sales tips

  • My Most Popular Sales Article of the Last Ten Years

    • December 13, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    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 a timeline.”

    There are three important lessons that arise from this:

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  • Top 10 Sales and Sales Leadership Articles of 2021

    • December 7, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    There are several criteria for choosing the top articles of the year, including, but not limited to:

    Views (Article)
    Popularity (likes on LinkedIn and Twitter)
    Engagement (comments to the article, via email, and on LinkedIn)
    Personal (my favorites)
    Value (insights for the community)

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  • Two Selling Strategies That are More Effective Than Facts and Figures

    • January 29, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Most of my articles begin with a Story and despite not writing about story telling very often, it is a very important part of selling.

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  • How a Mug of Dunkin Can Help You More Effectively Sell Value

    • December 9, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is another Bob story. Bob was on a sales call and the prospect told him that they were looking for the lowest price.  I hope you hate it when that happens.  It’s a bad thing because while Bob was supposed to be selling value, a price-based conversation is transactional yet he’s supposed to be taking a consultative approach to support the value he provides.  Would you like to guess what Bob did instead?  Yup, he got them his best price.  Ugh!

    So what should Bob have done instead to turn this around and not waste everyone’s time?

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  • Squirrels Explain the Differences Between Top and Bottom Salespeople

    • October 28, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This morning I was watching 3 squirrels each doing their thing.

    Squirrel #1, who I named Ernest, was finding lots of nuts and burying them.  His nest was full and he will reap the benefits of his hard work over the winter.

    Squirrels #2 and #3, who I named MT and LayZ, were playing.  They were running up and down tree trunks, jumping from limb to limb, running in circles and generally chasing their tails.  They don’t yet have nests and unless they make a commitment, become disciplined, and get to work, they will starve to death this winter.

    Ernest, MT and LayZ are no different than their human counterparts who find themselves in sales roles.  The top salespeople are like Ernest and the bottom salespeople are like MT and LayZ.  For evidence of that claim, take a look at the table below with a sprinkling of data from Objective Management Group (OMG) which has evaluated 1,910,915 salespeople from  companies.

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  • Did You Know That The Beatles Taught us About Selling?

    • August 26, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    While this should be a fun, end of summer article I’m guessing that you don’t actually believe that the Beatles taught us about selling.

    The Beatles recorded 18 songs where the lyrics talked about selling plus I included two bonus titles by other artists to bring the total to 20!

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  • 10 Reasons Why Salespeople Hallucinate

    • May 15, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I saw something that simply wasn’t there.  A figment of my imagination.  You could even call it a hallucination.

    Salespeople frequently have hallucinations where they think there is something there, like a great opportunity, and in reality, there isn’t anything there.  Not even close.  And then there are the salespeople who don’t see an opportunity when there is actually a great one hiding in plain site.

    Let’s talk about the many reasons that these scenarios occur.

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  • When Good Prospects Can be Worse Than Tough Prospects

    • January 17, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Comparing stop and go traffic to the other conditions I have driven in got me thinking about a sales analogy that you might find helpful.

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  • What You Should Know When Your Cold Prospect Suddenly Returns From the Dead

    • January 15, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last week I wrote about the deep freeze, why prospects suddenly go cold, and how you can prevent that from happening. That article was instantly as popular as any I have ever written.  I also posted a 6-minute  cold-calling rant on LinkedIn that had more than five-thousand views after just a couple of days. The video, like the article, was about mindset, not scripting and tactics.  And last week I also posted an article about writing a good prospecting email.  It seems that there was a theme to the week and it resonated really well with the readers.

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  • 3 Lessons that Apply to Every Sales Call No Matter What You Sell

    • December 18, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Several years ago, during one of the performances, it dawned on me that the orchestra’s role in the show correlated very nicely to an effective sales presentation.  There were 3 fantastic lessons that I presented then and as I have done each year since, will present again here.

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