Dave Kurlan
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4 Great Sales Lessons from a Notre Dame Commencement Ceremony
- May 17, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We were fortunate to be in the audience for the 2016 Notre Dame Commencement where Vice President Joe Biden, former Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff and retired 4-Star General, Martin Dempsey were among the speakers. While all were good, Biden had one great takeaway, and the General shared 3 tips and an action step. I believe that these are all share-worthy and apply to sales and sales leadership as well, and perhaps even better than they apply to those graduating from universities.
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Are These the Best Roles for Shy People in Sales?
- May 12, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I received an email inviting me to review and share an infographic on shy people in sales. Being an introvert myself, I thought it would be interesting to check it out and see if it resonated. When I finally got around to reading it, I was surprised by several things I read…and I’m sure you’ll be surprised too…
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The 3 Most Important Questions about Sales Process and My Answers
- May 9, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
With sales process finally getting the necessary attention, we should turn our attention to the three related issues that need to be addressed. Which sales process should you select, and into which CRM application should it be integrated and how can it be customized?
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Can Free Sales Content Send You Down a Dangerous Path?
- May 2, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I downloaded a Sales Process Cheat Sheet which promised a standardized playbook and a simple, easy-to-follow sales methodology to help managers coach their inside sales reps into following a proven, standardized process from discovery to close. Was there value? It was a joint promotion from Hubspot and InsideSales.com. – maybe you received the same offer in your inbox. Was it any good? Was it a process? Was it a playbook? Was it a methodology?
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Help is Here for Salespeople Who Find Themselves as the Underdogs
- April 28, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You or your salespeople are on a call. Is it an uphill battle? Do you feel like you need some luck to win the business? Are you up against an incumbent – and your prospect is happy with them? Are there too many competitors – and you are having trouble getting noticed? Does the prospect claim to only care about price – and you aren’t the lowest? Do they just want a proposal or a quote – and you feel like you need to provide it to them? Do you have trouble winning most of the time? Do you almost always face resistance of some kind? Is it difficult to simply get a meeting?I wrote an article for the SellingPower blog where we discuss the challenges of being an underdog. Read it to now to learn how you can outsell the big companies.
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Effective Selling is Less about the Words and More About How You Say Them
- April 25, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Whether you are trying to convince a prospect, customer or salesperson, make sure you emphasize the how over the what and your message has a much better chance of being accepted in the spirit you intended.
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How Coyotes are at the Heart of Sales Motivation
- April 21, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
My family lives west of Boston where it is not uncommon for us to see lots of squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, deer, the family of foxes that live on our property, and on most nights, we hear coyotes. We usually hear them in the early morning hours, and always thought they were celebrating a kill. Recently, I did some research and learned that this is how coyotes greet each other when they are assembling before going out to hunt – before the kill! For those of you who don’t live in or alongside a forest, a group of wild coyotes usually looks and sounds just like in this 1-minute video that I found on YouTube. That got me thinking about the connection to sales motivation and more.
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Bigger Sales Pipelines – The Dangerous Truth
- April 18, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Last week I was invited to download the 2016 InsideSales.com Business Growth Index Report. I read through it today and while I wasn’t terribly surprised by anything, there were a few findings that are quite interesting, showing that some companies aren’t making very good decisions, and these decisions could be representative of your company too.
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What Percentage of Sales Managers Have the Necessary Coaching Skills?
- April 13, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Recently, I was asked to share some statistics about sales management coaching – the percentage of sales coaching skills that most Sales Managers have and the amount of time they spend. So let’s stop talking about the article and start sharing the statistics!
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What Should You Do When You or Your Company is Disliked in Sales?
- April 11, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I know. Everyone loves you. You are just so likable that it’s inconceivable that you could be disliked. As usual, I see things a bit differently and I’ll prove that there is someone that not only dislikes you, but might even hate you. For example, my company, Objective Management Group (OMG), is universally hated by an entire vertical! I’ll share that with you, but first I must ask you a question.