Practical Wisdom from Kahle Way Sales Systems: Recent Episodes
Dave Kahle
Focused on business professionals, sales leaders and professional salespeople we help you sell better, lead better and live better. Enjoy.
Andee Hart is a successful entrepreneur with practical advice for others. Listen as I interview and dig into her successful business.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
They aren’t me! That was a realization I came to in my first management job. It transformed my career by changing my expectations. It could be the same for you. Let’s unpack that.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Our world is moving so fast that many businesses are suffering because of practices that were fine in the past, but are now obsolete. Check out these common practices and their more effective alternatives.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Wouldn't it be great if your reactive people could make some out-bound proactive calls? That's the situation a listeners described in a Q&A from a sales leader. My response may surprise you.
*********** Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
You have an experienced salesperson who seems to have lost interest in the job. What do you do? That's the question asked by a sales manager. Listen to my response -- four specific possibilities.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
How To Kreate Kahle’s Kalculation
How do I make service more tangible to our customers? That’s a question I received from a sales manager. My response is a step by step process.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Check out the X-I Community
Entrepreneur Mark Gerson maintains, in his new book, "God Was Right" that the first five books of the Bible -- the Torah -- contain all the information one needs to be successful in life and in business. Join me as I explore this with him, and gain a couple Biblical insights into success.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Chances are, if your business is at all successful, you are going to the issue of funding your business growth: a larger space, more computers, more sophisticated software, and more equipment. You’ll have to buy raw materials, build your inventory and hire additional people. You’ll need to invest in continual training and developing your people.
How do you do that? Here’s a look at some of the nuances of business debt and five options you may not have thought about.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Financing Your Christian Business
In a world characterized by over whelming distractions and the constant temptation to a transactional view of sales, “getting important” can provide focus, purpose and incredible rewards for those who can execute.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Sooner or later, almost every B2B salesperson slides, often unknowingly, into comfort zones. They find themselves doing the same things, almost mindlessly, because they have become comfortable. Here’s how to deal with this, from a sales manager’s point of view.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
How To Kreate Kahle’s Kalculation
The Good Book on Business
Check out the X-I Community
Here's a question I received from a sales manager --
Q. I wanted to do some sales training last year, but it just wasn’t the right time for it. We had too many things on our plate. Looking at our calendar this year, I am coming to the same conclusion. Am I ever going to have time to do sales training? Will it ever be the right time?
Listen to my response.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Sales Training: https://salesresourcecenter.com/products/b2b-sp
Sooner or later, almost every sales manager must face the difficult decision as to whether or not to terminate the employment of a salesperson. In this podcast, I provide some principles to help you with that decision.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
How To Kreate Kahle’s Kalculation
One of the best ways to supercharge your personal development is to set goals. In this post, I reply to a question about goal setting for personal improvement, with guidelines for every sales executive.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Every professional and field salesperson must deal with discouragement when something goes poorly. The challenge is to keep motivated, even in the face of adversity. Here’s a proven three-step process to help you.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
How do you sell when the competition has exactly the same product? Are you reduced to being the low price? Unfortunately, many sales people have never thought deeply about how to effectively sell commodities, and, therefore, resort to discounting. Here’s a proven, effective approach.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Which of these two choices is more likely to result in an effective salesperson:
- Hiring someone with technical expertise or industry experience and training them to become a salesperson
- Hiring someone with sales aptitude, and training them in the product knowledge and technical aspects of the job?
Join me as I dissect this question.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
We often get so caught up in the details of a sale and quantity of transactions that we fail to regard the value of our customers. Sales is about people, not money. By giving an economic value to every customer it lifts them up in our radar screen and provides important information to help make decisions about sales and finances. In this article, I’ll show you how.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
There are lots of things you can do to improve your sales - both individually as well as corporately. However, one initiative rises to the top as the one that will make the biggest impact on a person's and a company's sales productivity. In this podcast, I answer a sales manager's question, and detail the step-by-step process to implement it.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
Check out the X-I Community
I can unequivocally state that there is a 99% chance that you will have a miserable, time consuming, disappointing experience when you attempt to employ your first salesperson. In this article, I show you why, and provide some ways to improve the likelihood of making a good hire.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Many businesspeople are confused about how to invest in developing themselves and their employees. In this post, I share some out-of-the-box thinking that can provide you with a strategy for development that will change the trajectory of your business.
************** Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Menta-Morphosis Learning System
Very often, the reason we don’t meet our potential is less our lack of skills and more the internal hindrances that inhibit our performance. In this podcast, we uncover this truth, and help you apply it.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
For 30 years I’ve been training B2B sales forces to sell better. I’ve noticed this – that any group of salespeople, 20% to 30% are eager to learn and enthusiastic about trying some of the practices I teach. Of the remainer, some will try to apply some of the lessons, and others will fail to adjust their behavior at all. What is it that distinguishes the eager learners from the rest of the pack?
Let’s unpack this.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
"What do people think about you when you are not there?" That's Steve's definition of what a personal brand is. Join me as I dig into the details of creating and managing your personal brand in this interview with Steve Miler.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
: I’ve learned some lessons in my 30+ years of sales consulting. One is this: There is almost always a bottleneck in a company’s sales systems. Typically, the executives are too involved with the trenches to take a big picture perspective and identify and fix the bottleneck. In this piece, I look at three business models: Solopreneurs, small sales forces reporting to the CEO, and larger sales forces with middle management. I identify the most common primary sales obstacles of each model, and offer a solution for each.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
Sales meetings don’t have to be boring. You can organize better sales meetings with just a little bit of revised thinking. I’ll show you one way to do that in this podcast.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
What sets the best salespeople apart from the masses? I’ve pursued that question for a lifetime. Here’s my answer.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
Paul Graeve, the founder of the Data Group, shares unique insights on the role of data in a business. You'll gain some insights and ideas that may transform our business.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The idea of entertaining your customers is often an after-thought for many entrepreneurs and salespeople. From my experience, strategically entertaining your customers is one of the best things you do. Join me to unpack this issue and gain several ‘how-to- tips.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
When something needs fixing – a process, a person, a piece of hardware or software, -- we often seek to fix the problem and bring that thing back to where it was before we became aware of the problem. In other words, we seek to restore the previous status quo. But what if that isn’t the best idea? Join with me as we unpack this concept – one of the 25 most important lessons I’ve learned.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Sales managers are the glue that hold sales forces together. Yet, they are often the least trained of any job title in the world of sales. Let’s do a deep dive in how important they really are.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Portrait of a Professional Sales Manager
We have learned to immediately react to a problem by trying to fix it. But what if, in our rapidly changing world, fixing a problem isn’t the wisest reaction? Let’s explore another possibility.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Menta-Morphosis
We often get so caught up in the details of a sale and quantity of transactions that we fail to regard the value of our customers. Sales is about people, not money. By putting an economic value to every customer it lifts them up in our radar screen and provides important information to help make decisions about sales and finances. In this article, I’ll show you how.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
For 30 years I’ve been training B2B sales forces to sell better. I’ve made some observations about the 25 most important lessons I’ve learned. In this post, I will describe one of them: Most people don’t think deeply. Join with me as I unpack this.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Almost every B2B sales organization has a Primary Sales Obstacle – one place in their sales efforts where some improvement will make a disproportionately large impact on sales. In this post, I describe the reasons why the obstacle exists, identify the most common obstacles for three different business models, and offer solutions to each.
************** Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Too many salespeople make the same mistakes repeatedly in their sales presentations. Unfortunately, most are not aware of those mistakes – they just don’t know what they don’t know. In this podcast, we uncover the three most common mistakes and offer solutions to them.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
If we chose to, we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. Within every failure there is the seed of a lesson well learned, of a solid character trait emerging. It is our failures that contribute most intensely to our development. Let’s unpack this.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
It’s human nature to resist change. But, in our rapidly changing times, mindlessly grasping onto the status quo can lead to mediocrity. If we are going to survive and thrive in these times, we need to relentlessly examine our hold on the way things have been and consider better approaches.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
Subscribe to Dave’s Newsletters
Check out the website
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
There is a powerful strategy that most B2B salespeople, and B2B organizations, ignore. That’s too bad, because it is one of the most powerful ways to build long-term positive relationships. Let me show you how to leverage satisfaction.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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Learn more about RISK.
Snippets are powerful tools for a professional salesperson. You can use them in multiple places in the sales process, improving every piece. This article examines the what’s how’s and why’s of using snippets.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
We’ve all done it. Promoted a good salesperson, often our best, to sales manager. My files are full of cases where the results were below expectations for everyone involved. Principals and CSOs are often disappointed in the lack of results, and the sales managers are confused and frustrated with the lack of achievement of their teams.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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“I have great relationships with my customers.” That is one of the most debilitating myths around -- one that cripples the performance of the average corporate salesperson. Yet, it is endemic within the population of salespeople. I am not sure that there is a salesperson anywhere who doesn’t, to some extent, believe it. Let’s look a little deeper at the belief and its consequences.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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There is a great lesson for businesspeople in the struggles of contestants on American Idol and Sha k Tank. .There is a fine line between perseverance and self-delusion. Understanding that difference can make a huge difference in a life and a business. Here are some tips on making the distinction.
Dave Kahle’s goal is to provide sales leaders and small business people with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your performance.
Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
A question from a sales manager: "Here’s an issue that I confront with my salespeople all of the time. They are afraid to press for the next step, because they don’t want to experience the rejection of hearing a “NO.” So, they try to keep the sale alive by not asking for resolution. This keeps them involved with customers who aren’t interested and prevents them from moving on. Any thoughts?" Read my response.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
There are a lot of misconceptions about sales and what constitutes a good sales call. Whether you are a professional salesperson, or you find yourself in a situation where you must convince people to do business with you – say a solopreneur, or small business person -- you need to manage a good sales call. In this podcast, I present a couple of easy to remember principles and a simple structure to keep you on track and make the most of a sales call.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
The Biblical Business Course
Review my answer to this question: Here’s a question about best practices for B2B sales and sales leadership that I struggle with almost daily. I’m definitely known for having very high expectations that aren’t so easy to meet. I wondered if you could elaborate on what strategies you have seen succeed regarding this, because while I’m sure open to changing my attitude, I’m not thrilled with lowering my expectations. I’m overly driven...and not far from driven crazy!
