First, I must thank God for giving me the insight of how to be of service to you. This book teaches how you can be of service to your clients in bringing what they need to be of service to their clients. In this way, the gift of service never ends.
I am grateful to the many people who have been placed in my life to teach me the many things that are contained in this book. The production of this work, my first publication, was possible with the support of several people, a few to whom I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude:
To my wife, for her support through difficult times and for keeping my spirits up.
To Dan Poynter of parapublishing.com whose work-
shop on writing and publishing I attended many
years ago. He set a fire in me that I could write a book and now it has been realized.
To Shelle Rose Charvet of SuccessStrategies.com for her wonderful gifts.
To my friend, Scott Watson, who encouraged and had faith in me.
To my oldest son, Richard, my biggest fan. He was
instrumental in reading my drafts and giving me
some terrific feedback, including the subtitle of
this book.
To Sean, my youngest son, who is a business major at Auburn University. He was an inspiration, and I thank him for believing in me. War Eagle!
To Diane Mendez of Proof Plus, my expert guide in
getting my book from draft to a final product. I
cannot thank her enough for her professionalism,
advice, direction in the editing, layout, proofreading and even the cover design.
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~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~
Introduction...................................................................... xv
CHAPTER ONE - Top 5 Sales Myths ........................................1
Sales Myth Number 1 - “You Think You Sell ?” ..................2
Sales Myth Number 2 - “Selling is an Art” .......................3
SALES MODELS ..............................................................5
Sales Scripts Model ..............................................5
Closing Sales Model.............................................8
Product/Service Pushing through
Personality, Persistence and Price......................9
Relationship Sales Model ....................................9
Problem-Solving Sales Model..............................9
Value Add Sales Model.......................................10
Consultative Sales Model ...................................10
Partnering..........................................................10
Team Selling Model ...........................................11
Complex Sales Model ........................................11
Sales Myth Number 3 - “Salespeople who are
‘Good Talkers’ with a ‘Great Pitch’ win the most” .........12
Sales Myth Number 4 - “Selling is Close,
Close and Close” ........................................................... 14
Sean’s Education......................................................15
The Internet Has Changed the Way We Buy ............19
Sales Myth Number 5 - “You can actually
sell Business-to-Business B2B and
Business-to-Consumer B2C” .........................................22
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CHAPTER TWO - What’s Missing? .........................................25
How did you choose sales as a career? ..........................26
Where did you get your training? .................................26
What did you learn? .....................................................27
Is the sales staff meeting quota?....................................27
How did sales management solve this problem? ...........28
Did it work? ..................................................................28
What do we look for when we hire salespeople?...........28
What do salespeople do? ..............................................29
Which Sales Model Works the Best? ..............................31
What standards and procedures are followed? ..............33
Do we use sound sales strategies? .................................34
Do we learn from the best?...........................................34
Time for a change .........................................................35
Chapter Three - What Is Sales Mapping? ........................37
Connecting the DOTS that Make up Sales Mapping .....38
Learning how to maximize productivity ..................38
Connecting the Best Practices DOT...............................41
Learning how people get exceptional results...........41
Connecting the How People Communicate DOT ..........43
R1 Rapport ..............................................................43
R2 Record................................................................44
R3 Release ...............................................................44
R4 Replace...............................................................45
R5 Remember..........................................................45
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Connecting the Effective Communications DOT ...........45
Strategy and Tactics ...............................................45
Connecting the Strategy and Tactics DOT.....................47
Having an action plan .............................................47
Connecting the Project Management DOT ...................48
Letting the presentation get in
the way of the message .........................................48
Connecting the Presentation DOT.................................49
Chapter Four - Rapport: The Foundation
of Communication .........................................................51
Common Sense Language ............................................52
VISUAL (seeing) .......................................................55
AUDITORY (hearing)................................................56
KINESTHETIC (feeling) .............................................56
What Language Do You Use? ........................................57
Lost in Translation .........................................................59
Body Talk ......................................................................61
Follow My Voice............................................................63
Chapter Five - Listening With A Purpose .........................65
Why Don’t We Listen?...................................................67
What are the Rules for Listening? ..................................68
Are You A Good Listener?..............................................71
Are you missing (the) communication? .........................72
Getting into listening mode ..........................................76
R2 Record .....................................................................77
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Why am I here? .......................................................77
Rapport ...................................................................77
Take Notes ..............................................................77
My rules for me/ your rules for you .........................78
Push Record ............................................................78
Chapter Six - Getting to the Problem ..............................79
Why Do People Buy?.....................................................82
1 “Want” to buy......................................................82
2 “Way” to buy ......................................................85
3 “Will” to make it work.........................................86
Client retention and acquisition ....................................88
Profitability....................................................................89
Productivity ...................................................................90
Personal ........................................................................91
Troubleshooting ............................................................92
Just the facts - Developing a Problem Statement...........94
Creating the problem statement ...................................98
Chapter Seven - Getting to the Results .........................101
Results Statement........................................................109
Chapter Eight - Meet Me at the Solution Gap ..............113
Past, Present and Future..............................................114
Meet me at the “Gap” ................................................114
What will the competition do? ....................................116
Tactics ........................................................................121
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How Do I get my client to think of me first? .........121
A. The Tactic is “Big Bad and Bold” .................122
B. The Tactic is “Change the Game”................122
C. The Tactic is “Let’s Team up…Partner” ........124
D. The Tactic is “Wait”.....................................125
Putting tactics to work ..........................................125
USP (no, not what comes in a brown truck)................126
Chapter Nine - Sales Project Management....................131
What makes a project a project? .................................132
The Core Activities of Sales Project Management ........135
Scope the Project ..................................................136
Identify Project Activities........................................137
Estimate Activity Duration .....................................138
Determine Resource Requirements ........................140
Construct and Analyze the Project Network ..........141
Recruit and Organize the Project Team..................143
Level Project Resources ..........................................145
Schedule and Document Work Packages ...............145
Monitor and Control Progress ...............................146
Close Out the Project ............................................147
Win or Lose .................................................................147
Chapter Ten - Present the Best and Outdo the Rest .....149
The Top Five Mistakes Salespeople Make.....................149
Mistake # 1 - Attitude............................................149
Mistake # 2 - No Planning.....................................150
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Mistake # 3 - Little or No Preparation....................151
Mistake # 4 - Word Presentations ..........................151
Mistake # 5 - Disconnected from Audience ...........152
What do you want me to do? .....................................153
What I need (WIN)......................................................154
Why are you in business? ............................................154
Why you are here........................................................155
Do you understand the problem? ...............................156
How will you solve the problem? ................................156
How will they know you solved the problem?.............156
What makes you different?..........................................157
A Call to Action ...........................................................157
What language are they speaking?..............................157
Which one do you use? ...........................................158
How do we satisfy the visual, auditory, kinesthetic
people in the audience?...........................................158
Rehearse and Record ...................................................160
Chapter Eleven - Putting It All Together........................163
Meeting Your Client ....................................................166
The Interview ..............................................................167
PROBLEM STATEMENT...................................................167
RESULTS.........................................................................168
PROCESS........................................................................170
DECISION ......................................................................170
SOLUTION .....................................................................171
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Determine Your Tactics................................................172
Develop Your USP .......................................................172
Prepare Your Sales Project Plan....................................173
Present Your Solution ..................................................173
R5 Remember .............................................................174
Chapter Twelve - Make It Yours .....................................177
Stop the tape! .............................................................178
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