Dave Kurlan

  • Election Day – Like Decision Making Day for a Sales Opportunity?

    • November 2, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Politicians get elected one vote at a time.  Salespeople win sales one prospect at a time. 

    read more

  • When Agreement is Really Disagreement – Happy Ears for Salespeople

    • October 28, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Your salesperson asks his prospect a question like, “Does that make sense?” and his prospect replies, “Sure.”  Feeling relieved that his explanation was successful, your salesperson moves on, an unwitting participant in what will become a huge surprise to him. 

    Why will it be a surprise? 

    read more

  • Can Your Salespeople Sell More Effectively by Asking More Questions?

    • October 22, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    By now most executives understand the role and importance of questions in the sales process.

    More questions?  Okay.

    Better questions?  Sure.

    Tougher questions?  Makes sense.

    Questions that result in the kind of conversations that none of your competitors are having with your prospects?  Sounds great.

    But can your salespeople do this?

    read more

  • My Sales Process, Strategies and Tactics in Your Voice

    • October 10, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Our son has this comedy routine by John Pinette down cold. He heard it once and can now do it for anyone.

    read more

  • The Impact of Coaching Salespeople and Sales Managers

    • October 7, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I thought back to my childhood and thought about the the coaching I had then, and later in life, and the impact it had on my success.

    read more

  • Tale of Two Clients – Sales Training:) versus SAAAlesTraining:(

    • October 6, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Strong CEO’s see all the flaws their people have and are committed to developing them or upgrading.  Weak CEO’s see beauty, and flowers, and blue skies – yes, that’s the ticket – blue skies through rose colored glasses.

    read more

  • Top 10 Reasons Consultative Sellers Outsell Everyone Else

    • October 1, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Have you ever worked with salespeople that were so bad you thought, “She couldn’t close a door!”?  And have you ever worked with salespeople that were so good that you thought, “She could sell white to rice!”?

    There’s a good chance that the difference has less to do with their closing skills and much more to do with their ability to build a late stage relationship in the earliest stage of the sales process – the first meeting.

    So what do they do?  Here are the top ten things they do:

    read more

  • Why the Relationship is So Important to the Sales Outcome

    • September 30, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Unfortunately, in order to ask those questions and have those discussions, a relationship must be established.  And this is where the double edged sword comes into play.  The discussion I’m talking about is a first meeting discussion.  But the relationship that requires is often a 2nd or 3rd meeting relationship.  So the problem I present is, how does one develop a late-stage relationship in an early stage meeting?

    read more

  • The Single Biggest Mistake that Salespeople Make

    • September 28, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Ask 10 people and you’ll get 10 different answers about the biggest mistake that salespeople make. Ask the question a bit differently and I will give you a different answer too. But ask the question in the title – “What is the single biggest mistake that salespeople make?”, with the key word being mistake – something they do incorrectly rather than something they do because of a weakness – and I can provide data to back it up. There are actually 3 mistakes that are almost always made but 2 of them occur as a result of the single biggest mistake.

    read more

  • How Obama, Dan Pink, The Heaths, Steinbrenner and Kurlan Might Prepare Your Sales Force for Change

    • September 24, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    read more