Book #5: Selling Yourself
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Shakespeare was wrong—
all the world’s not a stage,
it’s a sales call.
It’s easy to sell when business conditions are favorable. For the better part of two generations, we have enjoyed an unprecedented run of good times. Then, reality set in and the bubble burst.
Whether you manage a territory or small business, support the organization in a customer service role, or you are an executive in a Fortune 500 company, you are selling yourself every day.
Your effectiveness in business and in life will ultimately hinge on the impressions other people form about you. Customers are always forming impressions, and their perception of you will determine whether or not they buy your product or service.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 - The Perfect Storm
Chapter 2 - Your Next Job Interview (the perfect metaphor)
Chapter 3 - Customers Won’t Trust Just Anyone
Chapter 4 - Managing Conversational Dynamics™
Chapter 5 - Influencing the Customer’s Buying Criteria
Chapter 6 - Be More Strategic with Your Sales Questions
Chapter 7 - Selling Intangibles and Cost Justification
Chapter 8 - Making Prospects More Receptive to Your Message
Chapter 9 - Positioning Your Solutions
Chapter 10 - Wrapping Up the Sale
Bonus Chapter - Paint Pictures with Your Words
Epilogue - For Sales Managers Only
Chapter 1: The Perfect Storm
More than at any other time since the industrial revolution, companies in all industries are looking for ways to retain customers, boost top-line revenue, and maintain profit margins. To survive and ultimately flourish in this new economy, we must reexamine the way we deal with customers; and some of the adjustments that need to be made are long overdue. Thus, a Darwinian-style recalibration is underway, where the salesperson will play a more crucial role in their own success than ever before.
Everything seems eerily different now, as we slowly come to grips with the reality that the field on which we work and play has changed dramatically. Even those of us who were minding our own business when the downturn began breathed a collective gasp as the era of unabated prosperity that our economy has enjoyed for the last thirty years seemed to collapse overnight.
Not since the nineteen thirties have we experienced a scenario that could so widely impact the financial, political, and social fabric of our country, where the changing economic landscape will inevitably impact everyone at some point, if it hasn’t affected you already.
We have essentially been ‘snow-globed;’ turned upside down and shaken to the point where the tranquil scenes of our daily existence have been shrouded by a flurry of uncertainty that has suddenly clouded our view, and little pieces of reality now seem to be raining down in all directions.
This increased pressure in the marketplace comes with an ironic upside, however, one that has sparked a renewed sense of desire within companies, and, I dare say, throughout the entire sales profession. It turns out that the same people who are hungry for business are also eager for a new perspective and creative ideas about what they can and should do differently.
Never before have sellers been so willing to put their egos aside and adjust their approach to make themselves invaluable to their customers, colleagues, partners and company. I remember a time not so long ago when salespeople would come to my class without a pencil, fold their arms, and hope the clock would soon roll ahead to the end of day so they could head to the gym. Things are different now, as most people realize that some adjustments are in order with regard to how we deal with clients, as it appears that our best opportunity to emerge from the current predicament is going to be to sell our way out.
