Red-Hot Selling: Power Techniques That Win Even the Toughest Sale Book

Introduction: So you Want to be a Sales Professional xi

Part I World-Class Sales Planning 1

Chapter 1 Prospecting Plans: Keeping the Pipeline Full 3

Planning Is a Natural Part of Living 3

You Are the CEO of Your Own Territory 5

Sales Planning Essentials 6

Your Prospecting Business Plan 7

Apportion Your Time 9

The Model for the Plan and Its Variants 11

Now, an Example 12

Final Thoughts 17

Chapter 2 Territory Plans: The Heart of the Sales Planning Process 19

The Large-Account Strategy 20

The Large-Account Strategy in Action 22

The Secret of Sales Success 22

How the Large-Account Strategy Works 25

Some Common Mistakes in Setting Up Your Territory 26

Why the Large-Account Strategy Works 28

Implementing the Large-Account Strategy 28

Take the Measure of Your Prospects 29

What if I Don't Work at the Top End of a Market? 32

Determine Your Account Load 33

The 80/20 Rule to Estimate Territory Size 34

Create the Account List 35

Going from Here 37

Chapter 3 Account Plans: The Third Leg of the Triple Crown 39

Your Account Plan 39

How Many Account Plans Should you Maintain? 40

What About Prospects? 40

What About the Workload? 41

The Account Development Cycle 42

Identify Customer Needs and Position Yourself 43

Start with Small Sales 43

The Move to Larger Sales 48

The Primary Provider-But Not So Fast . . . 49

Expand Your Account Penetration 50

The Trusted Adviser 51

The Sales Discovery Process 52

Procurement and Purchasing 52

Technical Review 53

The Originating Executive 54

The End Users 56

The Triple Crown Winner 56

Part II High-Performance Sales Execution 59

Chapter 4 Prospecting: Eliminating the Peaks and Valleys of Selling 61

Stay Current! 61

Prioritize Your Prospects 62

The ABC Call Cadence 63

The Call Script 65

A Nice Greeting 67

The Business Issue 68

The Open-Ended Follow-Up Question 69

Closing the Prospecting Call 71

Monitor Your Progress 71

Types of Completed Calls 74

The Invitation to a Meeting 75

The Opportunity Realized 76

Compelling Reasons to Persevere 76

Chapter 5 Sales Discovery: The One Thing That Does It 79

An Overview of the Discovery Process 81

The Necessity of Getting Beyond Yes or No 81

Preparation Is the Key 84

The Meeting Management Worksheet 85

Your Objective 85

Your Strategy 86

Your Meeting Agenda 88

Your Unique Selling Points 104

Your Next Step 106

Chapter 6 Handling Objections: The Easy Way! 107

There Are a Limited Number of Objections 108

The Right Model for Handling Objections 109

The Price Objection 110

The Competition Objection 110

Reference Examples, Both Actual and Synthesized 113

The Limitations of "Supplementing" 114

The "Will It Work?" Objection 115

The "Not Now" Objection 119

The Objection-Handling Matrix 124

Part III Closing Strategies That Win the Business 127

Chapter 7 Closing the Sale: The Best-Kept Secrets 129

Sales Planning as a Closing Technique 129

Prospect Planning for Greater Leverage 132

Territory Planning at the Closing 133

The Account Planning Carryover Effect 133

The Leverage Effect on Overall Sales 134

Sales Execution as a Closing Technique 136

Nurture, Not Closure 138

A Step Toward Future Sales 139

The Consultative Sales Process 140

The Customer-Seller Partnership 142

Completing the Consultative Sales Process 143

The Closing Phrase 146

Chapter 8 The Recipe for Winning Proposals 149

The Introduction and the Customer's Needs 150

Your Solution 152

Holding Onto Your Reader 153

Competing on Price Is Not a Sustainable Strategy 154

Raise Your Visibility as a Supplier of Niche Needs 156

Paul's Rule of One and Rule of Many 158

Leverage the Cost of Switching Vendors 159

Not Always on the Outside Looking In 163

Manage Customer Perceptions 164

Why Select You? 165

Schedule of Events 166

Investment Summary 166

Comparing Investment Alternatives 168

The Only Way to Present Your Solution 169

Caveat: Avoid Customer Traps 172

Reference Stories 173

How to Synthesize a Story 173

The Best Reference Story of All 174

New-Product Reference Stories 175

One Last, Great Point: Limited-Access Proposals 175

Chapter 9 Winning Sales Presentations 179

To Go First, or Not to Go First: That Is the Question 179

Polish Your Presentation Skills 181

Always Be the Standard Bearer 182

First to Customer 183

Prepare a High-Impact Sales Presentation 184

Acknowledge Individual Interests 185

Allow for Customer Participation 186

Present your Solution 187

Customer Objections During a Presentation 188

Preparation Is Key 190

Summarize Why the Customer Should Select You 191

Acknowledge the Value Added 192

The Value in the Sales Relationship 194

One Important Word of Caution 196

Provide a Compelling Reason to Act 197

The Opportunity Costs of Slow Decision Making 198

Doing the Numbers 199

Remember Your Follow-Through 200

Chapter 10 The Ten Best Sales Strategies 203

1 Sales Is a Process 203

2 Sales Time Management 204

3 A Full Sales Pipeline 205

4 The Large-Account Strategy 206

4a The Corollary to the Large-Account Strategy 207

5 The Account Development Cycle 208

6 Planning: The Best Closing Strategy 210

7 Monitoring Your Progress 211

8 Managing Customer Perceptions 213

9 Being Prepared 214

10 The Roadmap to Success 214

Index 217