Sales Coaching with Dave Kurlan

I recently attended a luncheon meeting with Mike Ford of TownConnect and about 150 other sales and corporate executives hosted by Dave Kurlan of Baseline Selling fame. Dave spent two hours with us discussing his philosophies on sales management best practices and sales rep hiring & success factors. The audience had the opportunity to choose the agenda based on our biggest concerns – sales management, forecasting, hiring & planned turnover were the most requested topics.

In reviewing my notes from the meeting, the things that I underlined as most interesting and thought provoking were:

– Hire sales managers for accountability, coaching, motivating, growing and recruiting. NOT for closing deals.
– Sales managers should motivate reps to get deals into the funnel and the coach them on moving deals through the funnel.

If you attended the event, what did you find as most interesting? (other than the tour of Gillette Stadium!)