Product Description

This book presents the powerful and proven Solution Selling[registered] process, updated for today's high-speed, higher-pressure sales challenges The original "Solution Selling" rewrote the rules for the sales profession. Today, the revolutionary yet practical Solution Selling method remains the primary selling process for salespeople competing in every industry around the world, and in every size of business - from the smallest firms to the largest Fortune 500 corporations. "The New Solution Selling" comprehensively updates this proven effective approach to help you succeed with today's no-nonsense markets and buyers.A practical guide designed to provide hands-on value to frontline salespeople as well as sales managers and executives, this step-by-step book shows you how to streamline the sales process by: understanding your buyers, their situations and, most importantly, their needs; supplying mutually defined solutions to your customers' recognized problems; gaining access to key decision makers; controlling the buying process; and, defining milestones that can be measured and forecasted. Solution Selling first won its well-earned reputation among technology companies. Now "The New Solution Selling" shows how the same principles and process may be applied to any business relationship in any industry.This results-based book will show you how to improve your sales performance by first understanding your customers' challenges - and then providing intelligent, accessible, and field-proven solutions to those challenges. 'We have put the principles of Solution Selling[registered] at the core of our selling process - helping all of our 5,000-strong sales professionals, and thousands of Microsoft's business partners, consistently apply proven sales principles to make a real difference to our customers and meet expectations. "The New Solution Selling" describes how top-performing salespeople behave, and how this behavior fosters success - for both the customer and the salesperson' - Kevin Johnson, Group VP Worldwide Sales, Marketing, and Services, Microsoft (From the Foreword).The sales profession has changed tremendously in the past decade. Buyers who once made time to discuss their problems now expect sales professionals to have the business acumen that's necessary to understand and diagnose those problems before they arrive. More importantly, these buyers will only listen to - and buy from - salespeople who can provide them with solutions that are both convincing and workable. "The New Solution Selling" shows how to apply the proven Solution Selling approach in the can't-stop-to-talk pace of today's business. The result is a logical and practical process for sales success, one that improves both individual productivity and organizational return on investment.This important book features: completely updated Solution Selling sales process, principles, and management systems for today's tough sales environment; new tools designed to increase the quality and velocity of sales pipeline opportunities; improved methods for overcoming the all-too-common situation when your product is not your buyer's first choice - or even their second; new techniques for dramatically improving your prospecting accuracy and success; and, effective strategies for shifting an organization's focus from product selling to Solution Selling - at every level, throughout every operation.The original edition of "Solution Selling" changed the face of selling by transforming the rules for one-to-one selling. "The New Solution Selling" focuses on streamlining the proven Solution Selling process by showing you how to quickly understand and address your buyers' problems, use your offerings to provide insightful and workable solutions to those problems, and dramatically decrease the time spent between initial qualification and a successful, profitable close.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31108 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 300 pages

From the Back Cover

The Powerful and Proven Solution Selling® Process, Updated for Today's High-Speed, Higher-Pressure Sales Challenges

The original Solution Selling rewrote the rules for the sales profession. Today, the revolutionary yet practical Solution Selling method remains the primary selling process for salespeople competing in every industry around the world, and in every size of business--from the smallest firms to the largest Fortune 500 corporations.

The New Solution Selling comprehensively updates this proven effective approach to help you succeed with today's no-nonsense markets and buyers. A practical guide designed to provide hands-on value to frontline salespeople as well as sales managers and executives, this step-by-step book shows you how to streamline the sales process by:

• Understanding your buyers, their situations and, most importantly, their needs
• Supplying mutually defined solutions to your customers' recognized problems
• Gaining access to key decision makers
• Controlling the buying process
• Defining milestones that can be measured and forecasted

Solution Selling first won its well-earned reputation among technology companies. Now The New Solution Selling shows how the same principles and process may be applied to any business relationship in any industry. This results-based book will show you how to improve your sales performance by first understanding your customers' challenges--and then providing intelligent, accessible, and field-proven solutions to those challenges.

"We have put the principles of Solution Selling® at the core of our selling process--helping all of our 5,000-strong sales professionals, and thousands of Microsoft's business partners, consistently apply proven sales principles to make a real difference to our customers and meet expectations. The New Solution Selling describes how top-performing salespeople behave, and how this behavior fosters success--for both the customer and the salesperson."

