as the Persona Movie Suggests? Correlation: Salespeople Strong in This Competency are 2125% More Likely to be Performers The Data: What Percentage of Salespeople are Really Coachable? Found! The Caliper vs OMG Comparison: Which Sales Candidate Assessment is More Predictive? Top Salespeople are 8600% Better at This Than Weak Salespeople How to Use Buckets to Improve Sales Performance and Coaching The Difference Between OMG and Extended DISC Assessments Salespeople With This Weakness Sc ..read more

Dennis Connelly, Derek Baer and I were sharing our experiences coaching salespeople, sales managers and sales leaders, and comparing those who were and weren’t coachable.  It wasn’t personal.  It wasn’t about whether we liked them as people.  It was about those who did or did not make changes and improve. When it comes to coaching up salespeople, there are many conditions that must be met. Let’s begin with the coaching environment itself. Salespeople must have a relationship with their sales manager that is strong enough to withstand constructive criticism Salespeople must trus ..read more

Well was the sermon about salespeople? No, of course it wasn’t.  But it sure as heck could have been.  And although I’m beginning by referencing the sermon, this is not an article about Religion. The Priest was talking about Catholics who attend church only on Christmas and Easter. He was pleased to see a full house at all of the Easter masses and that those of us in attendance should urge our friends and family members to come to church.  From personal experience, it isn’t all that different from when I was younger and Jewish.  Back then I attended Rosh Hashanah and Yom Ki ..read more

College baseball is in full swing and my wife and I watched our son and his college team play eight games over the past 10 days as they traveled from Orlando, FL, to Saratoga Springs, NY.  While one of the sales lessons from this trip comes from baseball, the actual travel generated the other two sales lessons. Lesson #1 – Unfavorable Conditions Last Friday’s game was played in horrible baseball conditions.  The temperature was in the low 30’s, the wind was roaring, and it was snowing, a prelude to a 16 inch snowfall in Saratoga Springs NY on Friday night. I grabbed the screen shot a ..read more

Although this is an article about sales process, the first two paragraphs have more to do with religion than sales. To fully understand this powerful analogy, you’ll want to read the next three paragraphs and allow me to make my case.  It will be worth it! My wife thought I would enjoy a book she found at the airport bookstore and I agreed that it looked compelling.  Cold-Case Christianity is a book by J. Warner Wallace where he used his skills as a cold-case homicide detective to examine the claims in the Gospels in the New Testament. A book like this might not be the perfect read f ..read more

Lately, when I talk with people, the most popular topics for discussion are Politics, March Madness, and the movies and TV shows they are streaming.  Personally, I substitute Baseball for the middle topic because college baseball is in full swing and we’ve been traveling to watch our son, a college senior, play college baseball. But lately, when I talk with the Kurlan & Associates team, the topic is consistently about salespeople who push back when our sales training and coaching is specific to RFPs.  Watch this short video to get my feelings and then continue reading for more ..read more