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Buying Facilitation. The new way to sell that influences & expands decisions. Sharon Drew Morgen.2003. ISBN 0964355302.  This New York Times best selling author was a recent discovery,  via Steve Flashman.

This  is an insightful look at sales qualification, as we’ve known it. She believes that there are actually two aspects to sales - first the product placement end, and then the buying decision end; We’ve always assumed that buyers understood their needs, were ready to buy, and we the sales team only needed to understand pain and solution issues. i.e. the buying decision end. Up to now we may have ignored the product placement front end.

In this simple book, Sharon Drew Morgen breaks down those things that buyers go through before they are ready/willing to buy or fix their problem.  This book tells you where they go and what they are doing, while you are waiting for their response . She describes where buyers go when they say ‘I’ll call you back’ and what is taking so long, and gives insights into ways to greatly diminish the sales cycle (hint:it’s about their internal decision making issues),

This book explains Morgen Buying Facilitation Method(R) that is a decision facilitation approach to teach buyers how to line up all of the internal decisions they need to make, before introducing the product and solution.   Sales has up to now not had the tools to help manage the very front end of the sales equation.  If you want to become one of the top 5% sales people , while  serving the customer better than you are today,  buy this easy to read book.

Because she does not agree with the main stream “this is just the way sales is ” mindset , her writings have not been picked up as much as they could be.  This is not a cookie cutter process she describes and it still requires a strong dedication to your learning process. This lady has shown us a better way to gain an early understanding of the buyers process.   This is another big step on the way  to prevent much of the waste we see in selling.

You can pick up a copy here.

She has lots of content on her website www.newsalesparadigm.com

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Marketing for Construction. Steve Flashman. 2008.  e-book.  The title is correct, yet this is also a very good introduction to sales oriented marketing for people new to the game or  who just want to know more.  I really enjoyed this book and found lots of depth in it.  From his 101 marketing ideas through to his analysis of the evolution of sales approaches, the book is well thought out, well written and refreshing.  His section on lead research questions and partnering are relevant to every field.  It has a distinct UK focus with lots of detail about that construction market, but do not let that stop  you from purchasing this.  I am going to follow up on his analysis of the LEED style an applications to all manners of building “green”  He talks about applying lean thinking to marketing and I am especially intrigued by this.

You can learn more at www.ontheboxmarketing.com
Click Here!

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Stop acting like a seller and Start Thinking Like a Buyer. Jerry Acuff & Wally Wood. 2007. ISBN 9780470068342.  From his first questions through to the examples and stories, the author immediately takes you to a very real place in the selling world.  This easy to read, insightful and hard hitting book is so far my Book of the Year for sales people. If you want to truly succeed  at todays sales game - get and read this book above all else.  If you don’t , then quit reading now - life is just  going to be too tough for you.  In his words ( wish I had written these) “great salesmen inform, involve, engage and provoke thought”.  “People will buy what they want not what you think they need”  “You are trying to see if your product is a fit for what they want.” Acuff blows the accepted  statements about sales out the window, showing you how to really prepare for each call, to setup for success or a quick no.  He leads you to understand that this is a sales conversation not ever a sales call.

A great insight on the changing nature of sales leads to day- which we well know of.  Prospects, when in their research, knowledge pursuit stage do not want to be “called on’ , trial sold or pursuaded.  They want information and to learn.  Later when ready, they may engage you (if you made the short list)  and they want you to have done as much homework on them as they have done on you- to be able to get right down to “what are you and your products going to do for me?”  They do not want to sit down and discuss with every salesmen their problems, pains etc. There is no time for this and expect you to do this on your own. So when your website indicates a new lead - the worst thing your sales team could do is to rush and call them up - does sales really know what they are getting into?. Of course not.

Gotta love this stuff!

