Blog

  • The Sales Success Secret Shared by Bill Walton and John Wooden

    • May 24, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Bill talked about the basketball team’s practices and how they were so well scripted, incredibly challenging and the most fun. He called them symphonies! The practices were so powerful that the games, even against the best competition, were always much easier than practice.  The games were so easy that the players did not need to remember plays or even think.  All they had to do was execute.  The team’s system of running the fast break was so well ingrained that executing was easy. This led to an 88-game winning streak!

    Translating this story to selling, I need to point out that most salespeople not only hate to practice (read role-playing), but don’t believe it is necessary. 

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  • What Do You Blame When Salespeople Don’t Schedule Enough New Meetings?

    • May 23, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Most salespeople suck on the phone. If you read that article, you learned about 10 common mistakes that salespeople make on the phone. But those are strategic and tactical mistakes – they are skill-based. What happens when you have salespeople who won’t even make calls? Could they be suffering from call reluctance? Objective Management Group (OMG) measures 21 Sales Core Competencies and one of them is the Hunter Competency.

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  • How Boomers and Millennials Differ in Sales

    • May 18, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I hate this article already – the last thing we need is another article to help us to understand Millennials. Except for one thing. Most of you reading this are Millennials and you probably need to better understand boomers.

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  • 4 Great Sales Lessons from a Notre Dame Commencement Ceremony

    • May 17, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We were fortunate to be in the audience for the 2016 Notre Dame Commencement where Vice President Joe Biden, former Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff and retired 4-Star General, Martin Dempsey were among the speakers.  While all were good, Biden had one great takeaway, and the General shared 3 tips and an action step. I believe that these are all share-worthy and apply to sales and sales leadership as well, and perhaps even better than they apply to those graduating from universities.

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  • Are These the Best Roles for Shy People in Sales?

    • May 12, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    shy

    I received an email inviting me to review and share an infographic on shy people in sales.  Being an introvert myself, I thought it would be interesting to check it out and see if it resonated.  When I finally got around to reading it, I was surprised by several things I read…and I’m sure you’ll be surprised too…

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  • CEO Dave Kurlan’s Blog, Understanding the Sales Force, was named one of the Top 50 Sales Blogs.

    • May 11, 2016
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: News
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  • The 3 Most Important Questions about Sales Process and My Answers

    • May 9, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    With sales process finally getting the necessary attention, we should turn our attention to the three related issues that need to be addressed.  Which sales process should you select, and into which CRM application should it be integrated and how can it be customized?

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  • Why Salespeople Need to Negotiate and 10 Other Timely Sales Lessons

    • May 5, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    Why Salespeople Need to Negotiate and 10 Other Timely Sales Lessons

    Regular readers know that I have written more than 1,400 articles to help them better Understand the Sales Force.  Some of the articles won awards.  A few were stinkers.  I intended for all of them to be very helpful and I believe they are.  Over the years, some of my favorite articles were completely overlooked, getting relatively few reads compared with the most popular articles that were viewed by tens of thousands of people.

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  • Can Free Sales Content Send You Down a Dangerous Path?

    • May 2, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I downloaded a Sales Process Cheat Sheet which promised a standardized playbook and a simple, easy-to-follow sales methodology to help managers coach their inside sales reps into following a proven, standardized process from discovery to close.  Was there value?  It was a joint promotion from Hubspot and InsideSales.com. – maybe you received the same offer in your inbox.  Was it any good?  Was it a process?  Was it a playbook?  Was it a methodology?

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  • Help is Here for Salespeople Who Find Themselves as the Underdogs

    • April 28, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    Help is Here for Salespeople Who Find Themselves as the Underdogs

    You or your salespeople are on a call.  Is it an uphill battle?  Do you feel like you need some luck to win the business? Are you up against an incumbent – and your prospect is happy with them?  Are there too many competitors – and you are having trouble getting noticed?  Does the prospect claim to only care about price – and you aren’t the lowest?  Do they just want a proposal or a quote – and you feel like you need to provide it to them?  Do you have trouble winning most of the time?  Do you almost always face resistance of some kind? Is it difficult to simply get a meeting?I wrote an article for the SellingPower blog where we discuss the challenges of being an underdog. Read it to now to learn how you can outsell the big companies.

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