Selling Change: 101+ Secrets for Growing Sales by Leading Change [Hardcover]

Brett Clay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

THE HANDBOOK OF CHANGE LEADERSHIP

Change happens fast in today's global, Internet-driven economy. Learn how to get ahead of these changes—and your competitors—by creating irresistible value for your customers and stakeholders.

In an era of globalization and internet commoditization, salespeople (and the companies they work for) are in danger of becoming irrelevant. In this Darwinian environment, the traditional approach of selling solutions to problems no longer creates profitable differentiation. To survive, salespeople and business leaders must become agents of change and help customers or stakeholders achieve their goals rather than simply solve their problems. This new, change-centric approach is the next evolution in selling, enabling companies to develop deeper, more profitable customer relationships and to be more agile and adaptive to changing conditions.

With twenty years of experience, most recently with Microsoft Corporation, Brett Clay has developed a complete tool-set for change-centric salespeople and executives, including 101 secrets for growing sales and delivering high value to customers.

Readers will understand the five disciplines of change leadership and the secrets of change psychology that will turn them into vital assets for their customers and help them achieve explosive business growth.

Selling Change will help you:

         Successfully lead projects and change initiatives
         Increase your revenue and income
         Lock out your competitors
         Maintain higher profit margins
         Improve the competitiveness of your sales force
         Become a strategic resource for your customers
         Have buyers calling you instead of you calling buyers
         Develop strong, long-term relationships with your customers
         Bust the myth that sales people and leaders have to be pushy to be successful
         Achieve your financial and personal goals

Editorial Reviews

Review

Named BEST SALES BOOK OF 2012 by International Book Awards

Named BEST SALES BOOK OF 2011 by Axiom Business Book Awards

Named BEST SALES BOOK OF 2010 by USA Book News

Named BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF 2010 by Independent Publisher Book Awards

Named one of the BEST BOOKS TO HELP YOUR TEAM SUCCEED IN 2011 by Selling Power Magazine

''Selling Change is the go-to handbook of leadership for this decade.''
--Independent Publisher Book Awards

Awards

• Winner, Business--Independent Publisher Book Awards
• Winner, Business: Sales--International Book Awards
• Winner, Business: Sales--Axiom Business Book Awards
• Winner, Business: Sales--The National Best Books Awards, USA Book News
• Winner, Business--Independent Publisher Book Awards
• Finalist, Business: Management and Leadership--The National Best Books Awards, USA Book News
• Finalist, Business & Economics--Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Awards
• Finalist, Business--Next Generation Indie Book Awards
• Finalist, Business--National Indie Excellence Awards
• Finalist, Leadership--Global eBook Awards
• Finalist, Business--Global eBook Awards
• Finalist, Best Illustrations, Non-Fiction--Global eBook Awards

"Selling Change is an outstanding leadership handbook that all salespeople, managers, and executives should read."
--USA Book News

''Do you think change is scary and borders on impossible? Think again. Selling Change shows how to more effectively sell your ideas, products, and services to your employees, stakeholders, and customers. Author, Brett Clay, has translated the complex and abstract principles of change psychology into an easy-to-read, fun, and practical format that business leaders and salespeople are sure to find valuable.''
--Independent Publisher Book Awards

"Selling Change is a timeless, must-read handbook of leadership that all sales people and leaders should have at their side. Written and packaged for daily reference and inspiration, it shows how to harness motivations and lead changes that delight clients and stakeholders. If you want to be in high-demand, read this book!''
--International Book Awards

''This is the first POSITIVE book about change in a decade . . . at a time when we need it most! Buy it today, and implement it as fast as you can.''
--Jeffrey Gitomer, bestselling author of The Little Red Book of Selling

''This powerful, practical book shows you how to make more sales, faster and easier than you ever thought possible!''
--Brian Tracy, bestselling author of The Art of Closing the Sale

''Brett Clay is absolutely right. As salespeople, we must change to stay competitive. Selling Change shows how to compete and win in today's tough environment.''
--Reno DiBono, sales manager, HP

''Selling Change, by Brett Clay, is a must-read for sales executives in 2011. Today salespeople must drive change for their customers, helping them achieve business goals. We have to give up the idea of pursuing rigid goals and rigid business models. And we need to let go of the notion that we will ever get to any fixed point in our lifetime. The best thing we can hope for is to become more agile so we can become masters at successful transitions, rather than victims of change. Agility is the new ROI. Selling Change is a handbook that shows how to lead customers or stakeholders through change and create high value for them in the process and that's why it's a must-read for salespeople and business executives in 2011.''
--Gerhard Gschwandtner, publisher of Selling Power magazine

