sales strategy

  • 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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  • 2 Questions That Will End Every Request for a Better Price

    • November 15, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What’s the point?  When prospects tell you that they’re going with the lowest price, it’s total crap.  They might be saying that, but are they required to do that?  If they have any bottled water in the kitchen, pay for any streaming, or software then it’s simply not true.  Can you say bluffing?

    I don’t blame companies for trying to buy for less, but it doesn’t mean you have to sell for less, or match or beat someone’s price.  They’re just saying the words and waiting to see if you’ll bite.  Just about a year ago at this time, I wrote another article about selling value where I used Dunkin Donuts coffee as an example.

    So what should you do when a prospect asks for a lower price?

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  • What B2B Companies Must Learn from 10 Reasons Why Amazon is Destroying Retailers

    • April 17, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Amazon generated almost $44 Billion in net revenue last year and it had to come from somewhere. That’s not $44 Billion that people wouldn’t have spent if not for Amazon.  It’s money that people would have spent, at some retailer, probably within an hour of their home or office, but chose to buy from Amazon instead.  

    You may think it’s because Amazon saves them money but that isn’t necessarily true.  And you may think it’s simply more convenient to order from your laptop or mobile device but that might not be the case either.  I’m going to share my 10 reasons why this is happening and you might be very surprised with my conclusion at the end of the article where I provide an important warning for B2B Sellers.

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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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  • 3 Types of Salespeople – Which are Best at Growing Sales?

    • July 30, 2012
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The pessimist complains about the prospect.  The optimist expects him to buy.  The realist adjusts the sales strategy.

    Let’s look at these three points a little more closely, shall we?

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  • Startups and the Dilemma of the First Sales Hire

    • March 11, 2011
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When a company is ready to hire someone for its first sales role, they often face a big dilemma:

    Should it be a salesperson?
    Should it be a selling sales manager?
    Should it be a selling Sales VP?

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  • The App Store Provides Insights into Your Company’s Sales Challenges

    • November 30, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Is there any possibility that someone could go wrong buying from you?  Is buying from your company the safest choice?  Is it the easiest choice?  Is it the traditional choice?  Is it free or very low priced? Is it the tried and true choice?

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  • 3 Sales Approaches of Elite Salespeople

    • April 8, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Great salespeople must be able to easily use all three approaches on their sales calls.  Salespeople that struggle tend to have just one approach and it won’t work all the time. 

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  • Sales Strategy – 9th of the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

    • December 2, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is the 9th in the series of articles on my Top 10 Sales Management Functions

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