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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

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.prospect’s decision-making moment is key to closing deals effectively.

How to Master the Sales Discovery Call

April 11, 2025
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

Good salespeople know that the key to a sales process that will result in a sale, is uncovering their prospect’s compelling reason to buy. Period. Not “period” as in that’s all they have to do, but “period”, as in nothing else in the process will matter if they don’t uncover the compelling reason to buy. Easy (to state). For most salespeople, even the good ones, it’s not that easy. How can they determine if what they heard is actually compelling? Is it compelling to the prospect? Is it compelling to the salesperson? Do those two determinations have equal value?

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:

Top 20 Reasons Why Sales Opportunities Don’t Close

January 28, 2025
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

Sales Leaders who are frustrated with low win rates place the blame on closing skills when, in reality, it has NOTHING to do with closing! Watch this 2-minute video for an explanation and then continue reading below.

Official Guidance for Sales Teams Navigating the 2nd Trump Economy

January 20, 2025
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

Let’s discuss how the Trump economy will affect sales organizations.

It will be easier to schedule meetings – hooray!

It may be easier to reach decision makers – that’s awesome! They hide when they aren’t interested in spending.

Sales cycles will be shorter – that’s great news!

But with all that good news, I do have five warnings to share:

Top Sales & Sales Leadership Articles of 2024

December 12, 2024
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

If you’ve been reading this Blog for more than a couple of years, or since 2006, then you know that every December I post the best articles of the past year. This year there are five articles listed in the category of best Sales Leadership articles, there are ten articles listed in the category of best sales articles of the year, and five more that are my personal favorites. Additionally, I listed the top five video rants of 2024 to give you a bit more value while you are here.

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:

Getting Salespeople to Prospect When They Aren’t Prospecting

November 15, 2024
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

While some growth can be expected to come from effective account management, the kind of growth desired by most companies comes from consistently finding and closing new accounts. While companies love their inbound lead-generation programs, and those programs do generate leads, the quality of the leads, and the quality of the meetings booked by those young and inexperienced top-of-funnel kids, leaves much to be desired.

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.

Steam Vent Hack That Salespeople Can Use on Stalled Opportunities

August 23, 2024
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

The guide simply lit a cigarette, lowered it slightly into the vent, it reacted with the air and the steam, and significantly increased the output of steam. A super simple hack that instantly causes a performance improvement gets your attention!

Of course, that got me thinking about a simple hack that will significantly improve sales performance and I present one to you in this article.