Dave Kurlan

  • Why Do Salespeople Forget What They Learn?

    • August 21, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Some salespeople are fortunate enough to get trained and/or coached.  Maybe it’s an all-day seminar, not really training as much as exposure to some different thinking or approach.  We don’t expect anything to change from a single day, so why should you?  I went to a short game golf school for a day.  It was awesome while I was there, but 4 years later, I can’t do any of the things I learned there.  Comprehensive sales training (8-16 months) leads us to expect dramatic change and a significant increase in sales.

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  • Which Industries Need the Most Help to Get Sales to the Next Level?

    • August 15, 2013
    • Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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  • Get Sales Compensation Right to Recruit Winning Salespeople

    • August 13, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Sales candidates, especially good ones, are exponentially more difficult to attract than they were just two years ago. We regularly observe clients struggling when it comes to getting resumes from quality candidates. One of the reasons is compensation.

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  • Why Sales Leaders and Salespeople Get Frustrated

    • August 6, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You may not have control over external factors or forces but you do have control over how you react to them.  Take a step back.  Take a deep breath.  Clear your head.  Start over.  Choose one thing that you know you can fix.  Take action.  Then get help fixing everything that you aren’t sure you can fix.  One thing at a time.  You can do this.

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  • The Great Migration to Inside Sales – Will You Get it Right?

    • July 31, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I agree that there is a significant trend toward moving salespeople to the inside.  But in general, every company needs to conduct a case justification and every situation should be determined on a case-by-case basis.  Making broad statements, that define the general scenarios where sales should be moved inside, simply won’t work for most companies because there will be more exceptions to the guidelines than those that fit.

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  • Top 6 Reasons Decision Makers Fail to Attend Your Meetings

    • July 30, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    My mind doesn’t work the same as most people.  I always seem to find a sales analogy buried somewhere.  Frank, who writes the Sales Archaeologist Blog, has that ability too.

    Recently, at a picnic with my family, I took note of all the guests and couldn’t help but see the similarities between the picnic and selling to a group.

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  • Why Can’t We Hire This Sales Candidate?

    • July 22, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We interviewed him; she’s from our industry; we really like him; but your assessment says she is not recommended.  Why can’t we hire her?

    That’s probably the single, most frequently asked question that we hear.

    So, to answer the “Why can’t we?” question, there are two more questions:

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  • How Much Sales Development Can Leadership Do In-House?

    • July 17, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    From time to time, clients want to handle some of the services we provide in-house.  “Why can’t we do the sales process ourselves?”  They can, but a few questions come to mind.  If they didn’t have an effective, efficient, optimized, formal, structured sales process for the last 20 years, where would this expertise suddenly come from to create this process tomorrow?  What if they get it wrong?

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  • A Rare Paragraph or Two About Making Successful Sales Presentations

    • July 15, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When everyone presents, salespeople and companies are perceived as commodities and the sale is driven by price.  When salespeople take a customer-focused, consultative approach and actually become the value added, salespeople and companies are able to effectively differentiate, solve problems, and get paid accordingly.

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  • Top 10 Reasons Salespeople Can’t Move the Conversation from Price

    • July 11, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    There are other factors that could contribute to salespeople regularly finding themselves in a price-sensitive discussion:

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