--Kevin Johnson, Group VP Worldwide Sales, Marketing, and Services, Microsoft (From the Foreword)

The sales profession has changed tremendously in the past decade. Buyers who once made time to discuss their problems now expect sales professionals to have the business acumen that's necessary to understand and diagnose those problems before they arrive. More importantly, these buyers will only listen to--and buy from--salespeople who can provide them with solutions that are both convincing and workable.

The New Solution Selling shows how to apply the proven Solution Selling approach in the can't-stop-to-talk pace of today's business. The result is a logical and practical process for sales success, one that improves both individual productivity and organizational return on investment. This important book features:

• Completely updated Solution Selling sales process, principles, and management systems for today's tough sales environment
• New tools designed to increase the quality and velocity of sales pipeline opportunities
• Improved methods for overcoming the all-too-common situation when your product is not your buyer's first choice--or even their second
• New techniques for dramatically improving your prospecting accuracy and success
• Effective strategies for shifting an organization's focus from product selling to Solution Selling--at every level, throughout every operation

The original edition of Solution Selling changed the face of selling by transforming the rules for one-to-one selling. The New Solution Selling focuses on streamlining the proven Solution Selling process by showing you how to quickly understand and address your buyers' problems, use your offerings to provide insightful and workable solutions to those problems, and dramatically decrease the time spent between initial qualification and a successful, profitable close.

About the Author

Keith Eades is the founder, president, and CEO of Sales Performance International, one of today's foremost sales performance organizations. Eades and his associates have trained more than 500,000 sales and sales management professionals--from client companies including Microsoft, IBM, AT&T, Bank of America, and more--on the principles and practices of Solution Selling. The author of a number of influential books on sales and sales performance, he is also an internationally renowned speaker and presenter.

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Customer Reviews

The definitive process for selling at the top
At first glance, this looks like a cumbersome, process-driven set of rules for selling high-value products and services. It is actually very effective.

Whilst I think it would be perfect if you sell just a few multi-million pound solutions with a sales cycle of a year or more, it is also relevant to salespeople involved in five and six figure transactions.

It is a very well-defined process with a number of `job aids' (forms) to help you analyse and keep track of everything. If you work on the basis that you don't need to complete every piece of paper for every opportunity, the basic premise is extremely valuable: keep control of the sale all the way through; rather than pass it to the buyer.

It also forced me to raise my game, discard some unproductive behaviours (like working on proposals for poorly qualified prospects) and focus on `selling the way buyers buy'.

For a complex sale in a political environment where decisions may be made by panels and competitive evaluations are the norm, this book is invaluable. Working out if you're `Column A' in the evaluation or `Column Fodder' is, in itself, a hugely valuable part of this process.

Two other nuggets I took from this were: focus on how success will be measured and present a `value justification' alongside your proposal pricing to demonstrate ROI (and combat cheaper competitors); and produce an Evaluation Plan for a prospect, saying `here's how you can judge if we'll provide the right solution for you and here are all the go/no go gateways we'll pass through together before you finally commit to implement'. Whilst this is a little out of my comfort zone it certainly does keep you in control and I've had many examples from colleagues that it's highly effective.

To pull everything together the book ends with a `Getting Started' section that helps to implement these ideas. To complement Solution Selling, I'd also recommend Paul DiModica's `Value Forward Selling: How to Sell to Management' as a very practical guide to operating at top level.

The Ultimate Sales Process ?
I generally avoid sales books - they can be patronising and promise the earth without delivering content. This book is different - it is a straightforward step by step sales process. It is full of content and provides lots of ideas and sales tools to plan and monitor your sales process. It is well written and full of great thinking. Be aware though it is a sales process, aimed at big ticket sales. It is clearly written in a no nonsense style. It is not a sales motivation piece; and it is not full of psychological tricks; or double-back-loop closing techniques. I like it for that reason. It aims to make selling a well planned and managed logical profession, not some black art for over-slick wide boys (and girls). Many of the tools and ideas can be adapted to suit smaller businesses too. Recommended if you want a well structured sales process for your business.

Packed With Knowledge!
This is a useful guide to one of the hottest subjects in sales: selling solutions, not products. Author Keith M. Eades offers a methodical, step-by-step approach to implementing a conversational approach to selling. The principles underlying "solution selling" are simple and straightforward, and the process is hard to fault, although it demands a great deal of record keeping and charting. The author's explanation of the procedures gets a bit mechanical and jargon-riddled at times. But on the whole, we believe every salesperson is apt to find something of value in this book, even if it's a reminder of what once was known but has been forgotten.