Understanding the Sales Force Archives

Why Sales Managers Don’t Coach: Two Out of 500 Said Yes

September 14, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Analogies, Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force

the sales version of baseball's instant replay for salespeople

We took away the time excuse, the listening excuse, and the cost excuse. Sales leaders at about 500 companies still wouldn’t coach. Two said yes. That’s a quarter of one percent.

The Resume Still Looks Great. The Sales Hire Still Fails.

September 10, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Analogies, Sales Assessments Compared, Sales Data and Science, Understanding the Sales Force

Infographic titled The Resume Paradox showing that 46% of new hires fail within 18 months and 89% of those failures are not about technical skill, with AI resume statistics and the traits a resume cannot see.

46% of new hires fail within 18 months, and 89% of those failures are not about technical skill. A resume can’t see Will to Sell, Sales DNA, or selling competencies — which is why the most credentialed sales candidate is so often the wrong hire.

The Deadbolt Test: What Looks Fine on Your Sales Team From Three Feet Away

September 7, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Analogies, Sales Compensation, Sales Pipeline and Forecast, Sales Process, Understanding the Sales Force

Two salespeople in business attire try to kick open a wooden office door with a prominent brass deadbolt that does not line up with the strike plate.

From three feet away, most sales teams look locked. Get up close and the deadbolt doesn’t line up. Ten places the door is theater, and a simple test for how easy it would be to kick in.

Inbound Ruined Outbound — But It’s Not Too Late to Join the Evolution

September 4, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Analogies, Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force

A boy holding greeting cards knocks on a 1960s front door while a rotary wall phone and a snowy black-and-white television sit inside the house.

Phones evolved. TVs evolved. Selling got inbound, tools, and a buyer-journey myth — and most salespeople used all three as a hall pass to skip the conversation. Only 17% can still do the thing that works.

There Is No Sales Equity: Why Sales Training Methods Don’t Produce the Same Results

September 1, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Analogies, Sales Process, Understanding the Sales Force

Split illustration comparing Food Equity, where every dinner path leads to the same meal, with No Sales Equity, where eight sales development methods produce very different salesperson results.

Dinner has a dozen paths and one meal. That’s Food Equity. Developing a sales team looks the same and isn’t. There is no Sales Equity — the method you pick does not produce the same outcome. Here’s why, and which mix actually changes results.

Why You Should Stop Trying to Be the Star of the Sales Call

August 22, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Music and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force

various bass players and drummers are like various types of salespeople

A simple music analogy reveals why the best salespeople don’t try to be the star of the call — and what the alternative looks like.

How Prospects Use EMCOM to Push Away Salespeople

August 17, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Analogies, Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force

Modern U.S. Navy destroyer running completely dark at night under a starry sky with faint radar arcs, illustrating EMCOM radio silence used by prospects to hide buying urgency from salespeople

Prospects with real urgency often go radio silent — just like a warship running EMCOM — to keep salespeople from discovering the problem that would actually make them buy. Here’s why that resistance exists and how the best salespeople manage it.

The Biblical Sales Force Part 8: Qualification

August 17, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Bible and Sales, Sales Process, Understanding the Sales Force

Classical painting-style scene of the Canaanite woman kneeling before Jesus with a speech bubble reading “You’re not qualified,” illustrating early disqualification and the power of persistence and faith in the sales process.

Most sales teams treat qualification as a checkbox. The Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 shows why that approach fails—and what actually separates a Marketing Qualified Lead from a real opportunity.

Why Salespeople Prescribe Before They Diagnose (And Kill Their Win Rates)

August 11, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Analogies, Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force

Most salespeople jump straight to the demo. A real consultative approach looks more like a thorough doctor’s exam than a product pitch — and the difference shows up clearly in win rates.

The Sales Process Scramble

August 3, 2026
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Categories: Analogies, Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force

Open-face breakfast sandwich with scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese next to a baseball diamond diagram of the Baseline Selling process showing Suspect, Prospect, Qualified, and Scored stages

Skipping just one step in the sales process can turn a sure thing into a rubbery mess. Here’s why it happens and how a real process destroys the hope that keeps weak opportunities alive.