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Do great B2B sales people, regardless of what they sell, have any practices in common? In other words, do the best sales people all sell the same way? And, can we learn from them? Dig into this issue and develop a plan to enhance your career.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Over my career as a sales expert, I’ve personally and contractually worked with over 500 sales organizations. I’ve learned some things. Here’s one: Very few chief sales officers have a good handle on the economics of the sales force. And very few entrepreneurs think about the economics of a sales system.
Almost everyone can tell you what the amounts of the various categories on a P&L statement indicate. So, sales salaries, expenses, advertising costs, etc. are readily at hand. However, very few decision makers dig deeper. And that means that significant information is never uncovered, and decisions are made on the basis of superficial, and often flawed, information. Let’s dig deeper.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Get Free E-book: How to Kreate Kahle's Kalculation
Sales leaders who don’t have the ability to direct their sales force are at a strategic disadvantage. It’s hard to grow a successful business if the salespeople won’t take direction. In this post, we explore that and offer a solution.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
There have been hundreds of books written about sales, each trying to make a case for their particular nomenclature. Yet, at the most basic level, sales is a relatively simple process. In this excerpt from one of my books, I share the simple sales process.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
This is my answer to a question submitted by a sales manager: How many sales calls should a salesperson make? The answer may surprise you.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
Probably the most common sales process in the B2B world is ‘creating a client”. That’s my terminology for influencing a customer to buy routinely and repeatedly from you. Every organization and every salesperson can do it better. Here’s some insights on how to.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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Dave’s Christian’s Business Insights podcast show
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
The decision about who to hire for a sales position is one of the riskiest and potentially costly decisions a sales manager will make. Over my 30 years as a sales consultant, I’ve learned some lessons. Here are some of the best practices to help you make it better.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Most conversations about improving a sales team’s productivity center around the salespeople. At the same time, it is just as effective to refine your sales system’s structure. In my 30 years of sales consulting, I’ve found that the quickest way to improved sales is through refining the structure. Join with me to unpack this idea.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
For 30 years I’ve been training B2B sales forces to sell better. I ‘ve learned some things. This is one of the 25 most important lessons’ I’ve learned – that you can choose your thoughts, and thus control your attitudes, your behavior and your destiny.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
It seems that almost everyone wants to jump to a conclusion based on a 20-second sound bite solution, instead of taking the more time-consuming but more accurate process-oriented path. The consequences are huge, and most people have never considered them. That’s one of the 25 most important lessons I’ve learned.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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In this podcast, I respond to this question: My new sales manager is having a difficult time getting our experienced sales force to execute a number of the changes we have implemented in the past year. Any suggestions?
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Article: On Fielding a Directable Sales Force
How often have you gained a good idea, decided to implement it, but failed to put it into action? Our inability to convert ideas into action is a universal part of human nature. But if you could, you’d supercharge your personal and professional growth, become more confident and competent, and be more successful and fulfilled. Let’s dig into this issue.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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In this session, I respond to these two questions: 1. Q. Dave, I’m a sales manager, and I’m increasingly losing my patience with salespeople who constantly whine and complain. Any thoughts on how to handle the chronic whiners? 2. How do you deal with potential sales people who think they are ‘entitled’?
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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: “I’m spending more and more time dealing with information. It’s squeezing out my selling time.”
Welcome to the information age. You are not unique. This problem of information inundation is a relatively new but almost universal threat to your livelihood. Four or five years ago, sales professionals were not too concerned with it. Today, it can make or break your career. Let’s unpack this together.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
The world is changing more rapidly today than at any time in human history. Unfortunately, these forces of rapid change have brought a cloud of confusion to CEOs and sales executives trying to grow their businesses. One of the most common sales and marketing mistakes is a set of actions I call “popcorn.” Consider it with me.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Dave[s Practical Wisdom for Sales Leaders’s podcast show
The Short Course on Sales Systems
Why are most people not as successful as they could be? Their greatest obstacles reside inside themselves. They continue to look outside of themselves instead of working on internal issues. Unpack this with me.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Dave’s Christian’s Business Insights podcast show
There is something about adversity that has the power to linger forever in our memories, shaping our character and molding our behavior for the rest of our life. We can use it to grow and become better people, if we let it.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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The Good Book on BusineCheck out the X-I Community
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I call it FIP. Fine in the Past. It refers to all the sales and marketing efforts, ideas, policies, principles, techniques, and strategies that worked well in the past, but are no longer effective. The past is everything that’s pre-2018.
I still recall a poignant moment with an attendee at one of my seminars. During the break he came up to me and said this: “I’ve been in business for seventeen years. And we’ve done well. But now, it seems like everything is changing, and I don’t know what to do.” Let’s dig into this.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Recently, one of my clients recommended that I compile a series of posts on the most important lessons I’ve learned over my 30-year career as a consultant working with over 500 different organizations. This is one of them: Most people would rather believe a comfortable lie than accept an uncomfortable truth.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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In B2B sales, you always do better narrowing your focus than expanding it. Defy conventional wisdom and your own instincts and drill down into this – one of the 30 most important lessons I’ve learned in 30+ years of sales training and consulting.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. We often find ourselves overwhelmed, distracted and insecure. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive.
The only sure way to deal with this pace of change is to nurture the skill of changing ourselves as rapidly as the world is changing around us. And that makes learning the ultimate success skill for our generation.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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Imagine what your company would be like if you had a group of sales masters.
Your customers would be committed to you. Your market share would constantly grow. Your suppliers would be lining up at the door to get you on their side and to offer you special deals. Only the wildest dreamers could think of the things you would be able to do with your business. You’d be immensely profitable, and your sales force would be one of the most valuable assets you could imagine. Truly, having a group of sales masters would transform your business.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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The world is changing around us at a pace that is unprecedented in human history, and unless we change ourselves and our organizations at least as rapidly as the world we inhabit, we will fall behind. The implications are staggering. In this post, I share another of the 25 most important lessons I’ve learned over my 30-year career.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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Why is it so difficult to change our behavior? Why are managers and leaders frustrated in trying to help people do better and sell better? The stealth cause is an aspect of human nature that is rarely acknowledged and even more rarely overcome. Join me in drilling deeper into the issue and offering some solutions.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Upcoming Events
From the beginning of history, wise people have recognized that success and fulfillment were a function of a refined character. In recent years, we’ve abandoned that idea and taken a step backward in the development of mankind. It is time to reverse the trend.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking, and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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In this session, I respond to two questions from =sales managers: 1. What about deducting commissions from a salesperson? 2. What to do about a salesperson who badmouths the company? My responses will provide you with some principles to enhance your sales team management.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking, and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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Check out the Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course.
Managing change doesn’t have to be a slow and methodical process. In fact, to expect slow change is to do a disservice to the organization and its people, accepting a pace of change that actually falls behind the pace of change around us.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking, and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation.
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In this rapidly changing economy, everyone is looking for a simple fix to dealing with the uncertainty of our economic environment. It seems like few are happy with their situations. And all but a few point their fingers at the changing economy and vibrant competitive environment as the source of their dismay.
Unfortunately, as long as our gaze is directed at “them” – those conditions in the market that have changed and are outside of our ability to control – we will never free ourselves from the constraints on our income and prosperity. We can’t do anything about “them.”
The real secret to improving our conditions is to work on “us.”
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Almost all of the policies and procedures that dictate our day-to-day efforts are vestiges of years gone by. Unless we institute a discipline of regularly examining them, we’ll soon be rendered obsolete by the pace of change around us.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
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Join me as I respond to a couple of questions from sales managers. One has to do with customer visits, and the other untouchable salespeople. Let's drill deeper into both of these issues, with some practical wisdom for situations that you may encounter. .
Four Steps to Sharpen Your Sales Structure
On Sales Systems
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader. He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations. In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.
One can’t help but conclude that there has never been a generation of businesspeople who have had to deal with the pace of change moving as rapidly as our generation. It truly is unprecedented. The rapidly increasing pace of change is the single biggest threat to our businesses and our careers – and our personal lives – that we will face for the balance of our lives.
Over the past 30 years, I've consulted with over 500 sales organization. Here's one of the 25 most important lessons I've learned.
Time management may be the biggest need in our frenzied culture. Yet, many people have a defective view of time management, limiting their effectiveness. In this podcast, we set that straight.
Dave Kahle is a B2B sales guru and Christian business thought leader. He’s been in practice as an author/speaker/consultant for over 30 years and has authored 13 books and presented in 47 states and 11 countries. He’s worked with over 500 B2B sales organizations.
You’ll find these 10 – 20-minuted podcasts to be thought-provoking and practical.
11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
Why set goals?
Creating Long-Term Goals
Most people are not willing to invest in themselves or pay the price of personal growth and success.
For a lot of the people listening to this podcast that statement doesn’t seem quite right. You have invested in yourselves: You read the books, attend the seminars and webinars, and listen to the podcasts, etc. You have always sought to build your skills and become the best that you can be. Doesn’t everyone else? No. You’re not the rule, you are the exception.
This is one of the 25 most important lessons I've learned over my 30 year career. In that time, I've worked with over 500 sales organizations, and learned a few things. This is the first, with 24 more to come.
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Visit www.davekahle.com.
"Should salespeople be responsible for collecting?" "Should you deduct commissions from unpaid invoices?"
"How many sales calls should a successful salesperson make?"
In this podcast, I answer these questions from sales managers. Join me as I dig deeper into these very real, nitty-gritty sales management questions.
Get How to Kreate Kahle's Kalculation here.
All of us have become what we are, at least in part, to the impact other people have had on us -- some positive and some negative. A professional sales manager is gifted with a rare and precious opportunity -- the opportunity to play a pivotal role in the lives of his charges. Join me in this review of the best sales manager for whom I ever worked.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course -- learn more here.
The 2020's are without a doubt one of the most turbulent times American businesspeople have ever seen. That means that it is likely that the conclusions, paradigms and core beliefs upon which we based our decisions as recently as two years ago are likely to be obsolete today. One solution to keeping up with changing times is an executive roundtable.
“I wish I had a more professional sales force.” That’s one of the common laments I hear from sales leaders. Let’s take a look at what it really means, why it is such a common malady, and what you can do about it.
The Excellence & Influence On-line Community
The world is full of people who are fuzzy in their thinking. Moving from fuzzy to focused can make everything better.
The XI Community
When you give a proactive salesperson “other stuff” to do, the other stuff will always expand, taking more in time and energy than you anticipated, and rendering the proactive sales efforts to an unacceptable smaller part of the person’s labors. While my focus is salespeople, the disease is rampant in almost every job description. Let’s unpack this.
The XI Community. Check it out here
Work with a lot of people, and you have many opportunities to be unethical. Work with a lot of money and the same is true. Put those together, and you have the world of the professional salesperson. Here are ten commandments to help keep you on the straight and narrow.
Check out the XI Community.
Over my career as a sales expert, I’ve personally and contractually worked with over 500 sales organizations. I’ve learned some things. Here’s one: Very few chief sales officers have a good handle on the economics of the sales force. And very few entrepreneurs think about the economics of a sales system.
Almost everyone can tell you what the amounts of the various categories on a P&L statement indicate. So, sales salaries, expenses, advertising costs, etc. are readily at hand. However, very few decision makers dig deeper. And that means that significant information is never uncovered, and decisions are made on the basis of superficial, and often flawed, information. Let’s dig deeper.
Free Download for How to Kreate Kahle's Kalculation
Rapid change is not a phase we're passing through; it's a process in which we're engaged. That means it is likely that the conclusions, paradigms and core beliefs upon which we based our decisions just two or three years ago are likely to be obsolete today. Even more sobering, the conclusions and strategies which we develop today will be obsolete in a couple of years.
There is only one strategy that will see us through: Mastering the competency of changing ourselves and our organizations as quickly as the world is changing around us. That’s a skill I call Purposeful Learning
The only sustainable effective response to a rapidly changing world is cultivating the ability to positively transform ourselves and our organizations. That's the definition of self-directed learning.
Should your company allow every salesperson to have their own style of selling, or should you have a selling system to which everyone adheres? Let’s dig into this.
How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime -- Learn more here.
The Excellence & Influence Course for Sales Leaders -- Learn more
In the B2B world, the relationship between the customer and the vendor, and more specifically, the vendor’s salesperson, can be of utmost importance. It doesn’t take long in the business to understand that if the customer dislikes you, he is rarely going to see you. And if he does know you and trust you, he is more likely to do business with you. Creating positive business relationships with all of your customers and prospects is, then, a fundamental step in the path toward success for any B2B salesperson.
Having said that, the existence of positive business relationships is one of the primary hindrances to success for the typical field salesperson. I know that seems like a contradiction, but let’s dissect how this works.
The Excellence & Influence Course for Sales Managers
In order for an individual or a society to reach its potential, it must continuously grow and develop. That requires consistent, methodical exposure to new ideas. Unfortunately, many people have arrested their development by remaining within their status quos.
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It’s more and more popular to blame other people, or some ‘ism’ for your own circumstances. As long as we claim to be a victim we’ll never achieve our potential. As soon as we accept personal responsibility for our own circumstances, we gain the freedom to change them.
Check out the XI (Excellence & Influence) On line community here.
The recent proliferation of AI (Artificial Intelligence) has surfaced a lingering issue: If we can create software to increase the capabilities of a computer, can we not create software to increase the capabilities of the greatest computer we know of – our minds? Let’s drill deeply into this.
Menta-Morphosis mind software is in the XI Community. Learn more here.
With a little bit of preparation and a thoughtful approach, sales meetings can be powerful meaningful events. Here’s how to make that happen.
The XI Community
To grow your business, you must develop the discipline to adhere to certain regular practices. The first of these is investing your time into your business in a methodical, intentional way. Let's examine this together.
Are there best practices for salespeople? Or, does every salesperson develop his/her ‘own style of selling?” How you answer that question can impact a sales force and a salesperson' career. Join with me as I dig into this key question.
The Kahle Way Wholesaler/Distributor Selling System
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
Are there best practices for salespeople? Or, does every salesperson develop his/her ‘own style of selling?” How you answer that question can impact a sales force and a salesperson' career. Join with me as I dig into this key question.
The Kahle Way Wholesaler/Distributor Selling System
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
: “So, what do you think you can do for us?” The CEO had finally gotten to that question after a couple of hours of introduction to his company and their specific marketing problem.
They had a successful company, selling acoustic panels through architects for buildings that had a sound problem. A year or so ago, they had developed a new product – a computer-operated sign board that allowed building managers to list events and meetings, and to easily change those as needed. The product had taken a year to develop and the company had poured all its excess financial resources into it – a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Now, they were having difficulty selling the product, and had no money to invest in a sales and marketing system.
I answered his question. “Nothing. I can’t make something out of nothing. If you have no money to invest in the system to sell this new product, I can’t do anything for you.”
Unfortunately, their situation is not unique.
I’m often asked to help a company refine their sales force compensation plans. As a consulting company, that’s work that we regularly do. I believe in having a well-designed, effectively managed compensation plan as a fundamental part of any productive sales system.
But it’s a mistake to think that the compensation plan is the entire solution. It’s only a part.
The Kahle Way Sales Management System Course. Learn More Here.
If you want to improve the productivity of your organization, and particularly your sales team, focus first on the structure. When you change the structure, you change the behavior of the people who operate within that structure. Let me explain.
If you want to improve your sales results, first focus on the quantity and quality of sales calls. While this may sound blatantly obvious, it’s often neglected, and more rarely ever the focus of an organization’s efforts. Yet, it’s the keystone event in the sales process.
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
In our surveys, CEOs indicate “on the job” training as the predominant method of developing salespeople. If everyone is doing it, it must be OK, right?
Maybe not. Let’s look a little closer.
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
I’m afraid for the future of our country. I’m afraid because I believe that the discipline of thinking before we act – in every circumstance and level of society -- is rapidly disappearing. In its place, we are witnessing a whole host of alternatives. It is like thousands of years of human development has been shrugged to the side, and a new ethic of rushing to conclusions with little objective basis has replaced it. We are regressing to the Middle Ages.
One of the most common complaints I hear from my clients is this: “I can’t seem to motivate the sales people to call on prospects and develop them into new customers.”
There is a relatively simple, fun and inexpensive way to remedy this situation. It’s called a sales blitz. Unfortunately, few companies are even aware of it, and fewer yet use it.
The Sels Master's Approach to Acquiring New Customers
Growing your sales is a goal for almost every business. The challenge is so great, however, that it spawns lots of mis-guided methods. Here are the four most common mistakes sales leaders make from a consultant who has worked with hundreds of them.
: “Can you boil down your advice to one word?”
That’s what a seminar participant asked me. “No,” I said, “but I can boil it down to three: Focus, focus, focus.” I said that because I see ‘focus’ as the solution to a number of modern dilemmas.
Whether you are a small businessperson or a professional salesperson, you can utilize a powerful strategy to take your performance to dramatically higher levels -- leverage. Leverage revolves around the idea of multiplying the effects of some effort to gain more value from it. Leverage will take you to a higher level.
In recent years I’ve seen a deeper degradation in the learning potential of the work force fueled by a growing inability to concentrate. I’m afraid that much of the adult population in this country has become so conditioned to sound bites, texts and tweets that they have lost the discipline to “do the work.” Like an unused muscle, their ability to concentrate has atrophied. On the one hand, that is alarming. On the other hand, it is a tremendous opportunity for you.
How do you effectively and consistently grow your business? One common mistake is to pursue a strategy I call popcorn, instead of building a solid sales system.
Focusing on one or more target markets is one of the key processes to building a successful sales system for your business or practice. But, business people are often unsure of how to go about the process of identifying those markets that hold the greatest potential. Here are seven strategies to help you identify your highest potential target markets.
One of the biggest decisions a business makes is the decision on which market segment to focus.
‘Market segment’ is the term that describes a group of suspects and prospects who have something in common. One of the most powerful principles of effective sales systems principles this: Define your target market as narrowly and precisely as possible. In this podcast, we unpack that powerful strategy.
What is it that empowers some people to change smoothly and effortlessly, while getting others to modify their behavior seems like moving a mountain? What is the fundamental building block for individuals which, more than anything else, equips them to successfully implement change? It is something that is becoming increasingly rare -- a motivating sense of personal responsibility.
The Sales Leader's Group in the Xi Community
Learn More Here.
We all have a sense that things are changing rapidly these days. It is more serious than that. We have entered into the Age of Turmoil and our ability to recognize and navigate it will be the single biggest challenge for the rest of our careers.
The XI Community. Learn More Here
There are, in the world of sales and sales systems, certain practices that have such an enormous impact on the company and the market that they are in a special class of activities that call for executive involvement at the highest levels.
One of that handful of activities is the creation of a value-added position (VAP). Next to the company’s vision, mission and values statements, a VAP contains the most important words an organization can create. It often forms the first impression the market forms of your company, and frequently bounces around in their head like a tune from their teenage years.
: For all but the new and the internally driven salespeople, straight commission plans merely reward the content sales person to maintain the status quo. Let’s consider this together.
Salespeople are sick of hearing “Your price is too high.” But, what if the real issue isn’t the price?
Here’s a secret that almost nobody knows, including all those gurus telling you to sell value. They don’t always buy the best value. But, they can invariably be counted on to buy the lowest risk!
The biggest issue in the minds of your customers and prospects is not price, and it is not value – it is risk. Let’s dig into this.
The XI Community. Learn More Here
One or more of your salespeople has leveled off. Their performance hasn’t improved much in the last few years. You know that these experienced salespeople can do better, but they seem unable or unwilling to break out of a certain level of performance. You are scratching your head, frustrated, and losing sleep at night wondering how to improve the situation. What do you do? Here’s a simple, effective strategy:
How to Kreate Kahle's Kalculation of Sales Productivity
“Plans fail when there is no counsel, but they succeed when advisers are many.“ (Proverbs 15:22)
This is an often-quoted verse, a piece of advice from King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. While the advice doesn't appear to be pointed only at businesspeople, the application of that wisdom can make the difference between success and failure for a businessperson. [G1]
How do you apply the wisdom of this passage in a practical way to a business?
Inserted: only
What’s gunk? Any practice that detracts from the salesperson spending time with customers. In other words, other things the outside salespeople do instead of meeting with customers. Let’s drill deeper into Gunk, determine if you, or your salespeople are guilty of any of it, and begin to fix it.
The community for Excellence & Influence -- Learn more.
It seems like more and more business people have lost the ability to say no. That’s too bad. Being able to say no is a higher level skill that is advantageous in both business as well as life in general. Those who don’t master the art of saying no are forever doomed to an immaturity in their business skills, while those who can and do say no operate at a higher level of skill and social finesse.
The biggest cost in a sales team is often invisible and unacknowledged. Yet, it costs the company more in opportunities lost than any other single issue. Many sales managers aren’t even aware of it. Let’s take a look.
The Kahle Way(r) B2B Selling System: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/immersion-b2b-sales/
The Kahle Way Distributor Selling System https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/immersion-distributor-sales/
Over my career, I’ve worked with hundreds, maybe even thousands of sales managers, and I’ve learned some things. Regardless of the size of business, the product sold or market to which it is sold, sales managers share some common hurdles. Here are the three most common challenges for sales managers.
The Sales Manager's Group
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Every sales manager wants to hire star salespeople. But few do. One reason for that is we don’t know what to look for in an interviewee. In this concluding article in a series of six, I identify the qualities of character that contribute to the make-up of a superstar salesperson.
Hiring a star salesperson is one of the best things you can do. But, very few people do it well. We often look for the wrong things in the interview process. We should be looking for the character of the prospect. Here's the next in my series on the qualities of character star salespeople have in common. -- A self-image of success.
The sales leader's group in the XI Community. Learn More Here.
We’d all like to hire great salespeople. Few of us ever do. Part of the reason may be the qualities and qualifications we look for in the interview process. In this next of a series of qualities of character of the best salespeople, I unveil the next in the list – the ability to create positive business relationships.
The Sales Managers Group of the XI Community: Learn More Here.
We’d all like to hire superstar salespeople. The problem is spotting one in the interview process. What do you look for? In this, one of a series on the qualities of character of superstar salespeople, I share my number three recommendation: Th Ability and Propensity to learn.
Investigate the Sales Leader's group in the Xi Community here
We’d all like to hire a superstar salesperson. But we often look for the wrong things in the interview process. Instead of product or industry knowledge, we should look for qualities of character. Here’s my second characteristics of superstar salespeople : High Energy.
The X-I Community: Learn More Here
Companies lead by Servant Leaders more than double the return on investment when compared to other management styles. In this interview with author Max Cates, we dig into the nuts and bolts of servant leadership
Serve, Lead, Succeed -- Book by Max Cates
The Sales Leaders Excellence & Influence Course
If you can hire a superstar salesperson, your life will be easier and you’ll look like a hero. Easier said than done. In this podcast, I share what to not look for, and share one of six things I look for in a sales hire.
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
The Kahle Way Distributor Selling System
Sales productivity may be a new concept for many sales executives. “Sales” is easy to understand, and “productivity” is pretty clear, but when those two words are combined the combination becomes a bit vague.
What exactly is sales productivity, and why should you be concerned about it?
Kahle's Kalculation -- Free Ebook.
Great business leaders invariably exhibit the same qualities of character. In this first of series, I look at the qualities of character that mark great leaders, with a deep dive into the first: An unshakeable work ethic. Let’s unpack that.
The Xi Community. Learn More Here.
In this sixth of a series on the character traits of successful business leaders, I identify one that might be surprising. It is, however, incredibly powerful – humility. Humility is often misunderstood. In this podcast, I describe it, and show how it is a powerful leadership trait.
The best business leaders have acquired a similar set of skills. Without this set of character traits, it is difficult to lead a growing organization. In this series, I uncover a key set of character traits for great business leaders. This is number four – Unwavering self-control.
The XI Community. Learn More Here.
Listen to my response to this question:
Our “A” customers do 90% of our business. How much time or effort would you put into your “B” customers to bring them up to “A” customers?
The answer will surprise you.
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
More important than the business model in the long-term success of a business is the character of the CEO. In this series, I describe the top qualities of character that mark the successful business leaders. This is number two – the ability and propensity to learn.
The XI Community. Learn more here.
How can I sell more when I have so much to do?” That’s a common question with lots of different answers – all having to do with better sales time management. Here’s one key to selling more, even when you are pressed for time. Focus on this one thing.
The XI Community. Learn more here.
Great leaders have a number of character traits in common. This is the third in a series of posts dealing with the set of character traits that great business leaders exhibit – A continuous quest for MORE.
The XI Community. Learn More Here.
Are outside salespeople a thing of the past?
For generations, outside salespeople thrived on face-to-face relationships. Their approach to the job was to get in the car and go see people. The world is full of businesses who have grown on that sales model. Until recently. The Covid lock-down has turned the world of outside salespeople upside down. Did the outside salesperson become obsolete. Here’s how to answer the question for your team.
The Kahle Way(r) B2B Selling System. Learn more here.
How to Sell When Your Customers Won't See You. Learn more
Which is more important, the business model, or the character of the CEO? From my experience, the character of the CEO trumps everything. In this article/podcast, I dig deeply into that idea – the ultimate success formula.
The Xi Community (Excellence & Influence)
One of the fundamental concepts in B2B selling is this: There is a unique ‘best” selling process for every combination of markets, products and customers. Identifying that process, and using it to unleash the power of your sales team, is a major step in the growth of a B2B sales organization. In this podcast, we show you how.
The Sales Masters Approach to Acquiring New Customers
Blog post with diagrams:
https://www.davekahle.com/power-in-the-sales-process/
One of the fundamental concepts in B2B selling is this: There is a unique ‘best” selling process for every combination of markets, products and customers. Identifying that process, and using it to unleash the power of your sales team, is a major step in the growth of a B2B sales organization. In this podcast, we show you how.
The Sales Masters Approach to Acquiring New Customers
Blog post with diagrams:
https://www.davekahle.com/power-in-the-sales-process/
I was young, cocky and a bit full of myself when I had one of the most humbling experiences of my life, and learned a lesson that has stuck with me for decades. Personal responsibility is easy to say, but quite a bit more difficult to actually embed into your life.
The Xi Community: Learn More Here
I was young, cocky and a bit full of myself when I had one of the most humbling experiences of my life, and learned a lesson that has stuck with me for decades. Personal responsibility is easy to say, but quite a bit more difficult to actually embed into your life.
The Xi Community: Learn More Here
Great leaders have a number of character traits in common. This is the third in a series of articles dealing with the set of character traits that great business leaders exhibit – A continuous quest for MORE.
The XI Community.
Great leaders have a number of character traits in common. This is the third in a series of articles dealing with the set of character traits that great business leaders exhibit – A continuous quest for MORE.
The XI Community.
Self-delusion is becoming more widespread today and threatens to damage our lives and retard our culture. It’s time we recognized it.
Self-delusion is becoming more widespread today and threatens to damage our lives and retard our culture. It’s time we recognized it.
Getting the last look. In this response to a question, the writer of the question wants the ability to go in after the bids have been submitted, to look at the competitive bids or at least the lowest bid prices, and to change his/her prices in order to be awarded the business.
I have responses for this on several different levels.
- Avoiding a bid situation to begin with.
- Making a last look unnecessary.
- When all else fails, ensuring that you get a last look.
Getting the last look. In this response to a question, the writer of the question wants the ability to go in after the bids have been submitted, to look at the competitive bids or at least the lowest bid prices, and to change his/her prices in order to be awarded the business.
I have responses for this on several different levels.
- Avoiding a bid situation to begin with.
- Making a last look unnecessary.
- When all else fails, ensuring that you get a last look.
A client described this situation: Business is flat, and he’s unable to get his sales force to promote the lines that he wants to promote, he’s unable to get them to use some of the new technology that the company wants them to use, and he’s unable to get them to prospect for new customers. He’s faced with an experienced sales force, who for the most part, are unmanageable. Here’s my response.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course. Learn more.
The Xi Community. Learn more.
A client described this situation: Business is flat, and he’s unable to get his sales force to promote the lines that he wants to promote, he’s unable to get them to use some of the new technology that the company wants them to use, and he’s unable to get them to prospect for new customers. He’s faced with an experienced sales force, who for the most part, are unmanageable. Here’s my response.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course. Learn more.
The Xi Community. Learn more.
Sales managers, deprived of training and solid direction, typically default to one of these styles. Look at each, and the pros and cons of each and determine which applies to you.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Sales managers, deprived of training and solid direction, typically default to one of these styles. Look at each, and the pros and cons of each and determine which applies to you.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Only about five percent of sales organizations invest in developing their salespeople. Those that do are often the industry leaders. Creating and managing a formal program to develop your salespeople is one of your best investments.
The Excellence & Influence Community. Learn more here.
Only about five percent of sales organizations invest in developing their salespeople. Those that do are often the industry leaders. Creating and managing a formal program to develop your salespeople is one of your best investments.
The Excellence & Influence Community. Learn more here.
There are a lot of 100% commission sales compensation plans around. Should there be? Think deeply about this as I respond to two questions about sales force compensation.
The New Customer Acquisition Course.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Join with me to examine a couple more of that series of words that a significant percentage of the population would rather not hear – humility and commitment.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Join with me to examine a couple more of that series of words that a significant percentage of the population would rather not hear – humility and commitment.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Throughout the history of mankind, successful people have been disciplined people. At some point in their development, they have discovered the power that lies in discipline. And they chose, with an act of willfulness and intentionality, to pursue disciplines. As a result, they rise above the pack on the basis of the strength of their wills and their ability to discipline themselves to do the right things, consistently, methodically and regularly.
Sales Leader's Course
Throughout the history of mankind, successful people have been disciplined people. At some point in their development, they have discovered the power that lies in discipline. And they chose, with an act of willfulness and intentionality, to pursue disciplines. As a result, they rise above the pack on the basis of the strength of their wills and their ability to discipline themselves to do the right things, consistently, methodically and regularly.
Sales Leader's Course
Higher character has been recognized, across generations and cultures, as one of the ideal qualifications for positions of leadership. Until recently. We’ve discarded the idea of higher character, and are paying the price.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
Higher character has been recognized, across generations and cultures, as one of the ideal qualifications for positions of leadership. Until recently. We’ve discarded the idea of higher character, and are paying the price.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course
The calls for "lower price" are becoming more frequent and frantic in this age of inflation. How should you handle them? Listen as I respond to three questions concerning lower prices. You may gain a perspective you've never had before.
The Sales Leader's Excellence and Influence Course
The calls for "lower price" are becoming more frequent and frantic in this age of inflation. How should you handle them? Listen as I respond to three questions concerning lower prices. You may gain a perspective you've never had before.
The Sales Leader's Excellence and Influence Course
Value-added means different things to different people. If you are going to be a true value-added seller in the 21st century marketplace, you must be flexible and capable enough to offer different things to different customers, responding to the individual customer’s definition of what is valuable to him or her.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course. Learn more here.
Our perspectives shape our behavior and set our character. We can change our perspectives and thereby change our lives.
Here's my answer to two common questions: How do you sell commodities? and What do you do when the customer is only interested in low price?
The Sales Leader's Excellence and Influence Course. Learn more here.
It’s one of the most common laments I hear from principals and sales managers: “I wish I had a more professional sales force.”
No doubt that thought has passed through your mind at some time in the recent past. You’re not alone, of course. I hear it regularly from my clients. Let’s take a look at what it really means, why it is such a common malady, and what you can do about it.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course. Learn More Here.
Here’s my response to this question: How can we get inside sales to do some proactive sales activities each day? We want our inside sales people to use some of their time to shift into the proactive mode to make outbound phone contact to existing and new business.
Check out the Sales Manager's Group in the Xi Community here.
Listen to my reply to this question: “Q. Dave, I’m from outside the industry, and am accustomed to what I see as a much more professional sales force than what I currently have. Am I off-base in expecting a professional group of salespeople, as opposed to the ‘nice guys’ who don’t seem to take their professions seriously that I inherited?”
Check out the Xi Community.
The rapid change whirling around every company puts great pressure on organizations to change themselves. Not only must the organization as a whole change, but the individuals within each organization must themselves change, learn and grow more rapidly than at any time in the past.
This ability for an organization and its people to change in response to the changing world around them may be the ultimate success skill for the Information Age.
Check out the Xi Community here.
https://www.davekahle.com/leadership-and-b2b-sales-management-groups/
: “Lack of directability is one of the problems common to sales forces. That means the sales force rarely does what management wants them to do. Instead, they do what they have always done, or they work only in their own best interests instead of the interests of the company. This robs the company of an incredibly powerful strategic asset- a directable sales force. Here’s the first step to overcome that problem.
Learn More about The XI Community
Lots of people understand 'productivity', and 'sales' is easily understood, but when you put the two words together, the concept often becomes baffling. Sales Productivity can be the key to growing your business and taking market share. Begin here.
Download Kahle's Kaculation here.
: Many sales models are built on the concept of the entrepreneurial salesperson. There was a time when this model was effective, but in today’s competitive economy, there are serious difficulties with the entrepreneurial model. Let’s consider this together.
Check out The Xi Community for Sales Leaders.
If you're paying your sales reps straight commission, you're using an obsolete formula.
If you're paying your sales reps a straight salary, you're also using an obsolete formula.
Both of those formulas are vestiges of an earlier, simpler times.
You may be like thousands of other companies who are using compensation plans that served them well in the past. Let’s dig into this.
Check out The Xi Community for Sales Leaders.
While there is a degree of significance to be achieved though one’s family, my focus in this article is on a higher level of significance. Having “notable worth or influence” implies that significance of that level is relatively rare. People take note of it.
Suppose you could lay a foundation of significance with your family, and then reached out to ‘matter” to a larger world. Suppose you could seek significance in your career and your business.
There is something incredibly compelling about being a part of an organization that aspires to something larger and more noble than others of their ilk. Something in the soul of human beings longs to be a part of something that not only strives for a better future but works to enhance the present.
A well-written manifesto taps into that power. It claims the best for its adherents and attracts the best people to it.
The Significant Business Manifesto
The Significant Christian Business Manifesto
The Christian Salesperson’s Manifesto.
The Xi Community: Learn more here.
When budgets are limited, the single most effective use of training money is not on the salespeople, but rather the sales managers. Let’s dig into this.
The XI Community Sales Leader's Group: https://www.davekahle.com/leadership-and-b2b-sales-management-groups/
One of the biggest obstacles to the growth and development of a salesperson -- or anyone else – is not their lack of skills and experience, but rather the internal obstacles that hinder their actions. Dig into what holds you back, so that you can break free.
The Xi Community:
Developing a handful of ‘partners’ is one of the most effective B2B sales strategies. These are customers who are so committed to you that they form the foundation of your revenue. Dig into the whys and hows of creating partners in this article.
The XI Community
At its most fundamental level, business is always and only about three things: Money, people and systems.
There is a huge body of content revolving around money in business and there is an equally impressive body of knowledge and infrastructure for the people component.
When it comes to systems, however, there is not nearly the quantity and quality of conversation. And yet effective systems are, at the very least, just as necessary to the growth and health of a business as good people and adequate funds. Good systems are where the company’s financial assets intertwine with the people to produce results.
The XI Community: https://www.davekahle.com/leadership-and-b2b-sales-management-groups/
Very soon we’ll be confronting the next wave of change as our companies and our jobs lurch back to something resembling pre-Covid normal. The question in the back of every executive’s mind is this:” How do we handle the post-Covid changes?” In this podcast, I suggest an approach to using this window of opportunity to make significant, positive changes.
The XI Community: www.davekahle.com/lead/
Our times are uniquely characterized by an unprecedented pace of change. If we are going to survive and thrive in this environment, we have to do some different things, and do others much better. One of these is the discipline of purposeful learning. It is the ultimate success skill for our age. In this podcast, I share six disciplines to help you master the skill.
The XI Community: https://www.davekahle.com/leadership-and-b2b-sales-management-groups/
Our times are uniquely characterized by an unprecedented pace of change. We need to do some things differently and some things better than ever. One of those is the discipline of purposeful learning. If we are going to survive and succeed in these turbulent times, we need to make it a part of our lives and a strategic initiative in our organizations. It is the ultimate success skill for our age.
We live in a time of unprecedented change. The wise business person will put disciplines and processes in place to keep the organization ahead of what’s next. We’re recommending a SCAN meeting.
In today’s competitive environment, it’s important that sales organizations field a ‘directable’ sales force.
The key word here is directable. It means that your sales force can be counted on to quickly, thoroughly and positively carry out your directions.
Such a sales force is both rare, and incredibly valuable to the company. In this podcast, I explore that concept.
Link to the self-assessment: https://www.davekahle.com/fielding-directable-sales-force/
Link to The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
How do we handle an unethical customer? One who says he would do anything to make money on a job, or to get a job?
Dave, how can a sales person have a life at night and not be reactive to customers calling at night – seven or eight per night?
In regards to personality conflicts with an account, at what point do you walk away and let someone else in your organization try?
“Sales time” is that portion of a salesperson’s work week wherein they are interacting with their customers and prospects. It can be on the phone, over an interactive webinar, or in person.
It’s the heart of the job, wherein the salesperson exercises all the skills, concepts, practices and tools he/she has acquired over the years. Sales time is when the salesperson expresses the essence of what it means to be a professional salesperson. If it were not for sales time, there would be no salespeople. That makes the decision as to how to invest sales time one of the most important decisions that a salesperson makes.
The Kahle Way B2B Selling System
https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/immersion-b2b-sales/
Sales is a profession that is ripe with temptation. Salespeople deal with a lot of people, and a lot of money. Either one of those by itself presents a challenge. Add them together and it can be overwhelming. Here are some guidelines to help you stay on the right side.
I know you are concerned with sales. It’s easy to determine how well your people are selling to your customers. That’s what sales reports are for. But your customers are more concerned with how well they are being served by your salespeople.
Why is that important? Because you are in it for the long run. You don’t want to just sell something to a customer, you want to build a relationship that lasts over time and results in years of sales. In one sense, your business is not really a sales business, it’s a relationship-building business. In this podcast, I drill down into one aspect of that: Serving the customer.
A difficult customer – someone who is angry or upset – can be one of the most challenging and rewarding encounters for most companies. If you cam handle the situation well, you will often gain a long-term customer. Mishandle it, and you’ll watch the situation dissolve into lost business and upset people.
Here are two proven guidelines to help you cope with angry or difficult customers.
Interested in improving the productivity of your sales force? Investing in training and developing your salespeople is always a good idea. But it isn’t the entire solution for many organizations.
Often, enormous improvements in sales productivity can be achieved by sharpening the structure of your sales organization.
If you are like most segments of the economy, there have been more price increases announced in your industry in the last three months than in the last three years combined. Unfortunately, many sales forces are peopled with individuals who have never lived through a time of price increases. They have no frame of reference from which to view it, and no experience on which to draw. Here are some tips from someone who has been there.
In most organizations, sales managers are the essential bridge between the company’s sales goals and the realization of those goals. It’s an incredibly important and difficult job. Unfortunately, it is often the most under-trained job in the entire organization. In this podcast, I shine the light on two of the three most common mistakes sales manager's make.
In most organizations, sales managers are the essential bridge between the company’s sales goals and the realization of those goals. It’s an incredibly important and difficult job. Unfortunately, it is often the most under-trained job in the entire organization. Instead of providing information on the best practices and processes of the job, most companies hope their sales managers will have learned enough during their days as a field sales person to provide some roadmap as to how to do this job well.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
Ah, if only the people around us were more professional. Our lives would be easier, our businesses would grow more effortlessly, we’d find our jobs more fulfilling…the list of dramatic benefits can go on and on. But what does it mean to be more professional? More importantly, what can we do to make sure that we, and our associates, are becoming ever more professional?
Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
The job of the field salesperson will continue to grow more complex, more challenging and more difficult for the foreseeable future.
So what does that mean to you? It means that you will need to continually change and adapt constantly. It means that you will need to become proficient at learning new things and improving yourself. It means that, from this point on, you will have two jobs:
- Doing your job
- Constantly changing and improving yourself.
Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
On-boarding a new employee typically involves someone(s) to train the new employee, and weeks training the new person.
But what if you could develop a system that eliminated much of that training time?
Years ago, we developed a tool that was originally conceived as a way to rapidly and painlessly bring a new field salesperson up to speed. Since then, we’ve found application for it with almost every job title, and a multitude of other applications. It has become an incredibly useful management tool.
We call it a learning list.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
As an educated and experienced practitioner in the profession of helping people change their behavior, I’m come to the conclusion that our set of preexisting beliefs supplies the largest and most potent set of obstacles to self-improvement and the greater success and fulfillment that comes with it.
Human beings naturally make observations and conclusions about our experiences as we grow up and experience life. Eventually, some of these become hardened into beliefs. These beliefs than form our base set of assumptions about the world, and we make choices and live our lives based on those beliefs.
Inappropriate or errant beliefs can hold us back. Let's unpack this.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course =https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
Of all the things that you can do and say when you are talking with a customer, there is none that even comes close to the power of asking a good question. It stands alone, apart from every other tactic, as your single most powerful sales tool. Nothing even approaches it.
Question Your Way to Sales Success: https://www.davekahle.com/question-way-sales-success/
In my 30 years of practice, I’ve interacted with thousands of executive and owners, and engaged with tens of thousands of B2B salespeople. The overwhelming majority have been lulled by moderate success to a place where they are hesitant to pursue excellence, weary of reaching for their potential, tentative about embracing any new ideas and afraid of stretching beyond today’s comfort zones.
That’s one of the main reasons why only five to twenty percent of businesses and salespeople ever reach their potential. The rest got waylaid by moderate success.
Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive. In this twelfth of a series I unpack my recommendations for habits, attitudes and disciplines to intentionally put into your personal routines and your corporate culture to provide the tools you’ll need to survive and thrive in these complex times.
In this podcast, I unpack “Adherence to an unmoving set of ethics.”
Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive. In this seventh of a series I unpack my recommendations for habits, attitudes and disciplines to intentionally put into your personal routines and your corporate culture to provide the tools you’ll need to survive and thrive in these complex times.
In this article, I unpack “The habit of continuously prioritizing & focusing.”
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive. In this tenth of a series I unpack my recommendations for habits, attitudes and disciplines to intentionally put into your personal routines and your corporate culture to provide the tools you’ll need to survive and thrive in these complex times.
In this podcast, I unpack “An examined spirituality.”
The XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive. In this seventh of a series I unpack my recommendations for habits, attitudes and disciplines to intentionally put into your personal routines and your corporate culture to provide the tools you’ll need to survive and thrive in these complex times. In this article, I unpack “the discipline of continuous learning.”
The XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive. In this eighth of a series I unpack my recommendations for habits, attitudes and disciplines to intentionally put into your personal routines and your corporate culture to provide the tools you’ll need to survive and thrive in these complex times. In this podcast, I unpack “A focus on strengths.”
The XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive. In this seventh of a series I unpack my recommendations for habits, attitudes and disciplines to intentionally put into your personal routines and your corporate culture to provide the tools you’ll need to survive and thrive in these complex times. In this podcast, I unpack “The discipline of rational thinking.”
The XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive. In this sixth of a series I unpack my recommendations for habits, concepts and disciplines to intentionally put into your routines and corporate culture to provide the tools you’ll need to survive and thrive in these complex times. In this podcast, I unpack “A propensity to take risks.”
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive. In this fifth of a series, I unpack a set of recommendations for strategies, processes, attitudes, habits and disciplines to build into your lives and businesses – things I call sails and keels – to help us survive and thrive in these unprecedented times. In this podcast, I describe the next keel – the discipline of regular review and planning.
In previous podcasts, I noted some of the factors that combine to create an incredibly turbulent, complex, rapidly changing and information-saturated world in which we find ourselves. Our ability to navigate these turbulent waters is the single biggest challenge we will face for the balance of our careers. In this podcast, I recommend another of the fundamental pieces of the infrastructure we need to survive and thrive – an attitude of openness.
There are as many misconceptions about selling as there are people. In this excerpt from How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime, I provide some common-sense, usable definitions of what selling really is, and get the reader started on understanding how to do it better.
The Sales Resource Center: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/
In my previous posts, I noted some of the factors that combine to create an incredibly turbulent, complex, rapidly changing and information-saturated world in which we find ourselves. Our ability to navigate these turbulent waters is the single biggest challenge we will face for the balance of our careers. In this post, I recommend a fundamental piece of the infrastructure we need to survive and thrive – an articulated vision and purpose.
It is easy to work with people you like, and it is even easier to work with people who like you. But that’s not always the case. Sooner or later, you’ll have to deal with a difficult customer. Here’s a set of proven principles and practices to help you.
In my previous post, I noted some of the factors that combine to create an incredibly turbulent, complex, rapidly changing and information-saturated world in which we find ourselves. Our ability to navigate these turbulent waters is the single biggest challenge we will face for the balance of our careers. In this post, I recommend a fundamental piece of the infrastructure we need to survive and thrive – an acceptance of personal responsibility.
Acquiring new customers is one of those processes that frustrates and discourages most B2B sellers. It doesn’t have to be a frustrating and discouraging process. Like almost every aspect of a sales system, acquiring a new customer is a matter of understanding the processes and methodically implementing them in the right quantity and quality.
The starting point is developing a sufficient quantity of suspects.
How do I sell to an account that is firmly in the hands of a competitor – a difficult key account? How do you manage this account? What should you do? Join me to unpack this common and frustrating situation.
The pace of change has increased, the growth in complexity has multiplied, and information has proliferated at an unprecedented pace. We are in extraordinary times. And unprecedented times call for unique and disciplined approaches if we are to survive and thrive.
In this podcast, I begin a series to help us dig deeper into the strategies that will help us survive and thrive in these turbulent times.
Download the Free E-book: https://www.davekahle.com/turbulent-times-ebook/
One of the top ten strategies for effective time management for salespeople is this: Nurture helpful relationships. Listen as Dave unpacks this powerful strategy and shows you how to enhance your effectiveness by implementing this concept.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
There is one tool that it so far superior to anything else, that it is in a class by itself. Asking a good question is the single-most effective thing you can do with a customer. A well-phrased, appropriately-timed question is your most powerful sales tool. In this podcast, we drill down into it.
The Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
How can I sell when I’m not the lowest price? I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question in a sales training session.
First, let’s start with this premise: “Low price” is not the main reason people buy! In every survey of buying motivations I’ve ever read, low price is never the primary motivation. Yes, it’s important. And, when everything else is equal, it will be the deciding factor. But very rarely is everything else equal. And very few people in this world buy only on the basis of low price.
Q. I have a problem. I still find a percentage of customers who keep me at “arms length.” How do I overcome this attitude from the select few of my customers?
Q. You have convinced me that spending time face-to-face with customers is the best use of my sales time. How much of my week should I spend entertaining customers; taking them to lunch, ballgames, etc.?
Listen to Dave's responses to these questions.
Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
In all of my training and consulting work, I’ve found it helpful to establish, right at the beginning, a big picture view of the sales process.
Once we have an overview, we can understand every sales principle and practice, and use the big picture to focus our efforts to improve the effectiveness of our organization and our personal efforts.
This podcast lays down that foundation.
Sales Leader's Excellence & Influence Course: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahle-way-sales-management-system-course/
Things are changing at an unprecedented pace and will continue to do so. This is not an event, but a permanent state of affairs. The only way to assure that we survive and thrive in this environment is to become adept at the ultimate sales improvement skill – purposeful, self-directed learning.
The XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
This podcast answers these questions: Q. What do we do when a customer wants to spread the business between several vendors, even though I know we can provide better service? Q. How can I get between my competitor, and these contacts that are, in some cases, close friends with him for 20+ years?
Over the 30+ years that I have been working with B2B sales forces, I’m often asked this question: “If you could improve a sales person in just one thing that would bring the quickest and biggest change, what would it be?”
My answer: Better time management. Here’s why.
To learn about STRETCH – The Strategic Time Management Course for B2B Salespeople, click here: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/salestimemanagementcourse/.
To learn about Dave’s book, 11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople, click here. https://www.davekahle.com/11-secrets-time-management/.
More than any other type of sales, B2B salespeople must be good at relationship building. You see your customers more often, and for longer periods of time than almost any other type of sales person. This means that you must build relationships that provide you a competitive edge over all of your competition. Here are eight powerful rules that will supercharge your relationship building.
It's the Risk, not the Price. https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/risk-not-price/
Many salespeople harbor a set of beliefs that hinder their performance. These often sound reasonable and are held onto without question. Looking a bit closer at them uncovers how they limit a salesperson’s performance. One of the most harmful of these limiting beliefs is this: “I have my own style of selling.”
Remember the television commercial of the salesperson driving down the expressway with a cell phone balanced on his shoulder, a cup of coffee in one hand, and a laptop computer teetering on the dashboard? The voice in the background says, “You know he’s out there.”
That’s a frightening commercial because of the element of truth in it. The life of a salesperson these days is a battle with an overwhelming number of things to do, ever rising expectations, and conflicting pressures. Time management has never been more important.
Gaining mastery over you time can have the single biggest impact on your performance, your career and your life.
11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
STRETCH -- The Strategic Time Management Course for Salespeople
Abusive customers are not fun. They're stressful, and they make you feel like crap. I've been on the receiving end of verbal abuse several times in my career, and it's never pleasant.
“The Customer Is Always Right” is a nice saying that works well for most businesses, but sometimes there will be an aggressive person who feels like he or she can get away with being rude to service professionals because “the customer is always right."
This podcast talks about how to deal with this situation effectively while keeping your cool under pressure.
XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
One of the challenges for a B2B salesperson is staying in front of the customer who buys occasionally. In this excerpt from How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime, I share two specific techniques to keep yo at the top of your customers’ mind.
The most powerful sales call you can make is the one that goes on after the sale.
In this podcast, we'll cover how to use your customer's satisfaction with their purchase as a way to create future opportunities for yourself and your company. We'll also discuss how to turn an unsatisfied customer into a satisfied one. This will help you build long-term relationships with customers who are happy with what they purchased from you in the past, which means more business for you in the future!
Filling the top of the sales funnel with likely suspects is a problem for every sales organization. Sometimes, it takes a bit of creativity as well as common sense. Here are eight ways to identify new suspects.
"My customers don't have as much time to spend with me as they used to." That's a comment I'm hearing more frequently in my sales seminars. It's a growing phenomenon. Your customers used to be able to spend more time with you. But lately, it seems as though they are on tighter schedules and are harder to see. You just can't spend as much time with them as you'd like, because they're pressuring you to move on.
The XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
What happens when you spend a great deal of time and effort creating a big proposal for a prospect, and discover that they gave it to their current vendor to match? Have you been betrayed, or is there some other explanation? In any case, what do you do?
Check out the XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
Selling is at the same time both simple and incredibly challenging.
It is simple in that almost every adult of reasonable intelligence, who has just a modicum of people skills, can understand it and do it. It is incredibly challenging in that to become exceptionally good at it takes the better part of a life-time of effort and practice. In this podcast, I show you how to make it simple.
I call it the ‘gap between idea and action,’ and it is one of the largest chasms in the road hindering our path to personal and organizational improvement. The gap between idea and action describes the ubiquitous phenomenon that we, all of us, have ideas and intentions, and yet turning those into actions – habits and routines that enhance our skills and smooth out our lives, only happens a bit of the time. As a general rule, we’re miserable at it.
If we can bridge that gap, we can supercharge our growth, feel less guilt and become more confident in our progression as a human being.
The XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
Sooner or later, almost every professional B2B sales person comes to grips with the challenges of penetrating key accounts. Key accounts are different than the ordinary, and require some more sophisticated skills and strategies. Yet, they hold the secret to multiplying your income. In this podcast, I share four fundamentals for effectively penetrating key accounts.
https://x-icommunity.com/
Our actions follow our attitudes. The relationship between actions and attitudes is so close, that the two go hand-in-hand, and our actions can be seen as outward expressions of our attitudes. While it is easy to connect the two in this example, the principle that it unveils – that our attitudes influence our actions – extends to every aspect of our lives, and particularly to our jobs, in even the slightest and most mundane portions of our work lives. And that leads us to one of the greatest principles of self-improvement.
XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/
It’s a common mindset. The field salesperson wants every communication with the customer to go through him/her. However, that idea costs both the company and the sale person dearly and frustrates the customers. It is an insidious hindrance to sales performance.
Occasionally, at a seminar or training program, I’ll overhear one sales person mention this to another -- “I have my own style of selling.”
From my perspective, that idea is more detrimental to that sales person’s
success than almost any other. Not only that, but that idea holds down entire sales forces, renders sales management impotent, and dissipates the sales team’s potential. Of all the ideas that detract from sales performance, this is the most malignant.
The XI Community -- https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
Here are two questions about tricky customer issues that I respond to in this podcast:
- If you dropped the ball with a customer, how can you redeem their trust again?
- How do you know how far to push a sale without overstepping your bounds and threatening the sale and/or the relationship with the customer?
Consider the XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
Over my career as a salesperson, I sold a variety of products in a variety of selling situations. From suits and sport coats in a retail men’s store, to capital equipment to schools, to surgical staplers to surgeons in the operating room, to 70,000 line items for a wholesale distributor. I always did well, and was the number one sales person in the nation for two different companies and two distinctly different selling situations.
I was always a bit perplexed by my success. I always worked hard; always tried to do well; listened to my boss and did what he told me to do; and constantly sought out ways to improve my skills. I bought the books, went to the seminars, listened to the audios, etc.
For almost my entire selling career, I could never understand why I was more successful than others in my company. Didn’t everybody do it this way?
XI Community for B2B Sales pros: https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
In my twenty plus years of educating salespeople, I have encountered tens of thousands of sales people, and worked with literally hundreds of sales organizations. The vast majority of them want to do better. Yet, the vast majority of them remain at a level best described as “ordinary.” They never make the transition to being a true master of their craft. In spite of their desire to excel, few do.
The reason, for the overwhelming majority of sales people, is that they take the wrong path to sales success. Only a few discover the hidden path to sales success.
XI Community: https://x-icommunity.com/groupb2bsalespros/
Does your dress matter in professional sales? What are the rules of manners that you should be aware of? These are two questions I was asked, and I respond to them both in this podcast.
There is not a salesperson in existence who hasn’t repeatedly heard of the need to “close the sale.” That advice is incredibly overdone. There is no one aspect of sales (at least in the B2B world) that undeservedly receives more disproportionate time and talk than the subject of “closing the sale.”
In my experience, closing has never been the result of verbal gymnastics on my part. It’s not my clever refrains, my slick tactics, my memorized “objection over-comers” nor my manipulative perseverance that has brought me business. Instead, it was the suitability of my offer to the needs/desires/values of the customer.
Goal setting is one of the universal best practices for salespeople. Yet, many salespeople don't make it a part of their routines. The first step toward rectifying that is to understand why goals are such an important part of a successful salesperson' life. Join us to see how goal setting can focus and energize your efforts.
In most organizations, sales managers are the essential bridge between the company’s sales goals and the realization of those goals.
It’s an incredibly important and difficult job. Unfortunately, it is often the most under-trained job in the entire organization.
As a long-time consultant and educator of salespeople and sales managers, I frequently see these three most common maladies suffered by sales managers.
The Kahle Way Sales Management System
In this rapidly changing economy, everyone is looking for a simple fix to dealing with the uncertainty of our economic environment. It seems like few are happy with their situations. And all but a few point their fingers at the changing economy and vibrant competitive environment as the source of their dismay.
Unfortunately, as long as our gaze is directed at “them” – those conditions in the market that have changed and are outside of our ability to control – we will never free ourselves from the constraints on our income and prosperity. We can’t do anything about “them.”
The real secret to improving our conditions is to work on “us.”
Remember President George H. Bush’s program to identify and recognize individual Americans who were outstanding in their fields, or who completed acts of bravery or selflessness, and in so doing, brightened the lives of those around them? It was called a thousand points of light. The idea was that one person’s act, doesn’t, by itself, do much. However, when joined together with a thousand others, like a candlelight, it can light up the entire country.
It’s time for businesspeople, professionals and sale people to step up and light one candle.
If we chose to, we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. Within every failure there is the seed of a lesson well learned, of a solid character trait emerging. It is our failures that contribute most intensely to our development. Let’s unpack this.
Q. How do I ensure that I get the last look in a competitive bid situation?
Q. Occasionally, customers may say they have seen or received a lower price for the same product in order to receive better pricing from us. How would you handle that type of call?
In this session, we're going to answer these two questions, providing you with guidelines you can implement for the balance of your career.
One of the watershed moments in the life and growth of a business occurs when the executives design and implement a system of measurements. This signals the development of the business from an entrepreneurial effort to a serious organization that can exist outside of the hands-on involvement of the entrepreneur. In this piece, we unpack that idea and show you how to create and implement a system of business measurements.
To dig deeper: https://www.davekahle.com/take-your-kingdom-business-to-a-higher-level-with-a-system-of-measurements/
“Why should someone spend time with you?” That was the question I asked the six sales people who were the subjects of an intense week-long training session.
The response? Blank stares. Some uncomfortable fidgeting. Nothing anywhere close to a coherent, persuasive response.
That experience made me realize the need for what I call a “value-added proposition,” and what many people refer to as an “elevator speech.” It is a well-thought-out, meticulously prepared, and memorized set of ideas that ultimately answer the question above.
What sets the exceptional professional apart from the average? Regardless of what the profession, from sales to psychiatry, the exceptional professionals share certain characteristics. Here’s one: The propensity to take risks. Join with me as we unpack this character trait.
For a professional or salesperson, your job is much more than just a job – it’s a profession. But what does it mean to be more professional? More importantly, what can we do to make sure that we, and our associates, are becoming ever more professional?
We’ve all heard the numbers: Consumer confidence is down, retail sales are down. And for many of us, the markets we serve are down, as well. There is an important relationship to note here. Confidence – an attitude – is down, so sales are down. When confidence is up, sales follow.
