Dave Kurlan

  • The One Thing Most Salespeople Are Unable to Do

    • October 27, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Can you guess what it is – the one thing most salespeople are unable to do?

    Based on what I most frequently write about, you might think that it would be consultative selling, but that’s not it.  You might also guess that it’s the sales equivalent of eating right – not doing demos and presentations so early in the sales process. But that’s not it either.

    However, there really is one thing that all but the most elite salespeople are unable to do.  It is partly a result of their inability to sell consultatively while continuing to demo, present, quote and propose too early.  Can you guess what it is now?

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  • Not the 3 Most Important Sales Hiring Attributes

    • October 24, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    One topic that never gets stale is how to make sure that you nail sales selection.  Whether or not salespeople actually fail, or they simply stick around, but fail to have an impact,  the common theme is still failure to select the right salespeople.  Recently, I stumbled upon this article about 3 Uncoachable Sales Attributes that you should focus on to get hiring right.  

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  • The Biggest Secret of Sales Rockstars

    • October 20, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    In the old days, after speaking at a conference, I would frequently be told that I was the top-rated speaker at the event. More recently, people have told me that I “Rocked!” One time, as I was being introduced, an audience member came up to me and said, “Don’t Suck!” We can’t always be rock stars…

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  • Why My Golfing May be Just Like Your Sales Recruiting

    • October 14, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    On the rare occasion that I have the opportunity to golf, it doesn’t matter what I choose for clubs, balls, gloves, tees or clothing.  At this point in my life and very short golfing career, just being out with a friend is good enough for me and if we count his strokes, and my lost balls, our final scores might even be competitive!

    That’s how some companies recruit salespeople.  It doesn’t matter who they are, where they come from, if they have selling skills, and whether or not they have any experience.  These companies treat sales recruiting like the instructions on their shampoo bottle – they rinse and repeat.  

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  • Top 4 Reasons a Great Salesperson Can Fail at Your Company

    • October 9, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I asked the attendees if they had ever hired a great salesperson that still failed and everyone there said, “Yes!”  I asked if anyone could explain how or why a great salesperson could fail, and the group offered up many guesses, but weren’t able to come up with my top 4 reasons. Here they are:

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  • Solitaire and Modern Sales Training – What Should it Cover and Include?

    • October 6, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve been playing one of those Solitaire games on my iPad and I can routinely score in the neighborhood of 2 minutes and 30 seconds, with my best time being just under 2 minutes.  I thought I was doing pretty well until I realized that my wife routinely scores between 1 minute and 1:20 seconds with her best scores (not score) being under 1 minute.  She has scored as low as 48 seconds.

    If not for my wife, I would have thought I was a real pro at Solitaire!

    This is exactly how many CEO’s, Presidents and Sales VP’s view their sales forces.  Without anything or anyone with whom to compare, they form their judgements on sales effectiveness in a vacuum.  I routinely hear things like, “We have a custom sales process.”, and “We’ve been working on consultative selling.”  Yet, after a sales force evaluation has been completed, those same companies are routinely found to have been lagging, not leading, in those areas.

    When it comes to providing sales training for your sales force, what exactly, should modern training include?

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  • Sales Managers are Sometimes Like Cashiers

    • October 1, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    At lunchtime one day, my curry-chicken salad tasted so bad that I returned it to the deli next door.  The owner asked what was wrong and when I told him, he tasted it, said it was fine, and get this – he returned the uneaten portion of my salad into the bowl in the display case.  Yuck!  And I never went back.  Until yesterday.  I was desperate and didn’t have enough time to go anywhere else, but I knew enough to stay away from the specialty salads.

    The crowds that used to line up were gone.  The staff was about half the size.  The menu, and specifically, the browning chicken salads in the display case were still there.  The owner was operating the cash register, calling names when their meals were ready, and taking their payments.  Instead of working on his business, fixing what was wrong, making much needed changes and urging customers back into his deli, he was handling the money – the one thing that any unskilled worker could do.

    He reminded me of so many sales managers I have met during the past 30 years.

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  • Why There is No Value When You Provide Value Via Special Pricing

    • September 29, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I was discussing the OMG Partnership opportunity with a gentlemen from Hong Kong, who objected to our reasonable licensing fees, refusing to pay any fees to a US company.  This is when the conversation began to resemble a sales call.  He did what a lot of buyers do to salespeople and began to boast about how well-positioned his company is to market OMG in Hong Kong and what a huge opportunity this would be for OMG.  He expected me to waive the fees in exchange for the great opportunity he described.

    Most salespeople – 74% to be exact – not wishing to jeopardize a great opportunity, start negotiating or worse, agreeing, to the unrealistic requests.  There are ripple effects to this, for example:

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  • Are Salespeople Also Joggers?

    • September 26, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    As I drove to work today, I passed 4 joggers, all with different styles, paces and appearances.  As usual, I saw the similarities between what I observed and the sales profession.

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  • Baseball, Sales Cycles, and the Quest for Shorter

    • September 23, 2014
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    In selling, there are even more options for shortening the sales cycle.  They include:

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