Steve Schiffman shows how to suffer less stress when selling by better management of time, gathering more than usual amounts of information during interviews and delaying the presentation and closing stages of a sale

While a Vice President at Salesforce, David Priemer had an epiphany during one of the company's high-pressure selling periods: the very sales tactics they were using were not working on him. Yes, the numbers still showed results, but through brute force rather than elegance and efficiency. Priemer also discovered that his sales colleagues were spending far more time on leads that did not convert to sales than on those that did. His company--and his entire profession--was acting with more than enough gusto, but without enough awareness and empathy. They were not selling the way they buy. Sell the Way You Buy is about much more than putting yourself in the customer's shoes. Customers don't always know what they want or need, or they may be seeking a solution for something that isn't their core problem. They suffer from status quo bias, from recency bias, from confirmation bias. And meanwhile, the state of overwhelming choice has most products and solution providers adrift in the "Sea of Sameness." In today's world, almost everyone is in sales, but as Priemer realized, we don't teach it. Sell the Way You Buy will show you how to ask questions, how to listen, how to tell a compelling brand story, and how to talk to customers (how to talk to people). Priemer reveals scientifically supported methods to understand the customer, identify their needs, and move them toward the right solution--all the while teaching you to avoid all the reasons why the average person doesn't like salespeople. In short, to sell the way you buy.

True or false? In selling high-value products or services: 'closing' increases your chance of success; it is essential to describe the benefits of your product or service to the customer; objection handling is an important skill; open questions are more effective than closed questions. All false, says this provocative book. Neil Rackham and his team studied more than 35,000 sales calls made by 10,000 sales people in 23 countries over 12 years. Their findings revealed that many of the methods developed for selling low-value goods just don‘t work for major sales. Rackham went on to introduce his SPIN-Selling method. SPIN describes the whole selling process: Situation questions Problem questions Implication questions Need-payoff questions SPIN-Selling provides you with a set of simple and practical techniques which have been tried in many of today‘s leading companies with dramatic improvements to their sales performance.

The Revolutionary Sales Approach Scientifically Proven to Dramatically Improve Your Sales and Business Success Blending cutting-edge research in social psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, The Science of Selling shows you how to align the way you sell with how our brains naturally form buying decisions, dramatically increasing your ability to earn more sales. Unlike other sales books, which primarily rely on anecdotal evidence and unproven advice, Hoffeld’s evidence-based approach connects the dots between science and situations salespeople and business leaders face every day to help you consistently succeed, including proven ways to: - Engage buyers’ emotions to increase their receptiveness to you and your ideas - Ask questions that line up with how the brain discloses information - Lock in the incremental commitments that lead to a sale - Create positive influence and reduce the sway of competitors - Discover the underlying causes of objections and neutralize them - Guide buyers through the necessary mental steps to make purchasing decisions Packed with advice and anecdotes, The Science of Selling is an essential resource for anyone looking to succeed in today's cutthroat selling environment, advance their business goals, or boost their ability to influence others. **Named one of The 20 Most Highly-Rated Sales Books of All Time by HubSpot

THESE HABITS WILL MAKE YOU EXTRAORDINARY. Twenty years ago, author Brendon Burchard became obsessed with answering three questions: 1. Why do some individuals and teams succeed more quickly than others and sustain that success over the long term? 2. Of those who pull it off, why are some miserable and others consistently happy on their journey? 3. What motivates people to reach for higher levels of success in the first place, and what practices help them improve the most After extensive original research and a decade as the world’s leading high performance coach, Burchard found the answers. It turns out that just six deliberate habits give you the edge. Anyone can practice these habits and, when they do, extraordinary things happen in their lives, relationships, and careers. Which habits can help you achieve long-term success and vibrant well-being no matter your age, career, strengths, or personality? To become a high performer, you must seek clarity, generate energy, raise necessity, increase productivity, develop influence, and demonstrate courage. The art and science of how to do all this is what this book is about. Whether you want to get more done, lead others better, develop skill faster, or dramatically increase your sense of joy and confidence, the habits in this book will help you achieve it faster. Each of the six habits is illustrated by powerful vignettes, cutting-edge science, thought-provoking exercises, and real-world daily practices you can implement right now. If you’ve ever wanted a science-backed, heart-centered plan to living a better quality of life, it’s in your hands. Best of all, you can measure your progress. A link to a free professional assessment is included in the book.

In an age of telesales and digital selling, this award-winning business book pinpoints the ten skills essential to high-efficiency, high-success sales performance based on the author’s TeleSmart 10 System for Power Selling. Bestselling author and TeleSmart Communications president Josiane Feigon equips salespeople with the powerful tools they need to open stronger, build trust faster, handle objections better, and close more sales when dealing with customers they can’t see face-to-face. In Smart Selling on the Phone and Online, you’ll learn how to: overcome ten different forms of “paralysis” and reestablish momentum; sell in sound bites, not long-winded speeches; ask the right questions to reveal customer needs; navigate around obstacles to get to the power buyer; and prioritize and manage your time so that more of it is spent actually selling. The world of selling keeps changing, and sales professionals are on the front line of innovation to keep profits flowing. Combining an accessible text with clear graphics and step-by-step processes, Smart Selling on the Phone and Online will help any rep master the world of sales 2.0 and become a true sales warrior.

Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships-and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them. The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades. Based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale business-to-business solutions. The authors' study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one-the Challenger- delivers consistently high performance. Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their company and products, Challengers approach customers with unique insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale. The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. The authors explain how almost any average-performing rep, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers' expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.

** #8 on The Wall Street Journal best-selling business book list for September 13, 2014** Given the abundance of commercially available energy-saving technologies, talented technologists to apply them, and even generous rebates to help finance them, why in the world aren't more efficiency projects approved? Based on twenty years of experience influencing efficiency decision-making in more than three billion square feet of properties, this author concludes that many more projects would be approved if energy professionals were actually trained to "sell" rather than simply "promote" efficiency. Energy efficiency products, services and programs all require effective selling. Professional sales skills make you more successful at advancing any energy efficiency initiative, regardless of your role in the process. Moreover, you need to think of yourself as a sales professional even if your job title does not include the word "sales." This book contains more than 80 short essays, each of which examines a unique aspect of efficiency-focused professional selling. Many originally appeared on Jewell Insights, the Efficiency Sales Professional Institute's daily email and smartphone blog that offers drip-irrigation reinforcement of concepts borrowed from the award-winning, weeklong Efficiency Sales Professional Certificate Boot Camp. As of this writing, more than one thousand energy professionals had benefited from this training. Hundreds of testimonials confirm the link between efficiency-focused professional selling and increased sales success: higher closing ratios, shorter sales cycles, deeper retrofits, and more. So what does efficiency-focused professional selling look like? 1) The confidence to reframe the benefits of efficiency so that they can be measured with the yardsticks that prospects are already using to measure their success 2) A 15-second elevator pitch that is precisely tuned to a particular prospect's values 3) A one-page narrative proposal delineating efficiency targets, the rationale for change, financial projections, status, and action steps for moving forward 4) A one-page financial summary that offers a clear and compelling treatment of both "popular" and "proper" metrics 5) An ability and willingness to sell utility-cost-financial, non-utility-cost financial, and non-financial benefits 6) An ability to recognize and replace myths with the math and motivation that get projects approved. Whether you are a manufacturer, specifying engineer, contractor, utility program manager or account executive, third-party program implementer, eco-entrepreneur or any other energy-related professional or job-seeker, you are sure to benefit from the insights provided in this book."