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Topgrading for Sales. World-class methods to Interview, Hire, and Coach Top Sales Representatives.  Bradford D. Smart &  Greg Alexander. 2008. ISBN 9781591842064.  Stats from this book:  In the USA the national failure rate in the sales profession is 40% which is also the annual turnover/ termination rate.  The life of a sales manager is 19 months.  The cost of a sales mis hire is easily $600 000, which translates into a mis hires annually in the US of about 8  million people annually ( or 8million  * $600k = ?) . Alexander teamed up with Smart to bring top grading to Sales.  While at GE, Alexander did wonders with this approach. He strive to only hire the top 5 % of the sales guys. This book contains everything you want to know on how to do this.  Lots of very very useful advice here.  My only  concern is for those of us in small regional markets like Canada etc, how big is that 5% pool?  Not very, so what is a smaller co to do?  I think there are great ideas here on how to hire better people which will make your management  tasks that much easier. If you have to take folks as they come, you will know out of the gate that some of them are going to take lots of your resources in order to be successful   The gem for me was the idea of having a virtual bench, ie knowing who in your market you woudl like ot have working for you that are not, nurturing reltionships so that when you need fresh faces in the filed you have a connectors/prospects  bench to go to. Lots of work, but it is a valid idea.  Every Sales manager should have this one on their shelf.

Rain Making. 2nd Ed. Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field. Ford Harding. 2008. I read ed.1 in 1995 and found it a terrific resource. Ed.2 has been completely rewritten with much new material, so it is a essentially new book. Every client I work with has service as a significant part of their revenue. This book is the definitive guide to sales and marketing of services. It is clearly written, making it an easy read, but there is so much pragmatic material on measuring and implementing these tested and true ideas, that this should be your revenue bible. Buy it, read it, and keep it close.

Also check out Ford’s site and blog

groundswell. winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff. 2008. ISBN 9781422125007. This is the seminal book on using social networking tools today. Forrester and these two authors have done the rest of us a terrific favour by putting this book (and blog http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/) together. This goes well beyond detailing how the tools are used by major companies, by closing the loop on how best to implement, with lessons learned and some of the red flags illustrated. It is on one book a blueprint of change I loved two comments - Your brand is whatever your customers say it is ( Its not about you) and Caterina Fake’s description of the “culture of generosity” (Ie why people add and edit content for free). I really enjoyed it and could not put the book down!

It was mentioned awhile back that many sales organizations/professionals have a problem when customers self-serve on the Web and enter the sales process further along then they are used to. A “cookie -cutter” response and the resultant adjustments to this were described in Marketing Plans for Service Businesses , by Professor Malcolm McDonald

One-to-one communications and principles of relationship marketing,
then, demand a radically different sales process from that traditionally
practised in service organizations. This point is far from academic, as an
example will illustrate.

The company in question provides business-to-business financial services.
Its marketing managers relayed to us their early experience with a
website which was enabling them to reach new customers considerably
more cost-effectively than their traditional sales force. When the website
was first launched, potential customers were finding the company on the
Web, deciding the products were appropriate on the basis of the website,
and sending an email to ask to buy. So far, so good.

But stuck in the traditional model of the sales process, the company
would allocate the ‘lead’ to a salesperson, who would telephone and make
an appointment, perhaps three weeks hence. The customer would by now
probably have moved on to another online supplier who could sell the product
today, but those that remained were subjected to a sales pitch, complete
with glossy materials, which was totally unnecessary, the customer having
already decided to buy. Those that were not put off would proceed to be
registered as able to buy over the Web, but the company had lost the opportunity
to improve its margins by using the sales force more judiciously.

In time, the company realized its mistake, and changed its sales model
and reward systems to something close to our ‘interaction perspective’
model. Unlike those prospects which the company proactively identified
and contacted, which might indeed need ‘selling’ to, many new Web customers
were initiating the dialogue themselves, and simply required
the company to respond effectively and rapidly. The sales force were
increasingly freed up to concentrate on major clients and on relationship
building.
The changing nature of the sales process clearly raises questions for the
design of marketing communication, such as: Who initiates the dialogue,
and how do we measure the effectiveness of our attempts to do so across
multiple channels? How do we monitor the effectiveness not just of what
we say to customers but what they say back? And how about the role of
marketing communications as part of the value that is being delivered and
paid for, not just as part of the sales cost?

Thanks to Simon Backer for telling me about Professor McDonald this AM.