Customer Reviews

I.T. Sales Boot Camp: Sure-Fire Techniques for Selling Technology Products to Mainstream Companies

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Help! Can we get a real review here? 5 Stars by everyone and each happens to be in a major city geographically spread out across the country. New York, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, and Seattle. Hmm, where are the ones from San Diego and Miami? No specific details in any review, and each way too "flowery" and "salesy".

Here is one from Binghamton, NY.

"I just don't believe it. Too good to be true. I read every book and every book review as part of my job. It's my job to be cynical. I may actually review the book and provide real examples of meat or sewage rather than try to sell the book or Giese's seminar to you. Overall, the other reviews are good sales fluff absent of any benefits tied to direct examples."

Recently I had the opportunity to interview for a sale position with a much respected software company. A few days before the interview I had just finished reading I.T. Sales Boot Camp. The concept and fundamental ideals of selling in an I.T. arena that were taught and express in the book enabled me to land the job. I believe that the knowledge that I gain from I.T.Sales Boot Camp made the different in my interview.

Brian Giese provides a refreshing and practical framework to approach selling from both a strategic and tactical point of view. I was pleasantly surprised at this books content given its name I.T. Sales Boot Camp but, like a general, a salesperson must first master the art of planning his/her forces before being able to approach a customer or prospect effectively.

Giese rightly recommends that his audience thinks about his ten key elements to consider in a complex selling. The ten elements are the following: mapping the battleground, assembling a pursuit team, preparing for the attach, getting to the CXO, creating value, questioning, proposal writing, competition, account management, and channel sales. Although the reader may first consider this process a chore, they will derive a lot of value from it by internalizing the author's framework.

Giese correctly reminds his audience that the salesperson needs to have a broad understanding of his/her competition. Competition includes not only direct competitive offerings, but also customer/prospect's options such as doing nothing, in sourcing, or resources reallocation for other purpose. Furthermore, Giese recommends that his audience adopt a strategy of focusing first on customer/prospect's "wants" and not on a narrowly defined competition.

With a little bit of practice, the framework described above may become second nature and allow the audience to eventually use it in a multitude of settings. For example, applying for a job is often similar to complex selling. The job seeker needs to make a mutually beneficial value proposition not only to the hiring manager(s), but also to the assistant (s), the receptionist and any other relevant persons who can make a difference in hiring him/her or not. Similarly, a software salesperson could use the above-mentioned framework to organize and deploy sales resources within his/her organization.

This book does an excellent job in teaching the keys of IT sales. The author has worked for Novell and other big technology companies, and he reflects that with good examples of several sales situations during the negotiation phase. You should have this if you want to achieve million dollar quotas.

There's also another book out there called "How To Sell Technology" by a guy called DiModico. It's ok for people with no experience in sales that want explanations of the basic sales processes, people types and all that stuff. Best wishes for your sales careers.

As opposed to most "hot new" sales approaches which focus on changing your personal style, this book does a great job of providing a strategic step-by-step plan from A-Z. It's void of fluff and gets right to the point of outlining the nuts and bolts of the process including pre-sales planning, performance tracking, maintaining growth, and writing proposals. It's worth reading in general and especially for those migrating into tech sales.

I love this book. My career history includes selling both consulting services and CRM software. Amazingly this book has a methodology that works for both. I have held different roles as project/practice leader, account manager and presales technical support. Giese's positioning techniques apply for each of these roles. I seriously thought about not reviewing this book in fear that my competitors would begin to apply these practices, but it is too good of a book not to share. So share I will. This book tells it like it is and then some. Get it, read it and then read it again.

I love this book. My career history includes selling both consulting services and CRM software. Amazingly Giese's book has a methodology that works for both. I have held different roles as practice leader, account manager and presales consultant. His positioning techniques apply for each of these roles. I thought about not reviewing this in fear that my competitors would begin to apply these practices, but it is too good of a book not to share. Read it, and then read it again.

This is a great method for people who don't want to consider themselves "salespeople", but who indeed sell. Engineers, high-tech products sales consultants, and other professionals, will find this to be a low pressure, ethics-based approach to selling. I call it "the engineers approach" to sales because it provides such a methodological approach. For the professional salesperson, it puts into a repeatable process what they have been doing instinctively. But why leave it to chance?

I love this book. My career history includes selling both consulting services and CRM software. Amazingly Giese's book has a methodology that works for both. I have held different roles as practice leader, account manager and presales consultant. His positioning techniques apply for each of these roles. I thought about not reviewing this in fear that my competitors would begin to apply these practices, but it is too good of a book not to share. Read it, and then read it again.

This book does an excellent job in teaching the keys of IT sales. The author has worked for Novell and other big technology companies, and he reflects that with good examples of several sales situations during the negotiation phase. You should have this if you want to achieve million dollar quotas.

There's also another book out there called "How To Sell Technology" by a guy called DiModico. It's ok for people with no experience in sales that want explanations of the basic sales processes, people types and all that stuff. Best wishes for your sales careers.