Customer Reviews

Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It wasn't until I read this book that I felt anything positive about being in "sales". I had done it in my past and I was about to do it again and thank god for this book or I'd still be uncomfortable and tossing and turning in my sleep.

We need a new word, "sales", as this book so aptly puts it, is something you do to someone else. You "sell" them on something. Nobody wants to be sold, we all avoid salespeople and we all feel stupid selling other people on something. And those who do enjoy "selling" someone are almost always in pursuit of their own "victory", oif beating the other person into buying from them, overcoming obstacles, leaping hurdles and getting the BIG CLOSE.

They aren't really focused on the other person, an urge I sometimes fall prey to myself. Our culture makes competition and personal victories very seductive, it is what we talk about, sports teams are rarely congratulated on their effort or fine play unless they win. We view so many things as black and white, which is not natural, throughout human history you can see cooperation as a dominant and prudent way to survive and thrive, not competition (see a dense, but brilliant book on this "Nonzero : The Logic of Human Destiny" by Robert Wright). Sales is a no-win game for everyone.

Maybe there isn't any word, the "trick", the "gimmick" that this book extols is genuiness, simply being real, if you will. You meet someone, you listen, you ask some good questions so that you understand them well and what they are trying to accomplish, if you think there might be a way that you or your company can help them you offer it to them, if not, you wish them well and part graciously.

What is that? Being human? Being real? "being real" has a vaguely cheesy sound to it too, my only complaint about this book is it's title which can turn people off before they even open it. Again maybe there is no word. Many of us will simply go out and meet people and listen well and feel good about what we are doing and be personally successful as well...or are those the same thing anyway :-)

The real value of this book is some excellent exercises you can do in a meeting with someone, things to really challenge you to break out of old patterns, very, very deeply ingrained patterns.

There are literally thousands of books on selling and most leave you with the feeling that you need to shower after you have read them. This one does not. Lets get real has a reality about it and a discussion of a simple process that reenforces all the things you knew about selling. The book hits the right blend of anedotal stories -- so you can see how it would apply to you and discussion of the process elements -- so you can figure out how to apply it yourself. This is no Zig Ziglar book -- this is something I want to conciously try to use every time.

The book is very clearly written and highly usable, breaking each aspect of the approach into small digestable chunks. Its something you can read and more importantly re-read/refresh yourself easily.

There is one limitation of the book. It seems to be geared more toward longer multiple call sales cycles, rather than transaction selling. At least that is the way I read it. I could not see my local car dealer selling this way -- although I wish they would.

This book is one that is going into my frequently read shelf. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to build commercial relationship with a client.

This work is available as both a book, a set of 6 CDs and apparently as a single CD. I have both the book and the 6 CD set.

I found the CDs to be absolutely fantastic. The book is a great reference after the CDs, but if I had read the book instead of the CDs, I would have lost out on a lot. When I read the book, it feels, well, typical. But when I listen to Mahan speak, it is riveting. I myself am considered a strong speaker, and am very critical of others abilities, so I do not say this lightly. The first CD is the hardest to listen to, but after that, it is GREAT.

The CDs taught me how to go from a problem statement or solution idea and quantify how we will show success against that once we implement our idea. Many of you may have a technique already that can take you from a problem to a set of measures that can show improvement, but I did not.

The funny thing is that I am not really into sales. Yet this book is one of my best tools in my kit. Not for sales, but for DEPLOYING solutions and managing complex projects. It's guidance is extremely useful in requirements management and scope management for any project imaginable. It helps the team show the customer we are interested in their success more than in their list of features, and to ensure that what we are building truly adds value. If you have ever experienced scope creep or requirements volatility, these CDs have techniques to help.

I strongly recommend this CD set to anyone who needs to prove the value of a solution, especially if they don't yet have a technique to do so.

As a final thought, here is a great story:

A client had one of the CDs in her car which she had bought on my recommendation. Her husband borrowed the car and the CD came on. He was confused, but immediately found himself sucked in due to Mahan's excellent speaking ability. He got to work with all these ideas in his head and went to a high powered meeting (for which he was the ranking executive). He apparently used the techniques he had just learned and was able to solve some serious problems and close a huge deal that they'd been struggling with for days. When he got home he said to his wife, "what is that CD in your car?" Needless to say, he listened to the whole set too.

Let's Get Real provides the reader with a fairly focused application of the 7 habits principles to the *science* of selling. The primary benefit to the reader is a change in perspective toward a consultitative sales approach, suitable for large scale transactions. I found the book primarily helpful in improving qualification processes. It helps provide a foundation for helping sales people do the homework that all good sale people ought to be doing. *No Guessing* is a central theme that rings with reality. This is not a how-to, but rather a *here's why.* I thought it sufficiently insightful that I purchased one for each of my team members.

