Dave Kurlan

  • Right Sales People in the Right Roles and the Right Seats

    • January 12, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was on site at a client’s last week to kick-off their training.  At the end of the kick-off I asked each salesperson for their three biggest lessons learned.  One salesperson had difficulty coming up with anything of substance.  It turned out that he was new to sales and when we assessed him two months earlier, our assessment indicated that he was not trainable.  The client wanted him in the program anyway because he had a hunch it would work out.  “Not trainable” manifests in different ways but usually has the same outcome – salespeople don’t improve.

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  • 10 Steps for your Sales Force to Survive and Thrive in The Recession

    • January 5, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Bernie is the President of a company that had experienced flat sales for the three strong economic years leading up to the recession. He had been looking for a VP of sales for two years but hadn’t found the right candidate or failed to pull the trigger.

    He attended an event where he heard me speak and asked me to contact him. He asked for my advice and I recommended that if he was serious about finding the ideal VP, then he should:

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  • Surprising Statistics from the Sales Force Grader

    • December 22, 2008
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The actual results are even more surprising than the number of people (several hundred) that have already visited the FREE Sales Force Grader.

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  • SPIN Selling and Miller Heiman Compared to Baseline Selling

    • April 28, 2006
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A reader asked me about my book, Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball, and how it compares with SPIN Selling and Miller Heiman’s Strategic Selling. Both books – SPIN Selling AND Strategic Selling are good; but neither of them are selling systems or processes.

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