Customer Reviews

Making the Technical Sale: Real World Training for the Successful Sales Consultant

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

 

 

I have only read the first four chapters (book in hand as of tonight...) and skipped around to get an over all impression of this text. All in all, I am impressed. While this is not a sales training manual, it focuses on the role of a Sales Consultant as the book calls the position. This is something that is fresh in the sales guide realm. I have personally attended over 1000 hours of sales training, been a sales trainer and sales manager, I chose to move into the role of Sales Consultant because I like playing with all the toys, being a technical authority, and because I like creating vision around products I believe in. Having had a sales background and a career change about 7 years ago into technical fields, I have a passion for selling and technology. I finally have found a book that seems to accurately describe what I do and help me become more effective in my current career. While I may not use every paradigm in the book, I have not found anything in here that I won't use, unlike many other Sales products on the market today. Read this book, if you are a sales person who relies on a pre-sales person, buy it for him or her, you will be the one reaping the rewards. If you are a manager of Pre-Sales, this might be the best tool you have to train new staff. HR folks might be able to use this to define the roles they are trying to fill. Perhaps you might not use everything, but without doubt, if it applies to what you do, you will come away with much more than you might think.

I came to the "Sales Consultant" position from technical engineering background with no sales experience and have found this book very informative and helpful in my new carrier. If you are involved in pre-sales engineering, this book should accompany you as a resource wherever you go. This material is so valuable for sales consultants I quite honestly believe anyone who is in or thinking about getting into sales consulting should read this book!

I came to the "Sales Consultant" position from consulting, and before that I was a developer. Regardless of the position, if you are involved in pre-sales, this book should accompany you as a resource wherever you go. What has taken me countless trial and error was covered in the first few pages. My only complaint is that I'd like to have seen a summary of the material at te end of each chapter - there's just too much good info in each page to remember it all. This material is so valuable for sales consultants that I'm quite honestly at a loss for words to describe it. So, you're next click should be on the purchase button.

An easy read which effectively identifies the keys to being successful as a technical consultant / systems engineer within a sales team. It effectively discussed the challenges of professional sales of high-tech products with software content.

Of note:
- The Technology Life Cycle is discussed, and the roles of the Technical, Economic, and End-User buyers during the cycle.
- Objection handling is discussed: Philosophical , Feature, and Benefit objections.
- The Seven Deadly Sins are discussed: Lying, Arrogance, Overconfidence, Lack of Organization, Taking the AEs role, Poor Transitions, Letting External Problems intrude.

I have encouraged this as recommended reading within my company.

Based on the reviews, I expected more. If you want a checklist of the most rudimentary things a sales consultant or S.E. should know - this is a good source. While I doubt anyone could argue with any of the things the authors say, most of what they say is so obvious and non-debatable that the question is - was it worth saying?

If you are a new sales rep, you will find this book a realistic (if wordy) guide to the activities & challenges you will face in selling a technical product. If you are a marketer, you will learn more about the tasks, issues & roadblocks your sales reps deal with every day. Both types of readers will benefit from reading the chapter "Eight Challenging Prospects."

An excellent text for Sales Engineers, Product Managers, and related job titles. This book provides a good roadmap to help understand the key aspects of the technical sales process. A chapter on demonstrations offers some basics to help get organized for a new practitioner.

A friend recently moved from being a technical engineer to the role of sales consultant, and I recommended this book to him, and decided to put in a review to recommend it to others as well. I read this book a while ago and found it to be exactly what it claims to be. It explains the stages of a typical technical sales process, whether it be some trendy enterprise software, databases, or any other technical product. In the process it clearly identifies the different responsibilities between the roles of sales person, and technical sales consultant, which can be a bit confusing sometimes for someone new in the role. Also it goes into typical pit-falls and tricky situations and explains how to handle them. Some parts, e.g. utilities mentioned, are a little out dated, but the principles are still the same today, and I recommend it to anyone who is new to technical presales.

I have been a sales engineer (SE) for a major telecom equipment vendor selling to a billion dollar customer for about five years. I spent fifteen plus years deep within the development lab never really even seeing a customer let alone selling successfully to one. This book does a good job covering all the bases for SEs. I wish I had read it in the beginning of my career as an SE, and would recommend it to anyone who is an SE or considering becoming one. Even for very seasoned SEs, there are techniques in effectively speaking to the customer that would likely make the book well worth reviewing.

As a seasoned sales professional coming from a lightly technical background, I had hoped that this book (although targeted to technical folks in a light selling capacity) would provide some insight divergent from a traditional industry. As such, it completely missed the mark. Indeed, I am not sure that it would be well worth it for its intended audience. It is not at all useful in 'making' the technical sale in the least. However, it might serve a purpose for engineers and other technical types in understanding the business component of their respective industry. With some modification to the text, I would retitle the book, 'Why do sales and business people do that?'.