• Sell More by Understanding this God, Garden, and Baseball Analogy

    • June 9, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    red sox-yankees-rivalry

    Discover how faith in God, weeding a garden, and the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry reveal powerful lessons for boosting your sales. Learn to trust your process, balance efficiency with precision, and leverage unique strengths to close more deals.

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  • Is Complacency to Blame for Missed Quotas? A Deep Dive into Sales Performance Challenges

    • May 30, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    complacency and missing quota

    Is Complacency to Blame for Missed Quotas? A Deep Dive into Sales Performance Challenges

    Is complacency why 57% of reps miss quota? Data from 2.5 million salespeople shows 64% of the bottom 50% lack the Will to Sell. From poor compensation to lack of motivation and discipline, here’s what’s holding them back—and how to fix it.

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  • New Data: The Top 10% of Salespeople are 619% Stronger Than the Bottom 10%

    • May 24, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    rich getting richer

    New 2025 data reveals a staggering 619% performance gap between the top 10% and bottom 10% of salespeople. While top performers excel in competencies like Relationship Building and Consultative Selling, they’re slipping in areas like Hunting and Closing, influenced by COVID and economic challenges. Dive into the 21 Sales Core Competencies to understand why—and what to do about it.

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  • Why Salespeople Skip the Sales Process (And How It’s Killing Your Revenue)

    • May 19, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    Split-screen graphic of barren tree vs thriving fruit tree showing structured sales process benefits

    Planting a fruit tree requires five simple steps in the right order—mess it up, and you’re left with dirt. Sales is no different, yet only 34% of salespeople follow a structured process. From mistaking methodologies for processes to winging it, discover why salespeople ditch the roadmap and how a proper sales process can boost revenue by 20%.

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  • Car Engines and Gas Prices Can Help Eliminate Obsolete Sales Tactics

    • May 15, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    sales traditions

    In this thought-provoking article, the author questions outdated traditions in automotive and sales industries. From measuring car engine power in horsepower—a term rooted in the 1700s—to gas prices still ending in 9/10 cents, the piece challenges why we cling to archaic practices. It also critiques sales tactics, like pitching over consultative selling, excessive proposals, and weak follow-up questions, urging a shift to modern, effective strategies for 2025.

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  • The Sales Process Milestone You Can’t Get Wrong

    • May 9, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    timing of the close

    Every year, I observe that May 11th marks the day when tree leaves reach full size, a natural milestone that mirrors the critical timing in sales. Just as leaves may appear early or late due to weather, prospects reach buying decisions at varying times. Salespeople often assume the end of their pitch signals the moment to close, but prospects may not be ready—or may have been ready earlier. Missing these cues can lead to lost sales. A well-structured sales process like Baseline Selling accounts for this, but unexpected delays or accelerated decisions can still disrupt timing. Mastering the art of aligning with a.Assembly Instructions prospect’s decision-making moment is key to closing deals effectively.

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  • MLB’s Replay Center Offers Lessons for the Sales Call Debrief

    • May 4, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    mlb replay, sales debrief

    Think an MLB Replay Center and a sales call debrief have nothing in common? Think again. Both dissect critical moments with precision, from context to execution, to get the call right. Discover how a sales manager’s review mirrors baseball’s high-stakes analysis—and why precision is the key to winning in both games.

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  • The Biblical Sales Force Part 5 – Consequences and Some Baseball

    • April 24, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    God

    There are differences between the laws in Deuteronomy and the requirements in the strategic plan, with the major difference being consequences.  God’s remedy for many crimes was getting stoned to death, while leadership’s remedy for failing the requirements in the strategic plan is to ignore the crime.  Sell another day versus Death.

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  • Poison Ivy and 2 Powerful Lessons for Hiring Salespeople

    • April 18, 2025
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    poison ivy

    Paul McCartney hoped it would work out with Linda in the band, and while Wings were very successful, let’s be honest.  Linda would not have been hired to perform on vocals or keyboard in any other band – not even a local wedding band!  Why?  She was a photographer and shouldn’t have quit her day job.

    We see nepotism in every family owned business where the founder/CEO/President gets the entire unqualified family involved.  The family learns to adequately perform in most of the roles but the brother in charge of sales, the nephew managing major accounts, the daughter in account management, and the wife doing estimates just aren’t cutting it.

    Let’s not forget the Hope part of this…

    Hope is used when sales leaders interview and select sales candidates.  They decide that from among the following 10 characteristics and qualifiers, the candidate:

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