Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book offers some nontraditional and thought-provoking perceptions on selling solutions, not products. The step-by-step approach to implementing a conversational method to selling that is presented allows the salesperson to focus on streamlining the sales process and achieving greater success in fewer steps. Any salesperson should find value in this book.

This is a useful guide to one of the hottest subjects in sales: selling solutions, not products. Author Keith M. Eades offers a methodical, step-by-step approach to implementing a conversational approach to selling. The principles underlying "solution selling" are simple and straightforward, and the process is hard to fault, although it demands a great deal of record keeping and charting. The author's explanation of the procedures gets a bit mechanical and jargon-riddled at times. But on the whole, we believe every salesperson is apt to find something of value in this book, even if it's a reminder of what once was known but has been forgotten.

In my business humor book, "A Job Ain't Nothing But Work," I made a joke about everyone selling solutions these days. "My wife won't give me any. Got a solution for that?" But in the new book "The New Solution Selling," solutions are all business. It begins with a clear definition of what a solution selling is: "a system of methods that includes tools, job aids, techniques, and procedures that help salespeople and sales teams navigate the selling steps that close more sales faster." After this clear definition is given, author Keith M. Eades, founder and president of Sales Performance International and Solution Selling Inc, uses his expertise in sales for teaching the reader the necessary steps of selling, including pre-planning, cold calling, and the very important closing of the deal.

"The New Solution Selling" is not your run of the mill business book that typically renames and regurgitates business practices that have been in place for years. Instead, the book not only gives valuable information on the sales process but it also gives reliable examples. This includes sample pre-calling letters, thank you letters, and letters that ask for more business. Examples can be put into place immediately after reading the related chapter. It is perfect for the salesperson looking to penetrate the Fortune 500 market.

The book addresses major issues in the sales world, including what to do when your top salespeople are promoted to management, how to respond when you're not the first in line, and how to identify and respond to the pains your customers are facing.

Having graduated from business school and worked in sales for a number of years, I can tell you that this book is the real deal. It has found a permanent place on my business book shelf right next to "Who Moved My Cheese?" and "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." This is the kind of book that should be on college campuses all across America. It is a very informative and easy to follow book that every salesperson should own.

Emanuel Carpenter
[...]

I have read this book several times and it is clearly a must read book for anyone getting into selling. The key idea is to focus on the pain and how each person in buying will feel it. The strategies are little to structured and I have never seen anyone use the 9 box questions without bringing it on sales calls. The column A strategy is very useful and how to change it but the book suggests that there is only one way to sell which reduces the salesperson's credibility and natural flow.

If you are looking for a strategy book Strategic Selling is great and covers the many different players in a deal. SPIN is great for a single sales call strategy. The maverick selling method Selling includes strategy and highly complex selling by modeling the very top sellers. All these books are for the complex sale which requires buying involvement from several people in the target requiring a strategy to move the deal to closure.

As a sales exceutive who has implemented the Solution Selling tm process in three companies, I can only agree with the previuos reviewer. Skip this rip-off and read Mike Bosworth's REAL sequel, Customer Centric Selling.

I'll give credit to Keith Eades (author) for updating Bosworth's Solution Selling. He however fails to give credit for Bosworth's original concepts which he updates in his book and intimates they are his own. Note that Bosworth did include references, giving credit to the development of his concepts for Solution Selling to other authors.

Yes it's a rehash but it does contain more contemporary information than Bosworth's 1994 book; it may also be a better buy than the original if you are just discovering Solution Selling 10 years after the original was printed.

BTW: Phillip G. Ryan is listed in Eades' book with a quote. Something tells me his amazon review of this book might be biased (ya think?)!

I love most of this book and anyone in the b2b should check it out. The conversation matrix is good reference but not really practical to memorize.