Search Results
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How to Achieve Sales Mastery – A Collection of Loosely Connected Thoughts
- July 6, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
During our first of its kind Independence Day weekend, I thought about a lot of things that loosely tied into sales effectiveness and while they could all be articles in their own right, I decided to write one article tying them all together.
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3 Steps You Must Take Today to Save Your Company From This Economic Downturn
- March 12, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You know the stories of the Three Stooges, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, and baseball fans have just heard about The Three Batter Minimum (how stupid!). We’re not going to discuss any of those threes today but we will talk about the three things companies must do, right now, in this quickly disintegrating economy, to drive revenue.
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The Top 15 Sales and Sales Leadership Articles of 2019
- December 4, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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How All Those Trucks on the Road Can Help You Stop Discounting
- August 5, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I have an awful lot to say about incentives to buy!
The occurrences are as predictable as the 6pm news beginning exactly at 6pm. If you have opportunities in the pipeline during the last week of the month, the last week of the quarter and the last two weeks of the year, and your prospects showed a strong likelihood of moving forward, they’ll be sitting back waiting for a call from a salesperson or sales manager to sweeten the pot so that you can get this deal in before the end of whenever. How lame. -
Your Last Chance to Make a Good First Impression
- June 14, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Most salespeople don’t take first impressions seriously enough. If they did, their first impressions would be much more favorable.
I can still remember my first (unintentional) lesson about first impressions. My family was gathered at my grandfather’s house to watch the debut of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan show. It was February 9, 1964 and at 8 years old, I was one of seventy-three million people watching the show that night. I was as excited about this show as I would be later that same year when I attended my first Red Sox baseball game at Fenway Park. That is pretty excited!
Sitting on the carpet, I was completely focused on seeing and hearing The Beatles play five of their hit songs, but my mother was doing color commentary from the plastic covered sofa behind me.
She said, “He’s cleaner than the other 3”, referring to Paul McCartney, who had straighter teeth, and a face more suitable for the mop top hair style shared by the four of them.
There it was, my first lesson in judging people by how they looked, and more specifically, what “clean” did and did not look like.
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Win a Free Coaching Call with Dave Kurlan and 4 More Prizes
- June 12, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
By the middle of June each year, we tend to know who the best of the best are. Super Bowl Champion, NBA Champion, Stanley Cup Winner, Masters Winner, and in baseball, MLB all-stars are being selected. It’s as good a time as any to recognize the best readers of Understanding the Sales Force!
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How the Rubber Band Sabotages Sales Performance
- April 1, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I have written many articles about Sales DNA, the combination of strengths that support sales process, sales strategy and sales tactics; or, when it appears as a weakness and sabotages ones ability to execute.
Unlike strategies and tactics, where you can learn and apply them, improving your Sales DNA requires much more effort and time.
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The Top 8 Requirements for Becoming a Great Salesperson
- January 14, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you remember the moment you became a Salesperson? Not a presenter, Not an order taker, but a true consultative sales professional?
Here are some guidelines to identify the moment you turned professional.
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How Getting Feedback and Making Adjustments are the Keys to Sales Improvement
- December 5, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Becoming great at selling – or anything else for that matter – is about making adjustments. In order to make an adjustment you need feedback – something you see, hear or feel that informs your ability to adjust. Take Baseball for example. When I watch my son hit he receives instant feedback from every swing of the bat. He usually crushes the ball and that suggests that no adjustment is needed. If he tops the ball or pops it up it is probably an issue with timing. If he peels the ball to the right, he probably opened his front shoulder too early. If he squares the ball up but doesn’t drive it he probably failed to use his legs. He also has 5 private coaches who coach him or, in other words, provide feedback.
That brings us back to selling. Salespeople need feedback too.
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Speed Limits, the Flow of Traffic, and Sales Pipelines
- November 19, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I don’t get stressed anymore when I’m driving. All it took was for me to not exceed the speed limit. I’m not sure whether it was my navigation system repeatedly telling me to “obey all traffic laws” each time I started the car, or my wife reminding me that I needed to be a good role model for our soon-to-be driving 16 year-old son. I admit that this was much easier for me to do after I gave up my Jaguar for a Lincoln Navigator. It holds much more baseball equipment!
There is an exception to not exceeding the speed limit. When the flow of traffic in all lanes is moving exponentially faster than you are, you must increase your speed to match the flow of traffic or risk getting run over!
That brings me to pipeline flow.