Search Results

  • Phone Prospecting – the Key to Scheduling Meetings

    • May 23, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Today, a salesperson left a voicemail message and he didn’t sound bad; but his strategy and script were awful.  Listen to the message below and try to identify what was wrong.  Then watch the video below to hear me talk getting your prospects to pay attention and engage with you on the phone.

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  • Top 3 Keys to Convert Phone Calls to Meetings

    • April 6, 2015
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I had just finished speaking in Bozeman, Montana and was sitting in a delicious little breakfast cafe (think cowboy truck stop). That’s when I was asked to explain how to maintain control of a cold call.  Well, the environment screamed rodeo, my inner voice yelled riding and taming a bull, but my voice of reason began talking about the concept of flow, patience, listening and staying in the moment.  

    There are really only three primary things required to keep a call going long enough to get a disinterested prospect engaged:

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  • Five Phone Selling Traps

    • January 19, 2015
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Categories: Monthly Tips, Tactics - Getting to 1st Base (Appointments)

    Many salespeople, even veterans, go through periods when they’re not effective on the phone. Salespeople who are new to a company face this challenge when they must tell the new story or ask the new questions.

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  • Top 10 Mistakes Salespeople Make on the Phone (Funny Read)

    • January 7, 2015
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Earlier this week, I wrote the “Get Your Butt Out of Your Head” article. At that same tournament, I heard an even funnier story from its director. He told us about a team who went 0-7, losing each game by the mercy rule. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, if a team is losing by 12 runs or more after 4 full innings, the game is stopped, showing mercy to the team who was getting slaughtered.

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  • Top 10 Mistakes Salespeople Make on the Phone (Funny Read)

    • August 13, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Earlier this week, I wrote the “Get Your Butt Out of Your Head” article. At that same tournament, I heard an even funnier story from its director. He told us about a team who went 0-7, losing each game by the mercy rule. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, if a team is losing by 12 runs or more after 4 full innings, the game is stopped, showing mercy to the team who was getting slaughtered.

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  • Salespeople Failing to Get Prospects to the Phone

    • April 28, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is a great example of why so many salespeople waste so much time chasing down their prospects and why prospects do such a fantastic job of avoiding these calls and emails.

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  • Improve How Your Sales Force Sells by Phone

    • August 20, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Getting salespeople to recognize how badly they sound and how ineffective they are when selling on the phone isn’t easy.  And just so you know who I’m talking about (and to save you from commenting about how these nuances are different) I’m including prospecting, cold-calling, telemarketing, telesales, inside sales, inbound marketing, outbound marketing and lead generation roles as “selling on the phone”.

    There are two methods that I prefer to use:

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  • Hiring Salespeople – Poor Phone Interview Comes to Life Part 3

    • October 26, 2007
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Using the OMG Sales Candidate Assessments in your sales recruiting process is remarkable in that you’ll almost always see the findings on the assessment come to life if you handle the phone interview and live interviews the way we teach them.

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  • Hiring Salespeople – Poor Phone Interview Comes to Life Part 2

    • October 25, 2007
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Lesson – you can’t skip any steps in the recruiting process.  When the assessment says “Not Recommended” you must consider that to be a flat-out No.  When the assessment says, “Recommended”, they must still ace both the phone interview and your face to face interviews or you can’t hire them!

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  • Hiring Salespeople – Poor Phone Interview Comes to Life

    • October 25, 2007
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    That’s the magic of the phone interview we teach.  In just two minutes you can filter out the weakest of the recommended sales candidates so that you interview only the cream of the crop.

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