sales development
-
Growing New Sales Meetings/Pipeline: What Works and What Doesn’t
- April 27, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Struggling with inconsistent sales meetings? See why cold emails from lead-gen companies fail (with real examples) and discover the proven method that actually grows your B2B sales pipeline — picking up the phone. Learn what works and what doesn’t in 2026.
-
Dave Kurlan’s 20 Keys to Sales Mastery: How to Become an Elite Salesperson
- April 13, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Discover Dave Kurlan’s 20 practical keys to sales mastery, drawn from decades of experience and OMG’s nearly 3 million assessments. Learn how the top 5% of salespeople think, practice, and outperform everyone else with consultative selling, disciplined habits, and a relentless “do whatever it takes” mindset. Start improving your win rate, deal size, and results today.
-
The Baseball Dad Lesson That Made Me a Better Sales Coach
- April 1, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
How my son’s intense baseball training taught me the real secret to becoming an elite real-time sales coach. From hardcore introvert to mastering live role plays and in-the-moment coaching — with practical first steps for sales leaders.
-
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.
-
Wouldn’t Sales Call Play-by-Play Analyses be Fun?
- January 27, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Most sales managers protect their salespeople instead of pushing them to improve. Most companies set budgets that formulaically increase year-over-year budgets by just 3.5%. The sales recruiting process and selection criteria at most companies are horrible. Most sales training is product-focused instead of sales development. Most salespeople are not consistently or effectively coached. Most senior sales leaders are indifferent about doing anything about those things.
-
Leading a Sales Force is Even More Like Baseball
- November 6, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve written plenty about the similarity betwen baseball and selling, but today I’m writing about the similarity between baseball and sales leadership. If you’re not a baseball person, you might not see the same things that I see, most of which can be applied to leading a sales force. For example,
-
Did our Sales Evaluation Uncover Part-Time Job Selling Drugs?
- October 15, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A salesperson was arrested for growing pot and selling it. Can you believe it?
Recently, the same man participated in OMG’s Sales Force Evaluation at the company where he worked. The evaluation showed that he was a very strong salesperson with tremendous selling skills, but it also identified a few telling issues:
-
Music and Selling – There are Many More Similarities Than You Think
- August 22, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It appears that I have written enough articles about music and selling to include a series about the connection. One of the constants in the music business is that the artists must choose between writing and recording songs that are either consistent with what made them famous (giving their core audience more of what they want) or adapting and creating music which would appeal to a potentially newer audience (and perhaps alienating their core audience.) I think that Paul Simon chose the latter and alienated everyone!
-
How Do Sales Professionals Stay Motivated?
- July 12, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The most important thing to understand is that when someone must ask how to motivate their salespeople, they may not have the right salespeople!
-
Can the Right Music Motivate and Improve Sales Performance?
- May 22, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One of the many changes to affect selling during the last several years is that salespeople are making fewer face-to-face sales calls than ever before and more of the selling has moved to the phone. This has resulted in more calls (although shorter), more resistance with a longer sales cycle, and greater success in closing sales, deals and accounts which might not have been possible just a few years ago. The biggest difference though? It might just be the music.