Who We Are
Kurlan & Associates, Inc. was founded in 1985 by Dave Kurlan, the developer and innovator in sales assessments, and early pioneer in sales training and strategic growth strategies. For 40 years, the firm has helped companies with sales team evaluations, sales process optimizations, sales and sales leadership training, coaching, and sales transformation.
The management and senior consultants at Kurlan & Associates bring over 125 years of both domestic and international experience to clients. We pride ourselves on providing a complete set of services to all sizes of businesses from entrepreneurial startups to enterprise corporations. We have earned recognition for our expertise in more than 200 industries for our approach to helping companies achieve significant results in sales growth.
Companies Choose Kurlan Because Everything in Selling Has Changed in 2025
Closing Business
Companies are confused as to why there are so many Delayed Closings and Win Rates have decreased.
New Business
Outbound and Inbound aren’t working as they did, resulting in fewer new business opportunities and smaller pipelines.
More Competition
Motivated competitors are making it more difficult for you to differentiate, and prospects are attempting to commoditize your company, products and services.
Profits in 2025
Prospects are focused on price, making it more difficult for salespeople to use a value-based approach. This places more pressure on margins and profit.
The management and senior consultants at Kurlan & Associates bring over 125 years of both domestic and international experience to clients. We pride ourselves on providing unprecedented services to all sizes of businesses from small entrepreneurial companies to Fortune 500 corporations.
We provide each client with a unique, custom solution to achieve their desired outcome. Depending on the size of their sales team, industry, complexity of challenges, and urgency, each Kurlan engagement is designed to meet their specific needs.
Nothing is more important than achieving your desired results. Whether it’s how we work together, where we do the work, the frequency of our work, the topics, content, subject matter, or advice, our emphasis will be how to drive the appropriate changes in behaviors, activities, approaches, strategies, tactics, approach, tool utilization or methodology to get the results you strive for.
Thank you all for a great 3 sessions. Honestly, one of the best training sessions I have been a part in my professional career. I have 23 pages of notes from the last 3 days – so a lot to digest and work on. I plan on treating it the same way you have taught us to coach our reps – by taking it step by step and breaking it down one thing at a time.
Steve Maniago
Regional Business Manager, ALKDave and Team,
Thank you for a fantastic three days of intensive training. Having experienced the Baseline Selling training with Dennis as a sales engineer, I had an additional level of appreciation for the positive outcomes of this method.
Jeff Blakley
Sales Manager, American Steel PipeDave and team:
You guys were great and the training was excellent.
Chip Howard
Sales Manager, CraneworksI had the pleasure of working with Dennis Connelly over the past year in various capacities. Dennis is one of the finest Executive Performance Coaches I have ever partnered with. He led an excellent onsite workshop for our entire sales team this past summer, gaining their trust and confidence in just two short days. He continues to work tirelessly in developing their coaching and sales skills. With his training and support, we surpassed our sales goals for 2023, and Q124 is off to an exceptional start. Lastly, Dennis is currently my Executive Coach. He blends his professional experience with the right touch of academics to help me work through complex issues while helping me focus on the things that matter as a senior leader. If you are in need of an executive coach, a sales coach, or a talented facilitator, Dennis Connelly is your go-to person.
Dennis Gradillas
Operations & Sales Expertise,I am a member of the Kurlan fan club. Dave has built a tremendous body of work and a large following because of the durability and reliability of his approaches. Dave has helped us grow. We are winning twice as much business today with fewer salespeople and 25 percent less proposal dollars quoted at higher margins. We are turning away work at about 10% because we are above our capacity and we have the strongest backlog that we have had in several years. All of this with one of our primary markets still being impaired by COVID and our costs facing sizable inflation headwinds. Dave’s training has helped us grow confidence, sell better and sell more with less effort and resource burden.
Mark Steele
President & CEO, Craftsmen Industries, Inc.Thank You! Just thought I’d let you know I started a new role recently and it was all thanks to the training that I took over the few months on the basic and advanced courses. After going through them a few times (I have to admit I love the Ghostbusters references to Compelling Reasons) they’ve given me a new lease of life. Just wanted to say thanks for all your help over the past few months – much appreciated!
Neil
Enjoying and embracing. I am really enjoying and embracing the training. I love the sessions and they are really helping me. Thanks!
Jeff
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The 42 Best Sales and Sales Leadership Articles, Videos and Innovations of 2025
Celebrate 20 years of sales wisdom on Understanding the Sales Force with Dave Kurlan’s 2025 roundup! Dive into the Top 10 Video Rants that roast common pitfalls (from demo disasters to quota mysteries), the Top 7 game-changing innovations like the Sales Cholesterol diagnostic and SCAM/SCAR retention radar, and three killer Top 10 lists: Dave’s personal faves (golf analogies to BANT takedowns), Grok’s picks (cringe sales moments to grit audits), and engagement champs (Trump economy tips to duck-vs-owl hacks). Capping it off? The undisputed #1: “The Sales Cholesterol Analogy,” the only article nailing three lists. Merry holidays—here’s to bolder selling in 2026!
December 17, 2025 -
The Nutcracker Ballet Has 3 Relevant Sales Competencies
During a first sales call, suppose your salespeople hear one prospect say, “This has been a very interesting and productive conversation and we might have some interest in this.” And imagine another prospect at the same meeting says, “We’ll get back to you next month and let you know what kind of progress we’ve made.” And still a third might say, “In the meantime, please send us a proposal with references and timeline.”
December 15, 2025 -
Why 72% of Sales Reps Miss Quota: The Participation Trophy PTSD in the C-Suite
Why do 72% of sales reps miss quota—and still keep their jobs? Blame the participation trophy mindset creeping into the C-suite, aka Participation Trophy Stifling Determination (PTSD). From Little League fails to sales floor flops, here’s how to crush it with real accountability in 2026.
December 5, 2025 -
The Key to Account Retention: Be More Like Dinger
On a typical day, our 8-year-old Golden Doodle, Dinger, chills on the floor, ignoring the sofa like it’s yesterday’s news. But when our 23-year-old son Michael came home for Thanksgiving, and the 5- and 8-year-old cousins crashed the couch party? Boom—Dinger’s suddenly sprawled out, staking his claim. Not for pets or playtime, but pure territorial fire: “This spot’s mine with my bro, outsiders.”
From the sofa to the boardroom, it’s a wake-up call for salespeople. Stop taking clients for granted and start acting like Dinger—territorial, competitive, irreplaceable. Retention isn’t passive; it’s proactive hustle that keeps competitors off your turf.December 4, 2025
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To request more information, please use the form provided. We look forward to your message and will call you back shortly. Thank you.