Top Sales Library - a resource of all things sales

Dave Kurlan

Sales is the Answer

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Hang in there – this will be an article on sales but you need to get through the big set up. A US candidate for President in 2020 spoke at a recent Walmart shareholders meeting and criticized the company for not paying higher wages.  He said that a company owned by the wealthiest family in the… Read More

Second Secret to Sales Force Excellence

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Last week, I revealed the first secret success ingredient from our Sales Force Effectiveness Study.  Today, before I reveal secret #2 I need to take care of a two important promos: Our new White Paper, The Modern Science Behind Sales Force Excellence is available today – Download it here. John Pattison wrote his first article for the… Read More

Selling Value Means There is No Price Negotiation! How to Become an Elite Salesperson

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Most salespeople have little capability to effectively build value.  Talking about what your company does better or differently or telling a prospect what your value proposition is does not build value.  Instead, value is derived from ones ability to consistently accomplish 3 milestones: Uncovering the compelling reason(s) to buy and buy from you, Understanding the… Read More

The 3 Most Important Questions about Sales Process and My Answers

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Sales Process is a topic that I have chosen to write about around 25 times over the past 10 years. Lately, we are finally beginning to see some improvements being made in this area.  For example, back in the early 90’s, when Objective Management Group (OMG) first began measuring the existence of sales process, only 9% of all salespeople were… Read More

The Challenger Style and its Impact on Sales Selection

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This White Paper responds to this article, which appeared on the Harvard Business Review Blog. The HBR article introduced a new selling style called the Challenger: It categorizes salespeople into 1 of 5 styles. It concludes that salespeople who belong to the “Challenger” style dramatically outperform relationship builders. I agree with the overall premise but… Read More

The Future of Selling

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Most experts cannot agree on what selling will look like in a year or two, never mind 5 years from now.  I have decided to play futurist and walk us through the coming evolution of selling.  Would you like to join me? A Short Look Back Professional selling has already evolved more in the past… Read More

The Kurlan Approach to 2015

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You’ve made your New Years resolutions to exercise, lay off the carbs, lose weight, be kind, leave the cell phone in another room at night, close the laptop by 9PM, and be an all around better person.  You may have even set your goals for 2015.  But what can you do to kick-off the New… Read More

The Modern Science Behind Sales Force Excellence

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The Modern Science Behind Sales Force Excellence provides  insights, commentary and  conclusions reached from our Sales Force Effectiveness Study, conducted during the latter part of 2014. We will report on the practices of companies large and small, with and without dedicated top of the funnel teams, and with and without traditional sales forces. The study was… Read More

THE MODERN SCIENCE OF SALESPERSON SELECTION

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THE MODERN SCIENCE OF SALESPERSON SELECTION For more than 40 years, companies have been attempting to find a more accurate way to select salespeople who will succeed and, at the same time, reduce turnover in their sales organizations. In 1964, Harvard Business Review published “What Makes a Good Salesman”, an article by Herbert M. Greenberg… Read More

The Qualification of Prospects – What is Really Happening Out There?

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This month we saw a significant increase in the number of articles written about ineffective sales qualification and ineffective sales management coaching.  It is the latter’s failure to assure that the former is doing what they are supposed to be doing. Everyone knows what qualifying is, but there are five inherent issues: Not everyone believes… Read More