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The Holidays are a Great Metaphor for Sales Success

Written by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: Which do you anticipate more? The gifts that you will receive? What will it be? Could it be what you were hoping for? Will it be smelly socks? Will you have to return it? Will you love it? Will you hate it? Or... The gifts that you present? Will they be surprised? Will they be delighted? Will they be speechless? Will they know how much thought you put into it? Will they be appreciative?

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The Holidays are a Great Metaphor for Sales Success

Which do you anticipate more?

The gifts that you will receive? What will it be? Could it be what you were hoping for? Will it be smelly socks? Will you have to return it? Will you love it? Will you hate it?

Or...

The gifts that you present? Will they be surprised? Will they be delighted? Will they be speechless? Will they know how much thought you put into it? Will they be appreciative?

I can only speak for myself but I couldn't care any less about what I get, but I sure get nervous - more nervous than any other thing I can imagine - when I'm giving a thoughtful gift. If you focus on the gifts you'll get you'll certainly miss the entire point of this great holiday season.

Sales success works much the same way. If you focus on your prospect, the value you're providing, the questions that will cause them to think differently, about their business, their challenges and you, and what you can do to help them, you can delight them and get them to buy from you. If you focus on yourself and your needs - to present, to talk about capabilities, your company, your need for approval and your desire to do business with them, you'll miss the point of the sales call.

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Home > Sales > Dave Kurlan > The Holidays are a Great Metaphor for Sales Success
Article Tags: capabilities, challenges, desire, holiday season, nbsp, sales success, smelly socks, span, thoughtful gift

About the Author: Dave Kurlan
RSS for Dave's articles - Visit Dave's website

Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development.  He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).

Click here to visit Dave's website
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Different Hats Different Hats - CEO Sales & Marketing & Leadership Development Company Strategic Vision 10 Alliances & Growth Strategies 10 Hiring & Managing People 8 Mentoring 8-9 Strategic Planning for Clients 10 Execution of Marketing Campaigns 9-10 (i have great people who do the nitty gritty) Financial Management 9 Bookkeeping 3 (outsourced as I really hate the fine details like GST0 Administrative Follow Up 6-7 (again have great staff) Writing & Publishing 9 (getting better all the time!) Speaking 10 (so I have been told) Self Promotion 9-10 Web development & Promotion 6-7 (learning more and have brought on players who are 10+) Babysitting Employees (1 - wont do it, that's why I work so hard to hire and motivate the people I have) Great topic Kevin!! Jude


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