qualifying

  • The Nutcracker and 3 Sales Competencies That Cause Low Win Rates

    • December 6, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    Christmas nutcracker

    During a first sales call, suppose your salespeople hear one prospect say, “This has been a very interesting and productive conversation and we might have some interest in this.”  And imagine another prospect at the same meeting says, “We’ll get back to you next month and let you know what kind of progress we’ve made.”  And still a third might say, “In the meantime, please send us a proposal with references and timeline.”

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  • 20 Ways Salespeople Waste Time and Lose Money

    • August 31, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    garden hole

    I was thinking about how salespeople chase their tails and waste time that could be better utilized on actual selling activities.   Here are the first twenty time-wasting tail-chasing things that came to mind and they all reflect some degree of lack of commitment, lack of discipline, lack of consistency and excuse making:

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  • 10 Reasons Why You Can’t Outsell an Incumbent

    • June 7, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    winning strategy

    When the strategy is correct, the messaging can be perfected.

    When the strategy and messaging are correct, the sales process can be optimized.

    When the sales process is optimized, the sales tactics will work.

    Stop winging it.  Stop struggling.  Stop losing.

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  • Time for Closing Arguments

    • May 29, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    closing arguments

    When salespeople master the abilities to meet and build relationships with decision makers, use a consultative approach to uncover their compelling reasons to buy, sell their personal value to differentiate and throughly qualify, win rates will go from too low to hello!

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  • Trump, The Iowa Caucus, and Sales Improvement

    • January 16, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    election results

    This course is the most fun you could ever have while going through sales training!  But it is so much more than fun and entertainment.  There are powerful selling lessons in each clip, and despite the fun, you will become more effective at all aspects of selling.  It doesn’t matter how long you have been in sales, what you sell, who you sell it to, the length of your sales cycle or the cost of your product or service.  Nor does it matter where your competency gaps are.

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  • The Best Sales and Sales Leadership Content of 2023

    • December 11, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    best of the best

    Welcome to my annual list of the best sales and sales leadership content of 2023.  This year’s list has thirteen entries, including articles, videos, and LinkedIn posts.  There are several categories including Most Read, Most Liked, Most Engagement, Best Quality and Personal Favorite.  Ready?

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  • Milestones in the Sales Process are Like the Stones in a Wall

    • October 5, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    stone column

    An ideal sales process has 4 stages, each with anywhere from 4 to 10 milestones that must be met in order to move to the next stage.

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  • The 10 Avoidable Things That Occur When Salespeople Don’t Talk about Money

    • September 27, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    discussing money

    The table above uses data from Objective Management Group (OMG), which has assessed close to 2.4 million salespeople.  The data shows that 43% of all salespeople are uncomfortable talking about money and while the top 10% have no such problem, 71% of the bottom 10% are too uncomfortable to talk about money.  These are the 10 things that happen when salespeople are uncomfortable with the finance-specific milestones of the sales process:

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  • Snowstorm & Weather Apps Explain Why 75% of Sales Forecasts are Wrong

    • March 16, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    As a Nor’Easter barreled across Central Massachusetts today, a few interesting storm-related happenings were analogous to some sales-related occurrences. This article will explore two weather-related analogies:

    It’s in 3D – Dinger the Dog and his choice of Doors
    The Magic of Weather Apps

    I’ve written about Dinger, our six-year-old Golden Doodle, several times.  The most popular article was when I claimed and proved that Dinger’s listening skills were better than those of salespeople. 

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  • The Bob Chronicles – The Difference Between Selling Skills and Effectiveness

    • October 12, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Today a client asked me to explain the difference between skills and effectiveness. You won’t find the answer by doing a Google search as that search turns up exactly nothing on the subject.  This article will discuss the similarity between symptoms/causes and skills/effectiveness. Do you remember Bob, the subject of many articles and my favorite weak salesperson to write about?

    Bob strikes again!

    I’ve written 10 articles about Bob and everyone says that the Bob series is their favorite.

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