Product Description
Today’s sales professionals are hungrier than ever for new ideas to help them avoid the dreaded "vendor" label. Yesterday’s sales professional relied on comparing product features and benefits, low prices, and aggressive closings. Today, a new vernacular is emerging to describe sales success.
Selling value. Selling as a process. Being more than a vendor. Increasing margins. Making price irrelevant. Winning executive-level credibility. Creating competitive immunity. These are the watchwords driving the 21st century sales professional. Where challenges abound, however, genuine solutions remain scarce.
Breaking out of the "vendor trap" requires nothing short of a wholesale rethinking of what it means to sell value. Salespeople must reevaluate the types of opportunities they pursue, how they plan accounts, what they learn about their customers, and the level of customer they’re willing to sell to. Such a revolutionary change in approach to the nature of sales also requires a new strategic step-by-step plan for progressing through the sales cycle. That is precisely the process described in Beyond Selling Value.
Featuring success stories culled from dozens of real-life selling challenges, Beyond Selling Value takes the reader out of the world of dry, textbook selling and onto the corporate front lines. Using these battle-tested strategies as a guide, Beyond Selling Value walks readers through every stage of the sales process, from targeting the right customers through presenting a strategic business solution to the executive- level decision maker-that one elusive person in the customer organization who is truly positioned to buy value.
Along the way, readers learn the most effective methods to:
• Gather critical intelligence about the customer’s business.
• Outmaneuver the gatekeepers who try to block the path to the top.
• Gain access to senior-level executives to deliver high-impact business presentations.
• Establish long-term business relationships where you work closely with decision makers.
For the crowd captivated by strategic selling and enamored with spin selling, the next generation in selling has arrived. Beyond Selling Value delivers just what today’s sales professionals need-a proven method to stop getting beat up on price and start becoming a critical player in their customers’ future success.
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Resource, 2008-06-07
A valuable resource for selling. I'm in Marketing and I've learned quite a few things that help in my job.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
This is a game changer!, 2008-03-17
Just because your company says "We provide value," that doesn't mean that you deliver it! You have to define it and prove it in the Customer's terms.
I read this book in a weekend and took copious notes. On Tuesday, I was flying to meet with a new client. I used the book to prepare for my call.
The customer was blown away.
He actually laughed and said "I have never met a sales guy like you." When I asked what he meant, he said that he expected a salesman to show up with a handful of brochures and push the latest and greatest products.
I spent the entire time understanding the challenges facing him, his management, and the company. I walked away establishing my credibility, developing a solid relationship, and I had a very clear understanding of their needs and what they VALUE.
I keep the Beyond Selling Value notes in my Daytimer and refer to them for almost every sales call.
This essential for anyone who sells value (or thinks that they do!).
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent read!, 2005-10-26
This book is a terrific read. It is both educational and entertaining. It really is a must read for those of you who want to sell consultatively.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A tactical in-the-trenches approach for B2B selling, 2005-04-04
Having worked for IMPAX for over six years, I've had a chance to learn and work around numerous sales training methodologies before and since.
Mark Shonka and Dan Kosch present a detailed step-by-step how to approach for understanding the customer's point of view, getting credit for what you know about them, and leveraging that knowledge to communicate your value in the customer's terms. Many other so-called "sales processes" from sales training companies fall short for several reasons, and this book fills many of those gaps:
1) Many so-called "sales processes" simply present ways of analyzing customer situations (such as Miller Heiman's 'Blue Sheet'). They do not show HOW to accomplish your objectives in an account situation as Kosch and Shonka do.
2) Other "sales processes" (such as Solution Selling or SPIN Selling) get tangled up in complex questioning processes that can be difficult to master in the field. I'm not saying there is no value in them (some of these offer techniques for prospecting or demonstrating that IMPAX does not address). What I'm saying is their complexity makes them somewhat unwieldy to implement by many salespeople so they can be less than totally effective.
3) Finally, many other sales processes from training companies make a dubious assumption: that everything the salesperson does should be calculated to close the deal. I hate it when salespeople do that to me, and you probably do too.
Some environments are more opportunity focused than relationship focused, but certainly building relationships is a critical component of any selling environment. IMPAX provides step-by-step approaches for doing that, so that when qualified opportunities arise you can leverage the relationships you have built. It provides the context in which you can be recognized for the value you truly offer, and close deals based on a wider context and on future value potential, rather than (inadvertently) forcing salespeople into "peddler mode," constantly conniving to close (perhaps when prospects are not yet ready).
4) One of the most valuable things about the IMPAX Process is that while speaking the language of practical tactics salespeople love, Shonka and Kosch are really teaching salespeople a powerful strategy that can be scaled from telesales to Global Account Management to talking to your five year old.
IMPAX may not be the only thing you'll need to make your sales organization more successful, because selling skills are just one of many factors at play. However, as far as selling skills go, especially for complex B2B environments, IMPAX has a lot to offer.
Michael Webb
1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
The critical question author Shonka choose not to answer, 2004-03-06
I would give Beyond Selling Value five stars if there were not a *tiny* problem:
In an e-mail to author Mark Shonka I wondered what can one say if the client tells in the research meeting to one of the questions "That's none of your business!"
The research questions are more those a hired management consultant is allowed to ask and not somebody who is just needed to sell some products. How is one supposed to deal with this kind of objection/resistance? What should one say in response?The response by Shonka was -- silence. Otherwise, of course, it's a great book.