sales training
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10 Rules for Successful Sales Training and Revenue Growth
- March 17, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The truth is that even the most media-rich, entertaining, engaging, memorable sales training can’t come close to holding people’s attention when compared to a series like “24.”
That’s why it is imperative that companies follow my top 10 rules for a successful sales training outcomes:
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Why Most Salespeople Require More Training and Repetition
- December 12, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The people who enter sales immediately after high school or college graduation learn sales from the ground up and are better trained and prepared for what they will encounter and what they must do in those situations. However, those who make career changes and transition to sales later in their career, don’t benefit from nearly as much sales training, receiving mostly product training instead. That forces them to rely on instincts, which are not based on sales experience or wisdom, and often guide them to do what makes them comfortable, as opposed to what makes them effective.
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New Competency Has 10 Attributes for Post 2024 Sales Success
- November 18, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Uncategorized, Understanding the Sales Force
The problem is not that prospects and customers expect you to lie, the problem is that they wonder if you are being truthful, especially when it sounds too good to be true or they believe you are telling them what they want to hear.
Thank God that Larry Levine wrote and published Selling in a Post Trust World earlier this year! That’s a book that will help you adapt to these changing times. Another book that will have you selling more and selling with integrity is my timeless book, Baseline Selling-How to Become a Sales Superstar.
In addition to the 21 Sales Core Competencies that are current best practices, I officially recommend the following ten, additional, post 2024 selling attributes:
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7-Steps to Achieve Sales Team Excellence
- October 9, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Any company and/or executive can initiate a sales transformation, but there is one dealbreaker that can cause a sales transformation initiative to fail. But you have to see it through. You must be visible. You must lead by example. You must be engaged. You must show how important this is. You must show your commitment.
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Could Lost Deals Correlate with Sales Success?
- September 20, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I love looking for correlations and causation and we use causation to build predictive sales scorecards. Nobody closes 100% of their closable opportunities but with a properly constructed scorecard, you’ll know the opportunities on which to devote your resources, and which opportunities would be best to lose as fast as you can.
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Hydrangeas Tell the Story of Underperforming Salespeople
- September 13, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You don’t have to stand by, throw your hands in the air, become frustrated and use hope as your strategy. When did hope even become a strategy? You don’t need to terminate these underperforming salespeople and replace them with new salespeople who might not get it done. Take matters into your own hands, get the help you need to actually develop your salespeople.
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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
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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Pump it Up for Sales Performance
- May 14, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A client has a small sales team in the northeastern US. Last week the CEO reconnected with the sales team to check if everyone was selling properly. They weren’t. The team had lost a few customers because a high pressure competitor was stealing their accounts. He initially thought there was a problem with the connections between the sales team and its customers but it was actually a gap in the sales team’s selling skills. The sales team was rusty, having rested on their laurels for years, and the lack of initiative to replace clients they had lost was glaring.
Of course the drama with the sales team could have been avoided and the CEO could have replaced and upgraded the team from the start if he had done these five things:
asked us to evaluate the sales team
checked the pipeline to make sure opportunities were being added
considered the degree to which they underperformed last year
remembered that he had to intervene on a daily basis last year to keep the team motivated
recalled that the team was getting old -
The Data: What Percentage of Salespeople are Really Coachable?
- April 3, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
While coaching is private, training is more public as it usually takes place in front of others. Salespeople who have the greatest incentive to change are those who are the most trainable. Those salespeople have high scores in Desire for additional sales success and Commitment to additional sales success. When a salesperson scores below 60 on Desire and/or Commitment, you aren’t likely to see much of a change in their effectiveness or performance. If they are already generating acceptable results and more of the same would be OK, then it doesn’t matter. On the other hand, if their performance is lacking, and more of the same would not be acceptable, then a salesperson lacking Desire/Commitment would be a great candidate for replacement.
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Was the Easter Sermon About Salespeople?
- April 1, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
As someone who for thirty-eight years has led a sales consultancy specializing in sales, sales management and sales leadership training, I can easily say the exact same things about people “who belong” to the sales profession. They should be attending at least weekly training. They should be practicing their profession as we practice our faith. They should be reading about sales. But most in the sales profession are content to sit on the sidelines, and attend training only when the company forces them to. More and more, we are seeing: