Preface: Dave Kurlan is a very well known consultant, coach, trainer. When you encounter him in social media, you already know how driven he is about the “state of selling,” He is viciously focused on helping drive performance with his clients. I’ve learned a lot from him, and respect what he does. My only problem with Dave is his choice of baseball team, he’s a rabid Red Sox fan. All this goes to prove we can’t be perfect in everything. As I read his story it’s the last sentence that sums everything up for me.
I’ve been selling since 1973 and have been in the sales development business for nearly 40 years. After all those years, the single activity that I still engage in, is selling. While others on my team handle a lot of the training, coaching, consulting, and administrative tasks, I still sell and still love doing it. Why? When I have training or coaching on the calendar, I wake up in the morning and think, “Ugh, I have to train today.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m still effective and I like the people I train and coach, but it’s different from how I feel when I wake up and there are sales calls on the calendar. Those excite me! I expect to win the business and when I do I have a real feeling of satisfaction and in the rare occasions that I don’t win, I experience anger for about a minute and a half. I never feel like that after training, coaching or consulting. So, in a nutshell, selling moves me.
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