Dave Kurlan

In just the first minute of your interview with a sales candidate you should know whether you don't want that candidate working for you.  Think about it.  If you decide in minute one that this candidate is NOT for you, there are options.  You can end the interview and find yourself an hour that you didn't expect to have.  You can complete the interview for practice or you can do it to see if the candidate succeeds at winning you over during the remainder of the interview.  If you can be won over after you have written a candidate off, that is exactly what you want in a salesperson.

What should you look for in the first minute that would suggest you don't want this candidate?

It depends on what you want in a candidate.  Most clients provide me with wish lists. in addition to a candidate's sales ability, clients want the candidates to possess certain traits that appeal to the clients.  Most of those traits are unnecessary.  Many of those traits only serve to make the...

Some industries still break-in their salespeople by putting them on the phone and having them dial - more than one hundred times a day - and attempt to schedule appointments.  You still receive calls like this from new, and sometimes not so new salespeople selling insurance, investments, copiers, office supplies, commercial real estate and long distance phone services.

Today, more salespeople are using the Social Network to find opportunities.  Whether it's incoming leads from Blogs, researching and requesting introductions on LinkedIn, or simply finding the target audience from a Google search, salespeople are using these tools to connect more and more often.

Of course, one thing that will never change is word of mouth.  Referrals and introductions from happy customers and clients will always be the finest method for generating new business.

Given all of the options, which salespeople are smartest?  Is it those that are cold calling, those who are getting...

Unless you lived in a cave in Afghanistan during the past two months, you heard about the scandal involving people associated with Penn State University's football team and coaching staff.  I won't discuss any of the nastiness but I do want to discuss the latest step in their recovery.  Today officials at Penn State will introduce Bill O'Brien as their first new head football coach in nearly 50 years.  He will be responsible for rebuilding the football program and through that, the image of the school.  That will be one difficult job and it begins immediately.

Today, Bill O'Brien is still the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots.  Because the Patriots are the #1 seed in the playoffs, Bill O'Brien has another challenging job - preparing and helping the Patriots offense, led by future Hall of Fame Quarterback Tom Brady, to compensate for their...

We went to the movie, We Bought a Zoo and while it wasn't the comedy we expected it to be, it did have this: 20 seconds of courage.  Several times during the film, it was necessary for one of the characters to possess 20 seconds of courage; for Benjamin to meet the woman he would marry, for Dylan to knock on Ellie's window, for Benjamin to confront the escaped grizzly bear, and for MacCready to hold off the lion while in its cage.

Terry recommended that I read Unbroken - A World War II Story of Survival, Resiliance and Redemption.  It was a tremendous book and I leaned so much that I never knew about that war.  But more captivating was the story about...