January 27th, 2009 | 
Author: I’ve always thought the saying “leaders are born, not made” rang hollow, as if spoken by someone who could recognize a great leader but had no idea how to train one. Dave Kurlan, author of Baseline Selling would likely agree, adding that the samemisconception applies to salespeople. Using baseball as an extended analogy, Kurlan’s book is a training manual for becoming a sales superstar.
Kurlan has been involved in sales training, management, and consulting for more than 30 years. During that time, he’s seen sales methodologies become increasingly diverse and complex. Feature-benefit selling, consultative selling, relationship selling, and others have “introduced good concepts and practices” but have also “unnecessarily complicated the process.” His solution, baseline selling, provides a simplified sales methodology that is both easy to remember and implement. Similar to baseball, the goal of baseline selling is systematic, forward movement from base to base—one stage of the sale to the next—until the deal is closed.
First base is getting an appointment with the prospect. Second base means the prospect wants what you are selling and there is some urgency to close the deal. At third base the sales person has shown that the two parties are qualified to do business together. Home base is presenting a winning solution and making the sale.
This step-by-step method is reflected in the book’s structure. At each stage of the sales process, Kurlan indicates the salesperson’s goals, identifies potential problems, and offers practical tools for success. Sales is largely a game of psychology and persistence, and some of Kurlan’s most perceptive and useful advice helps salespeople identify and overcome self-imposed obstacles to success, such as the need for approval, fear of rejection, call anxiety, and perfectionism.
He also offers a wide range of practical tips for making group presentations, speaking one-on-one to prospects, and solving buyer’s concerns. Not all of Kurlan’s advice is new; some is common sense, and some can be found in other books. Many other books, however, mix good advice with bad, are replete with artificial sales stories, and suffer from mind-numbing redundancy. Here Kurlan’s years of experience serve the reader well: He has cherry-picked the best ideas and most effective techniques, and then wrapped them up in a straight-forward methodology that sales people can easily recall when under fire.
Kurlan gamely pitches his book to all salespeople. Those who don’t care for baseball, or believe sports analogies are overused in business, may be inclined to look elsewhere. Although the baseball analogy wears thin in places—a salesperson who gets to first base because the prospect made first contact is said to have been “hit by the pitch”—novice and veteran salespeople alike will find much in Baseline Selling to improve their game.
Posted in 
Tags: 
