sales management
-
Why Your Sales Team Needs Veteran Story Hour: Lessons from the Red Sox
- April 4, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
At a recent event, my wife and I heard hilarious and meaningful stories from three members of the 1986 Boston Red Sox — pitchers Bob Stanley and Bruce Hurst, and shortstop Spike Owen. It was nostalgic, fun, and powerful.
Why don’t more sales organizations do the same? Why not ask their best, most successful, veteran, and retired salespeople to spend an hour sharing meaningful, memorable, and even hilarious stories with the current team? It costs nothing, it’s not difficult or scary, and it delivers real results. -
Attention C-Suite! Revenue by Salesperson is Faulty Data
- March 16, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
Attention C-Suite: Raw revenue by salesperson is often faulty data—like ignoring outliers in judging. Apply a trimmed mean lens to uncover hidden truths (inherited accounts, one-off deals), diagnose real effectiveness, and unlock 33% revenue growth via smart training & coaching.
-
The $370 Fuse: Broken Trash Compactor Offers Lessons to Fix Sales Problems
- January 12, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
A $1 blown fuse cost me $370 in service fees because I misdiagnosed the problem. Sound familiar? Sales leaders often do the same thing—blaming negotiating, closing, prospecting, or new business acquisition—when the real issues are deeper: poor qualifying, weak differentiation, missing KPIs, and lack of accountability. Stop treating symptoms and start solving root causes.
-
From Practice Range to Sales Mastery: The 8 Requirements for Game-Changing Sales Training
- November 17, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
In sales, just like in sports, anyone can start playing—but mastery takes real effort. Drawing parallels from baseball sandlots to golf courses, this article explores why most salespeople plateau early and why companies must step up with proper training. Discover the 8 essential requirements for sales training that delivers measurable results, from clear expectations to proven content, and why skipping it keeps teams stuck in mediocrity.
-
The Golf to Sales Analogy: When You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
- November 4, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
Discover how a late start in golf taught me the ultimate sales lesson: “I didn’t know what I didn’t know.” From clueless reps sending premature proposals to managers without accountability, this post reveals the blind spots killing sales performance—and how a savvy CEO fixed it all.
-
Brad Pitt’s F1 Character Shows Us How to Tame Sales Mavericks
- July 24, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Books, Movies, Theater and Television, Understanding the Sales Force
Brad Pitt’s Sonny Hayes in the new F1 movie is the ultimate sales maverick—talented yet rebellious. This article reveals how his journey from lone wolf to team player can guide you. Learn to harness your top producers’ integrity, turn rebels into mentors, or know when to cut ties for a stronger sales crew.
-
Future Red Sox Stars to Sales MVPs: Why One-on-One Coaching Wins
- July 9, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
The Red Sox turned young players into stars with one-on-one coaching, and your sales team can too. Learn why group coaching falls short and how personalized coaching can boost revenue by up to 42%. Ready to hit a sales home run?
-
5 Keys to Account Management Success; 10 Keys to a Strong Customer Partnership
- June 13, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Understanding the Sales Force
A new sales rep’s 60-second flop at an optometrist’s office exposes critical account management mistakes. From unprofessional attire to zero relationship-building, her visit was a disaster. Discover the 5 keys to account management and 10 keys to strong partnerships—like trust, respect, and communication—to make your sales team unstoppable
-
My Latest Sales Epiphany From Watching Playoff Baseball
- October 20, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Baseball and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
And that’s when it hit me as if I was hit in the face by a 95 MPH fastball.
My fears are exclusive to the Red Sox and not to any other team – even if I am rooting for the other team! This is huge! And because this is my brain, this is actually about sales, not baseball!
Is it fair to believe that a Sales Leader wants his salesperson to succeed with a big, important sales opportunity as much as I would want the Red Sox relief pitcher to succeed in a big, important game?
If your answer is yes, we have a problem.
-
The Biblical Sales Force Part 2 – On Boarding and Coaching Salespeople
- October 14, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Bible and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
As I wrote in September, I’m reading the Bible from beginning to end for the first time. In my first article using an analogy from the Bible, I wrote about scaling, hiring and firing salespeople, based on what I read in Genesis. Today’s article is about on boarding and coaching salespeople, and is an analogy from Exodus.
Early in Exodus, we are introduced to Moses, whose people have been slaves to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for hundreds of years. God appears to Moses and commands him to approach Pharaoh and persuade him to release the Israelites so they can freely worship their God. Moses lacks confidence in his ability to articulate the request, and questions God’s direction. He wonders if there might be someone better to handle this important assignment.
God had to build Moses’ confidence, and properly prepare him for the conversation he will have with Pharaoh. This is the equivalent to pre-call strategizing, one of several methods for coaching salespeople. God needed to provide Moses with talking points sufficient to give him gravitas with Pharaoh, so he provided Moses the God-like ability to turn his brother Aaron’s staff into a snake. We accomplish the same thing when we prepare a salesperson with powerful messaging and talking points.
