Its a review about this product
If you were to ask ten people to describe a salesperson they knew, chances are you would get descriptions of ten very different people. Some would mention the car salesman they know, others might talk about the real estate broker that handled their last sale/purchase and some would talk about vendors of low priced, commodity items. Very few would mention high-ticket, business-to-business, enterprise sales. Our view of the term sales professional varies widely.
This book is specifically about the business-to-business, high ticket, enterprise sales. While the topics covered will benefit anyone involved in sales, Scott Sambucci, the author is talking directly to the very high-level sales professional. If this describes you or the position you aspire to, then this book is a must read. You will learn to appreciate the selling process - "... you must expect and thrive in a complex organizational sales process and understand your own relationship to that process." You will learn that being a closer is being a loser. In this environment, closing happens each step of the process. Achieving advances each step of the process is the goal.
The book gives you 12 sales tenets covered in eleven chapters. Sales tenet #2, "Jumping right into a sales demo on the first call is the kiss of death." is a good example of the type of advice covered in this book. According to Sambucci, starting a sales pitch before you have started building a relationship and asked qualifying questions to determine needs will kill a sale before you even get started.
When starting out, most salespeople are too anxious to please the customer/client and view all inquiries as equal. If you wish to be successful, you must learn the difference between someone mildly interested, just kicking the tires and a true prospect. You must also keep a wary eye out for Gatekeepers and Vampires. Selling to a Gatekeeper - instead of a decision maker means you must do the job twice. And there are Vampires that will suck your time, resources and energy but are not real buyers. You must learn to deal with Gatekeepers and Vampires if you wish to optimize your time and therefore your results. This is covered in sales tenet #10, Using a product and buying a product are very, very different.
With the widespread acceptance and use of email, too many people prefer to hide behind email. It is often easier than picking up the phone. That does not mean it is more effective. Mr. Sambucci says in sales tenet #3 that you should make the phone the default mode of communication. This is repeated throughout the book with countless examples demonstrating the value to be gained by using the phone instead of alternate forms of communication.
In the book, Mr. Sambucci gives plenty of examples from his actual work experience to demonstrate the points he is making. A large part of his work has involved software/information data. Thus many of the examples are centered around software/data information business. If your business involves a different product or service, do not make the mistake of thinking the principles are different. They are not. Some of the specific examples might not apply directly to your business. You will need to focus on the underlying principle, not the specific example.
There is a lot of excellent information covered in this short book. You will not become an outstanding professional salesperson simply by reading this book. You will need to take these ideas/principles and adapt them to your own situation. Then implement them. Measure what is working, what is not and go back to the book to see how you can improve your implementation.
An excellent resource for the serious sales professional.
I was provided a review copy of this book.