This book is a definite must for those who are selling the intangibles of services to clients. Khalsa is blunt and too the point. For example: "There is no guessing." He makes it very clear that we must drill down with our questions to find out exactly what the client/customer needs by way of solutions.

By using the acronym "ORDER," which stands for Opportunity, Resources, Decision Process, Exact Solution, and Relationship, Khalsa takes us through the logical development of a truly consultative selling process. The relationship with the customer becomes the engine that makes this process go - seeking to understand before trying to be understood. "If they say it it's gold. If you say it, it's sold." And nobody likes to be sold.

Khalsa also uses the metaphor of green, yellow, and red lights to explain how to know when to stop and question more deeply. His point is to find out early in the game if the prospect is real - otherwise, don't play. Khalsa goes over some of the usual techniques for obtaining information (Match and lead, feeling questions, etc.), but does so in a very conversational style.

I decided to also listen to the audio tapes of this book. The author read the excerpted book and it was very interesting to hear how he emphasized different points. I found it very instructive to hear Khalsa's take on his own work and to hear the author's voice. It wound up actually clarifying some of the portions of the book which I at first found to be a bit different from my own sales training. All in all, this will be a welcomed addition to my library.

I have worked with Mahan for many years and funded some of his early work in teaching others the magic of his process. We used the concepts covered in this book to teach our professionals how to elicit customer input on needs, etc. The consulting group grew rapidly and now employs over 5000 professionals. Quite a testimony to Mahan's incredible teaching ability and the concepts covered in this book!

-

I have listened again and again to Khalsa's tapes. Not only are the principles and techniques useful (no guessing, stop at yellow lights, how to get to the heart of the matter), you really feel like he's talking one on one to you, not just reading the book out loud. I'm buying extra copies for my sales team.

The contents of this book have provided me with the most practical applications to sales I have ever read. For professionals who are involved in large complex consultative sales it is a masterpiece. The book and its contents may provide less value for small uncomplicated transactional sales (or commodity based products). Any person committed to educating themselves on the philosophy and practice of this material will quantum leap their overall sales and consulting effectiveness as it has mine. Thank you Mr. Khalsa

While it is true that this book will assist you in helping your clients become more successful, it does something more personal. It helps yourself become even more polished and professional. If I had to reflect on a true consultant's guide and considered the dozens of print literature I have read on sales consulting, this book is the best. It is easy to follow and offers a unique message to those who are a student to the game of selling. Anyone who claims that he/she is serious about their sales profession and has not read this book is, in the end, not serious about their career.

In Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play, Mahan Khalsa presents a well thought out and carefully explained approach to ethical selling. The book teaches sellers how to help clients succeed, so that the buy/sell environment becomes a win/win situation, instead of an environment where one party wins and the other loses.

This book is congruent with TrustBuild Program philosophy and principles, and it contains a wealth of valuable information. Particularly useful are Khalsa's examples of verbal give and take between sellers and buyers, which show how a seller can keep a meeting moving forward positively, without manipulating the buyer.

Khalsa clearly has the consulting industry in mind, and many of his discussions draw on experiences from that environment. Even so, sellers of complex products will find much of value in the book.

Author Mahan Khalsa observes early in Let's Get Real... that "...sales has often become a fear-based relationship. Customers are afraid they will be "sold" a bill of goods ... Salespeople fear they won't make the sale."

These fears, he says, lead to a dysfunctional situation where buyers institute policies to protect themselves from sellers and sellers wish to protect themselves from being used by buyers.

Khalsa wants sellers to break this "vicious, downward cycle. His prescription: "...be authentic, ...be truthful, ...say what you mean, ...be congruent with what you value." In short, get real.

He believes that sellers and buyers share an important interest - both want a solution that truly meets the client's needs. He reasons that "not buying ... is not the worst that can happen. Worse is if they buy our solution and then figure out it doesn't meet their needs. Then we either spend all our profits and more trying to make it right, or we have an unhappy client."

In Let's Get Real..., Mahan Khalsa presents an approach to sales that is congruent with the TrustBuild philosophy and principles. In addition, the book contains specific examples that support Khalsa's recommendations and demonstrate how to put them into practice.

The book is clearly oriented toward the complex services market and will be most valuable to those in consulting businesses. Those who sell complex products will also benefit from reading this book, but they may have to modify some of the recommendations to make them appropriate for their market. Those in transactional sales will probably not find this book as worthwhile.

Robert Reed
President
TrustBuild