The principle at work here is this: Our actions follow our attitudes. The relationship between actions and attitudes is so close, that the two go hand-in-hand, and our actions can be seen as outward expressions of our attitudes.
OK, so what does that have to do with you? Here’s what: If the markets you serve are down, that action (lack of buying) is a result of an attitude (lack of confidence). And you can influence that attitude, and be part of the solution, or be influenced by it, and thus contribute to the problem.
We are all familiar with the Pareto principle, which, when applied to the world of sales, says that 80% of the business comes from 20% of the customers. As a general rule, that 80/20 rule is accurate in lots of different situations. Whenever there is a large group producing something, 20% of the people produce 80% of the results.
The “Five Percent Principle” states that five percent of the people produce 50% of the outcome. It can become a powerful marketing principle in your business.
Have recent events left you unemployed? I can empathize. I have been there. In my life, I’ve had three major periods of unemployment. I understand the uncertainty, anxiety and self-doubt that comes with that. You just don’t feel like life is as worthwhile unless you have a solid, fulfilling job.
Because of my experience, I have made it a point to be available to friends and colleagues who are unemployed. I’ve met with dozens. Here’s some of what I have learned about finding your next professional job.
Successful people – and successful salespeople – routinely set goals. In this podcast, we explain why and how. You'll master a process you can use forever.
Because a salesperson’s income is often unpredictable, salespeople need to develop some disciplines and principles to guide their personal finances. This article lays provides some tips and techniques to manage your personal finances.
In an earlier podcast, I suggested some strategies for effectively handling the changes wrought by the pandemic.
In this one, I’m looking at your broader responsibilities. What about your business or organization? Are there some things you should be doing to prepare your business for life on the other side of social distancing? Here’s one person’s experience and wisdom.
Get Kahle's Kalculation here: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/kahles-kalculation-sales-productivity-measurement/
Check out the Kahle Way(r) B2B Selling System here: https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/immersion-b2b-sales/
Sales leaders often lament the lack of professionalism in the world of sales. Unfortunately, there is not a standard for what it means to be a professional salesperson. Let’s take a close look at what a professional salesperson is and is not.
You may want to read: The Character of a Successful Salesperson https://www.thesalesresourcecenter.com/character-successful-salespeople/
: In my first professional selling job, I learned a fundamental principle which is all too often disregarded by sales people today. The principle is this: If you are going to present effectively, you must prepare thoroughly.
Unfortunately, far too many salespeople fail to thoroughly prepare their presentations. There are a variety of reasons.
In this podcast, I examine some of those reasons and offer some recommendations.
We are in the middle of some difficult times. Rather than belabor that point, I’d like to come to the heart of the problem: What do we do? We need to answer that question in an immediate, urgent basis: What do we do right now?
We also need to answer the question in a strategic, on-going way. What do we do this week, this month, this year? How shall we wisely and prudently arrange our activities – not just for this moment, for the next few months? Ultimately, as we sort through our lives, as we think about our careers and guide our businesses, we need to confront and answer that question.
In this podcast I share some experience and wisdom as someone who has been here before.
I’m afraid for the future of our country. I’m afraid because I believe that the discipline of thinking before we act – in every circumstance and level of society -- is rapidly disappearing. In its place, we are witnessing a whole host of alternatives. It is like thousands of years of human development has been shrugged to the side, and a new ethic of rushing to conclusions with little objective basis has replaced it. We are regressing to the Middle Ages.
In this podcast, I respond to two listeners questions: One has to do with how many appointments a salesperson should make, and the other asks about being frustrated trying to get an appointment in an account. My answers may surprise you.
There are two types of questions salespeople should use: Questions to ask customers, and questions to ask yourself. In this podcast, we drill deeper into questions to ask yourself and develop a routine and a set of questions that will fuel your development for the rest of your career.
A good question is one of the most powerful tools know to mankind. It certainly is a salesperson's most powerful tool. In this podcast, I dig into questions that salespeople (and other professionals) should be asking themselves. You may have never come across this before.
The rules have changed. Now, you must add value to every sales call. This article unpacks that idea and provides two specific techniques to add value to every sales call.
I believe that there are certainly practices in the business world where morality perfectly coincides with wise business. Integrity is one such practice. It is both good business as well as good morals. Here's why...
You may also want to listen to:
Just Listen!
Adversity
Customers asking about a 'lower price' is a universal headache for B2B salespeople. In this session, I respond to four specific questions on that theme. Gain some insights and ideas you may never have had before.
You may also want to listen to:
It is the Risk, not the Price!
Five ways to prevent the price objection!
One of my clients recently mentioned to me that, when hiring prospective sales people, he looks for a “passion for sales” in their personality. The idea struck me. I had never really thought in those terms before. What is a ‘passion for sales?’ What does it look like? Is it really an indicator of a successful sales person? And, how do you identify it?
I am convinced that the process of continuously improving – not only professionally in the core competencies of a professional sales person, but also personally as well – is the ultimate success skill for our time.
I’m afraid for the future of our country. I’m afraid because I believe that the discipline of thinking before we act – in every circumstance and level of society -- is rapidly disappearing. In its place, we are witnessing a whole host of alternatives. It is like thousands of years of human development has been shrugged to the side, and a new ethic of rushing to conclusions with little objective basis has replaced it. We are regressing to the Middle Ages.
Every salesperson must deal with customer objections. In this first of two, I reveal a technique that will make the process much easier.
“Can you boil down your advice to one word?”
That’s what a seminar participant asked me. “No,” I said, “but I can boil it down to three: Focus, focus, focus.” I said that because I see ‘focus’ as the solution to a number of modern dilemmas.
You may also want to review: A Fresh, Nuanced Approach to Goal Setting -- https://www.davekahle.com/fresh-nuanced-approach-goal-setting-introducing-fofs/
Whenever I ask salespeople to rate themselves on their competence at all the different parts of the sales process, they invariably rate themselves low at closing the sale. Unfortunately, salespeople who don't close consistently waste a lot of their time, waste their customer’s time, and are not nearly as effective as they could be.
Being adept at closing the sale, and every step in the process, is an important key to productivity. So, let's examine the issue of closing, with two powerful concepts.
Our current level of electronic noise makes deep thinking almost impossible. Today I received over 209 email messages, had 35 postings on my Facebook page, uncountable listings on my Linkedin page, and several voice mail messages. This was after having methodically unsubscribed to legions of emails and registered on the “do not call” list. Of that tsunami of incoming messages, only about a half dozen were at all relevant to my business or my life.
I am sure my numbers are just a scant portion of those that some of you receive. We are living at a time when the noise level of incoming messages has reached epic proportions. It’s like sitting in the front row of a rock concert. The level of noise is so great that you can’t discern a single word.
This is a response to a salesperson who asked my recommendation for what to read and listen to in order to improve his/her performance. Way beyond that, you’ll gain a greater understanding of how to improve as a salesperson, and acquire one question that can guide your learning for ever.
What may be the single most important predictor of an organization’s long-term business development and survival is that organization’s ability to learn. In a world that is changing more rapidly today than at any previous time in human history, the consistent practice of learning is the only sustainable long-term strategy.
Positive customer relationships are the basis of much B2B business, right? Positive business relationships ensure us an audience with the customer, make every step of the selling process go easier, and even provide us with a competitive edge. It’s not unusual for the business to come your way just because they like you the best.
But in today’s hyper-competitive economy, relying on your relationships is like trying to paddle through the storm in a leaky row boat – your effort will keep you afloat for a short time, but eventually you’ll find that you just don’t have enough resources to challenge the storm. Relying on your relationships is a prescription for eventual failure.
We’ve all heard about the importance of our attitudes. Usually the directive goes like this; “XXXXXXXXXX, you need to improve your attitude!”
Fortunately, there is a lot more to attitudes than just the oft-spoken refrain to improve ours. Successful people eventually learn how to manage their attitudes.
As salespeople, we love to complain about the competition. Unfortunately, complaining doesn’t do us any good. A better approach is to create a system to learn about the competition. Knowledge of the competition -- not only their strengths and weaknesses but also their patterns and tendencies – will provide you with a distinct advantage, and prevent you from getting blindsided or seriously outmaneuvered.
At its most fundamental level, business is always and only about three things: Money, people and systems.
There is a huge body of content revolving around money in business.
When it comes to people, as an element in business, there is an equally impressive body of knowledge and infrastructure.
When it comes to systems, however, there is not nearly the quantity and quality of conversation. And yet effective systems are, at the very least, just as necessary to the growth and health of a business as good people and adequate funds. Good systems are where the company’s financial assets intertwine with the people to produce results.
“Low price, low price, low price.” It’s the mantra that sales people in every industry segment are hearing more these days than ever before. But, is low price the motivating factor in a customer’s decision to buy? Here’s a secret that almost nobody knows, including all those gurus telling you to sell value. They don’t always buy the best value. But, they can invariably be counted on to buy the lowest risk!
My wife is a crises counselor. You would think that, by the very nature of the word crises, she would see a continually changing group of clients who were dealing with the occasional crises. Not so. She frequently engages with the same group of folks who lurch from one crises to another. They never learn from their mistakes, continue the same behavior that brought on the original crises, and find themselves in another one. The pattern repeats.
That pattern of behavior – not learning from the past and continuing the same pattern of behavior that brought on the crises – is far more prevalent than one might expect
Dealing with prospects is one of the most daunting and frustrating parts of the salesperson's job. In this podcast, I respond to two questions from salespeople about key aspects of this difficult task. You'll gain some ideas you can use today.
There are, in the world of sales and sales systems, certain practices that have such an enormous impact on the company and the market that they are in a special class of activities that call for executive involvement at the highest levels.
One of that handful of activities is the creation of a value-added position (VAP). Next to the company’s vision, mission and values statements, a VAP contains the most important words an organization can create. It often forms the first impression the market forms of your company, and frequently bounces around in their head like a tune from their teenage years.