Dave Kurlan

  • Rainforests and Torn ACL’s Provide Insight into Effective Selling

    • July 17, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    rainforest

    Only Dave Kurlan can take a torn ACL, rainforests and climate change and use those as analogies for sales effectiveness!

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  • The Keys To Retaining and Losing Your Customers

    • July 10, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    customer service

    It’s been quite a while since I’ve written an article about the role that customer service plays in the retention and renewal of customers and accounts.  In the past few weeks, I have experienced all kinds of customer service, including service you would expect, service that would surprise you, and service that wouldn’t change your mind about anything.

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  • Resistant Salespeople Can Prevent Consistent, Strong Sales Results

    • June 27, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    resistance

    CEOs and Sales Leaders whose salespeople aren’t responding need to understand that their veteran salespeople are the same as my son when he was thirteen. 

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  • How to Easily Motivate and Incentivize Sales Pipeline Building

    • June 20, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    motivated-by-music

    Music motivates me to do what I otherwise don’t really want to do.  But while everyone is different, I’ve seen music work as a motivator for others too.

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  • Use Music to Understand the 12 Criteria Prospects Use to Buy from Salespeople

    • June 12, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    music

    Yesterday, while watching our son play in a summer collegiate baseball game, I missed a step and tumbled all the way down the bleachers.  Isn’t that a great analogy for what happens when you miss, or skip a crucial step in the sales process?  More than half of all salespeople are missing and skipping important milestones in the sales process each and every day and their egos get more bruised from failing to close those opportunities than my body got bruised from my not so thrilling adventure to the ground.

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  • The Problem with Self-Directed Sales Training and its Role in Developing Salespeople

    • June 8, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    sales training

    Yesterday, Andy Miller and I delivered onboarding training to a group of new partners at Objective Management Group (OMG).  Andy reached the slide that said “Lunch” at the end of the day, and I spent most of the morning displaying only slide #2 which could have been covered in 10 minutes.  The spontaneous, robust discussion that broke out was not planned, but most importantly, it was not discouraged.  To the contrary, it was strongly encouraged.  The group learned more from that spontaneous two-hour discussion than they ever would have learned from the sterile slides.  Are slides bad?

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  • Sometimes The Biggest Sales Problems Have the Simplest Solutions

    • May 30, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    sales problem

    There are simple, easy, fast and powerful solutions for sales problems too.  See my examples below.

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  • Snowstorm & Weather Apps Explain Why 75% of Sales Forecasts are Wrong

    • March 16, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    As a Nor’Easter barreled across Central Massachusetts today, a few interesting storm-related happenings were analogous to some sales-related occurrences. This article will explore two weather-related analogies:

    It’s in 3D – Dinger the Dog and his choice of Doors
    The Magic of Weather Apps

    I’ve written about Dinger, our six-year-old Golden Doodle, several times.  The most popular article was when I claimed and proved that Dinger’s listening skills were better than those of salespeople. 

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  • Top 10 Keys to Determining and Improving Your Ideal Win Rate

    • March 7, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What kind of car should you drive?

    Answering that question with anything other than, “It depends,” is irresponsible because there are so many variables.  Choosing a car depends on budget, family size, how much stuff you load into your car, the length of your drives, the logo/ego influence, fit and function, ergonomics, appearance, perceived value, reliability, cost to drive it (gas/electric/mileage), and so much more.

    If that makes senses, why do companies struggle when I am unable to instantly tell them what their win-rate or closing percentage should be?

    There are so many the variables that can influence your sales win-rate and here are my top ten keys to win rates:

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