closing
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My Key to Building a Strong, Sustainable, Sales Pipeline
- April 16, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Building a strong, sustainable pipeline requires not only commitment and discipline from salespeople, it also requires commitment and discipline from their sales leaders who cannot allow them to give up, give in, or take short cuts. While excellence involves advanced sales training skills, extended practice sessions and coaching, the desire to improve is the most important element.
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How to Master the Sales Discovery Call
- April 11, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Good salespeople know that the key to a sales process that will result in a sale, is uncovering their prospect’s compelling reason to buy. Period. Not “period” as in that’s all they have to do, but “period”, as in nothing else in the process will matter if they don’t uncover the compelling reason to buy. Easy (to state). For most salespeople, even the good ones, it’s not that easy. How can they determine if what they heard is actually compelling? Is it compelling to the prospect? Is it compelling to the salesperson? Do those two determinations have equal value?
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Deadly Negotiation Strategies – The Bob Chronicles Part 8
- March 24, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I asked Bob why he thought negotiations would be required and he told me that his prospect said they didn’t want to spend more than $50,000. You read that right. He knew they didn’t want to spend more than $50,000 and he proposed a solution for more than $1,000,000!
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How Indecisiveness Undermines Sales and Sales Leadership Effectiveness
- February 1, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you are driving down the road in your car, looking at your phone, fiddling with your radio, looking at people walking on the sidewalk, weaving in and out of traffic or speeding because you’re in a hurry, you are probably not a very good driver and bad things will happen.
If you have a pile of files on your desk, a to-do list that must be scrolled to read, past-due proposals, and an empty pipeline, you are probably not very well organized, don’t manage your time very well, and likely behind on quota.
We’re referring to things we do that prevent us from being as effective as we could be or need to be and there is another one we should discuss, and that’s when a sales leader has a Non-Supportive Buy Cycle attribute of needing to think things over. In the 4-minute video below, which you must watch to understand the concept, I explain how the indecisiveness of a sales leader prevents them from being able to develop, coach up and grow their sales team.
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Top 20 Reasons Why Sales Opportunities Don’t Close
- January 28, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Sales Leaders who are frustrated with low win rates place the blame on closing skills when, in reality, it has NOTHING to do with closing! Watch this 2-minute video for an explanation and then continue reading below.
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How to Get Ready for Quota-Busting Sales Success
- January 18, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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Timing – A Secret Key to Sales Success
- January 9, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Timing is easy to recognize. When the timing is right anyone who calls can get a meeting scheduled. When the timing is bad, nobody who calls will get a meeting scheduled. Then there are all the occasions in the middle – the timing is neither good nor bad – where by asking the right questions and getting them to recognize they might have an issue you can help with, you do succeed at scheduling a meeting. These are the very meetings you want because early on, they aren’t talking with anyone other than you.
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3 Keys That Determine the Length of Your Sales Cycle
- November 2, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s easier to sell value when there is urgency.
It’s easier to reach the decision maker when there is urgency.
It’s easier to sell value to the decision maker.
It’s easier to create urgency when you are talking with the decision maker.
They are inter-related milestones and they are game changers.
Let’s explore three scenarios:
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Steam Vent Hack That Salespeople Can Use on Stalled Opportunities
- August 23, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The guide simply lit a cigarette, lowered it slightly into the vent, it reacted with the air and the steam, and significantly increased the output of steam. A super simple hack that instantly causes a performance improvement gets your attention!
Of course, that got me thinking about a simple hack that will significantly improve sales performance and I present one to you in this article.
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The Biggest Mistake That Salespeople Make When Closing
- July 31, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Aggressive salespeople are no more effective than passive salespeople but if I had to choose one over the other I would take my chances with the aggressive salesperson and attempt to get them to tone it down. While the challenges with passive salespeople are obvious, there is one mistake I consistently observe being made by aggressive salespeople and wouldn’t you know it, the salesperson approached us and made the mistake. That made me want to sit in a messaging recliner to get the stress out.