Dave Kurlan
Putting Some Hollywood into Your Sales Presentations
Last week I wrote about First Impressions and today's topic is presentations. That's quite the change in direction from Consultative Selling, Sales Process, Assessments, and Performance.
What do Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocket Man, Miracle and Argo ha...
Your Last Chance to Make a Good First Impression
Most salespeople don't take first impressions seriously enough. If they did, their first impressions would be much more favorable.
I can still remember my first (unintentional) lesson about first impressions. My family was gathered at my grandfa...
How to Raise the Incomes of Minimum Wage Workers Without Wealth Distribution or Socialism
Hang in there - this will be an article on sales - but you need to get through the big set up.
Bernie Sanders spoke at a Walmart shareholders meeting and criticized the company for not paying higher wages. He said that a company owned by th...
How Top Salespeople Anticipate and Manage Resistance
Last week Tom Hopkins shared a post on LinkedIn that resembled what I have said so many times. He said, "The art of selling involves two jobs: Job One is to reduce sales resistance and the other is to increase sales acceptance."
Many r...
How to Magically Move Prospects into a Buying State of Mind
Most lies are truths to the people who state them. Take climate change for example. Climate change is clearly a real thing. The planet has been warming exponentially since the ice age! But to think that humans are responsible or that...
Dave Kurlan’s 23 Steps to Improved Channel Sales
When you purchase a car, do you consider yourself a customer of the dealer you bought or leased it from, the auto maker, or both?
When you purchase a Sony flat screen TV from Best Buy, do you consider yourself a Best Buy customer, a S...
How the Rubber Band Sabotages Sales Performance
I have written many articles about Sales DNA, the combination of strengths that support sales process, sales strategy and sales tactics; or, when it appears as a weakness and sabotages ones ability to execute.
Unlike strategies and tactics, where...
Are Salespeople Still Using the Hard Sell?
When you hear a phrase like the hard sell, do you instantly think of car salespeople? Insurance? Replacement windows? No offense intended to those of you in one of those three industries!
While someone's reference to a hard...
One Question Provides Salespeople with Instant Feedback on How Well They Differentiated
Most salespeople do not know the difference between their prospects' decision-making process compared with their decision-making criteria.
What's worse is that even more salespeople don't even bother asking about it. According to data from ...
Dave Kurlan’s 10 Rules for Effective Sales Emails That Connect With New Prospects
They aren't personal, they aren't written well, their messages are identical, you want to delete them and I know you get these emails too. I had already decided to save some of these worthless emails for an upcoming article when Keenan pos...
Why Coaching Causes Some Sales Managers to Hold On for Dear Life
Over the past few months I've been coaching 30 sales leaders from 3 companies and while most are trying their hardest to do everything I recommend, apply everything they learn, and coach as instructed, there are enough that do...
An Easier Way to Coach Salespeople – For a While
One of the challenges that sales managers have is their trepidation around transitioning from very little coaching to daily coaching; and at the same time, moving from coaching light (ineffective coaching) to coachi...
Do the Least Informed Salespeople Have the Loudest Voices
Do the least informed among us have the loudest voices? This article is about salespeople but to set the stage, we'll start with the news.
When I listen to and watch the news, it seems that those on the fringes and representing special interest g...
The Top 8 Requirements for Becoming a Great Salesperson
If you're young enough, some of the questions in the first few paragraphs won't apply because you haven't experienced the world without the innovations mentioned below. Don't let that prevent you from reading this because after the mil...
Dave Kurlan’s 10 Surefire New Years Resolutions For All Salespeople
Like most people, this year I intend to make good on my New Year’s resolution. It’s actually more of a life resolution than it is a New Year’s resolution in much the same way that salespeople should make theirs a career resolution. If ...
Why are Half of All Sales Reps Still Missing Quota in a Booming US...
Around this time ten years ago, the US economy was famously tanking. I remember it well as revenue at Objective Management Group dropped by more than 30%, almost overnight. During 2008 and 2009 more than half of all US sales reps were miss...
How Getting Feedback and Making Adjustments are the Keys to Sales Improvement
Becoming a great at selling - or anything else for that matter - is about making adjustments. In order to make an adjustment you need feedback - something you see, hear or feel that informs your ability to adjust. Take Baseball for example. ...
Would Henry Ford be Able to Sell Cars Today?
Cars were in the news this week when GM announced they were closing plants in the USA and President Trump pushed back. So it got me wondering...
What would Henry Ford think if he were alive today? I'm thinking that he would ask, "What the ...
Speed Limits, the Flow of Traffic, and Sales Pipelines
I don't get stressed anymore when I'm driving. All it took was for me to not exceed the speed limit. I'm not sure whether it was my navigation system repeatedly telling me to "obey all traffic laws" each time I started the car, or my wife ...
Data Shows That Only 14% are Qualified for the Easiest Selling Roles
Lays Potato Chips. Movie Theater Popcorn. Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. BBQ Ribs. Fudge Brownies. Rolos (a personal favorite from years ago). All junk food which, after having the first one, you just can't stop...
