The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell [Hardcover]

Keith M. Eades (Author), Keith Eades (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2003

THE MARKET-PROVEN PRINCIPLES OF SOLUTION SELLING FOR TODAY'S HIGH-SPEED, HIGHER-PRESSURE SALES ENVIRONMENT

The long-awaited sequel to Solution Selling, one of history's most popular selling guides

Nearly 10 years ago, the influential bestseller Solution Selling literally rewrote the rules for selling big-ticket, long-cycle products. The New Solution Selling expands the classic text's cases, examples, and situations and sharpens its focus on streamlining the sales process to achieve greater success in fewer steps and a shorter time frame. Much in sales has changed in the past decade, and The New Solution Selling incorporates those changes into an integrated, tailored approach for improving both individual productivity and organizational return on investment. Written to enhance the results and careers of sales pros and managers in virtually any industry, this performance-focused book features:

• A completely revamped, updated sales philosophy,management system, and architecture
• Tools to increase the quality and velocity of sales pipeline opportunities
• Techniques that "Best of the Best" use to prospect for success

Solution Selling created new rules for one-to-one selling of hard-to-sell items. The New Solution Selling focuses on streamlining the proven Solution Selling process and quickly differentiating both oneself and one's products from the competition while decreasing the time spent between initial qualifying and a successful, profitable close.

Editorial Reviews

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 2 edition (November 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071435395
• ISBN-13: 978-0071435390
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #96 in Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Sales & Selling

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Significant Contribution, March 17, 2005

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell (Hardcover)

Another book about sales? By now, what could possibly be "new"? Indeed, over the years, there have been many brilliant books written about the art and science of salesmanship. For example, Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling, Michael Bosworth's Solution Selling and CustomerCentric Selling as well as Stephen E. Heiman and Diana Sanchez's The New Strategic Selling and The New Conceptual Selling®. This volume clearly deserves to be included among them.

According to Eades, "Solution Selling" is a sales process which consists of a philosophy (the customer is the focal point), a map (how to get from where you are to where you want to be), a methodology (it includes tools, job aids, techniques, and procedures to succeed), and a sales management system (by which to analyze pipelines, qualify opportunities, and coach skills). Thus summarized, "Solution Selling" may seem to many, especially those with years of sales experience, to be simplistic. In fact, Eades offers some thought-provoking and unorthodox perspectives on what is seldom (if ever) simple: Persuading a sufficient number of people to buy whatever you offer for sale and then continue to do so, and at a margin sufficient to ensure sustainable profitability for your organization. Amazon and Borders offer this volume for sale in combination with Bosworth's book of the same title. Yes, there is much common material but also significant differences which reveal themselves when both Bosworth's book and then Eades's book are read in sequence.

FYI, I am among those who believe that (a) marketing and sales are separate but interdependent areas of activity, and (b) directly or indirectly, everyone within a given organization should be involved in both. With his material carefully organized within five Parts, Eades explains "Solution Selling" concepts; how to create new opportunities (e.g. "Diagnosing Before You Prescribe"); how to engage in active opportunities (e.g. "Selling When You Are Not First"), how to gain access to people with power, control the selling process, and close; and how to manage the sales process (e.g. "Creating and Sustaining High Performance Sales Cultures." Once marketing initiatives have created or increased demand for what is offered, the sale must then be made. Literally [in italics] everyone [end italics] within a given organization can and should -- directly or indirectly -- support marketing and sales initiatives.

Of course, it remains for each reader to determine which of Eades's ideas are most relevant, and, how best to apply them within a given competitive environment. However, I presume to offer a concluding word of caution: Make certain that you have a [in italics] repeatable, integrated sales execution process [end italics] rather than a grab bag of disconnected, often contradictory ideas about sales. When a horse is designed by a committee, the result frequently does resemble a camel.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Solution Selling Draws a Sales Map, January 16, 2007

By 

Julie Johnson, Ph.D. (NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell (Hardcover)

The New Solution Selling by Keith Eades is definitely worth reading. This book is destined to become a classic and will be sitting on my bookshelf next to Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling. If you are a seasoned sales professional, this book will help you examine your existing sales process and look at areas that could be refined in order to increase your sales productivity. If you are new to sales, this book provides an excellent process that will help you "ramp-up" quickly. If you read Eade's original Solution Selling book, you will find that this book is updated and supplies some new concepts.

The New Solution Selling states that the formula for success is: Pain x Power x Vision x Value x Control = Sale. While the formula is deceptively simple, the implementation can be rather complex. This book helps salespeople focus on the customer's "pain" and stresses the importance of providing a solution that not only stops the pain, but also adds value. Eades makes this process manageable by providing readers with a logical, well thought out plan, supplemented with many "real-life" and fictitious examples. This is accomplished through by a method that consists of (1) a philosophy (the customer is the focal point), (2) a map (getting from where you are to where you want to be) , (3) a methodology (with tools, job aids, techniques and procedures), and (4) a sales management system (process to increase productivity).

Eades maintains that salespeople often "say" they provide solutions, but in reality, they simply provide a product. The New Solution Selling focuses on understanding the underlying causes of customer problems, instead of the symptoms. Consequently, a correct "diagnosis" must be made before the salesperson "prescribes" a solution. Solution Selling provides several models to help salespeople isolate the "pain" by examining the interdependence of the key players within the buying organization.

Once salespeople understand the pain, they must explore the impact of that pain and create a buying vision. One problem in developing needs and creating a vision is that salespeople often do not know what questions to ask. Eades provides a "Pain Sheet" to help salespeople develop situational knowledge of customers and their business. This is accomplished through investigating three key areas: (1) diagnose reasons, (2) explore impact and (3) visualizing capabilities by asking open questions, control questions and confirm questions.

In the past, Solution Selling focused on strategies dealing with opportunities for buyers who were not actively looking for a solution. Now, it has been enhanced to assist salespeople dealing with customers who are actively looking. Eades maintains that when a customer is actively looking, but you are not the one who helped create the vision, your chances of winning that sale are only 10%. He provides strategies to deal with these types of customers and also stresses the importance of being willing to walk away from the opportunity.

Overall, The New Solution Selling is an excellent book for both the novice and experienced salesperson. It provides a road map for the sales process and helps ensure that the path the salesperson takes is the one that leads to a sale. I'd highly recommend reading this book.

41 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So what's "New"?, December 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell (Hardcover)

It's a re-write of the original classic by Michael T. Bosworth. It's the same old information in the same old format. The only "new" thing is the case study thread has changed. Why waste your time reading a knock off when you can read the original book by the ACTUAL creator of the material.

Does this author have no morals? How can you regurgitate someone else's ideas and get away with it? In school you get an "F" for plagiarism. In the business world you should lose your credibility when passing someone else's work off as your own!

If you are going to buy a book on Solution Selling, why not buy the original/classic version by the man who invented it. The process is great it works well, but I would not waste my money on a "new" version that has NO NEW CONTENT.