Duane Sparks is chairman and founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based company that has trained and certified more than 200,000 salespeople in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions.

In a 30-year career as a salesperson and sales manager, Duane has sold products ranging from office equipment to insurance. He was the top salesperson at every company he ever worked for. He developed Action Selling while owner of one of the largest computer marketers in the United States. Even in the roaring computer business of the 1980's, his company grew six times faster than the industry norm, differentiating itself not by the products offered but by the way it sold them. Duane founded The Sales Board in 1990 to teach the skills of Action Selling to others.

Research has proven that customers make five major buying decisions in the course of any major purchase.  These decisions are always made in the same order.  The first is whether to “buy” th...

Effective questioning is a critical selling skill for several reasons.  First, our recent research shows that there is a direct correlation between the success of a sales call and the type of que...

Salespeople know that they’re supposed to sell to the customer’s needs.  Here is the classic—and tragically wrong—way they usually learn to do it: Uncover the first need. Begin a product presenta...