''Selling Change contains much-needed, FRESH strategies for providing Real Value to your prospects and customers. When you do this, you'll experience a deeper relationship with them and will therefore separate yourself from your competition. Implementing his Change Leadership Framework will also make all the difference between GROWING your sales business or just sitting on the sidelines and watching it all go by. Brett's book is a no-brainer for the 21st Century!''
--Mike Coraluzzi, The EXTREME Business Growth Radio Show

''The most value is created by driving change. But now, it's not a luxury it's survival. Read this book and thrive! The old days of delaying tough decisions and sacrificing business fundamentals for short-term stock gains are gone. Now, business is back to the fundamentals--and that means making the changes necessary to be competitive in a world of increasing competition and continued economic difficulties. Brett Clay is right. Executives must look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves if they want to be masters, or victims, of change. If they want to by masters, they should read Selling Change.''
--Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO of Eastman Kodak, change agent, and best-selling author of The Mirror Test

''Selling Change shows how to create value for customers. As a person on the buying side of the table, I can tell you that if you follow the principles in Selling Change, your customers are going to love you and you will be their preferred vendor. As a Chief Information Officer, I have salespeople calling on me every day. With few exceptions, they just want a transaction to make a quick sale. That's not what I want or need. I want to deal with salespeople that I can depend on to help me achieve my goals. I'm looking forward to the day a salesperson takes the time to understand my organization's challenges and opportunities, and then collaborates on how to achieve them. That salesperson will be richly rewarded. Selling Change shows you how to be that salesperson.''
--John Hughes, interim CIO and author of Haunting the CEO

Foreword Clarion Review (5 Stars)
There is no shortage of business books that address ''change.'' In fact, it may be one of the hottest topics in the business book arena. While Brett Clay's book is change-focused, it is unique in that the author focuses exclusively on sales.

Corporate sales organizations don't necessarily like change--it can disrupt the way their salespeople deal with customers, and it can affect the all-important pipeline of new business. But Clay is a realist--he recognizes that ''salespeople and their companies must not only adapt to change, they must lead change, driving real outcomes on behalf of their customers.''

The author knows that salespeople are not likely to read anything that takes a prolonged effort and impairs their ability to spend time selling. Undoubtedly, this is one of the reasons Clay structured the book as he did: It is comprised of digestible little morsels called ''Secrets,'' each of which is a mere two pages--but with just enough detail so a salesperson can act on it. Every secret is comprised of three sections: ''What I Need to Know,'' ''What I Need to Do,'' and an ''Action Summary,'' which contains bulleted advice. Each secret also contains a one-frame cartoon that succinctly captures that secret's primary message.

The secrets are held together by a ''Change Leadership Framework'' that the author uses to break the book into five ''disciplines,'' including ''Change Response'' and ''Value Creation.'' While at first this may seem like a somewhat artificial structure, it further segments the more than 100 secrets into sections that can be reviewed individually or as part of the whole.

The secrets themselves are at times obvious (''Always Have a Plan''), but more often than not they are intriguing (''Delivery Trumps Relationship'') and occasionally even provocative (''No One Needs Your Product''). The content of each secret is expressed in simple down-to-earth terms, but the author isn't afraid to include more complex conceptual ideas when necessary. His apt descriptions of buyer types in animal terms is especially vivid: ''Stay Away from Chickens,'' ''Follow the Chameleons,'' ''Help the Geese,'' ''Count on the Beavers,'' ''Comfort the Mules,'' and ''Stay Away from Turtles.''

The book is very well-designed, which greatly enhances readability. There are plenty of bold heads, bullets, and other graphic symbols. A mock system of color tabs that makes for easy section identification is included, and a bound-in ribbon bookmark is a nice touch.

Clay writes in a conversational, friendly style, which helps mask the fact that talking about change can be disconcerting if not downright terrifying for a salesperson. Even if a salesperson follows just some of Brett Clay's secrets, however, that individual should be able to overcome their fear of change and embrace it.
--Foreword Clarion Reviews

About the Author

Brett Clay is CEO of Change Leadership Group, LLC, a management consulting and training firm specializing in the areas of change leadership and business performance acceleration. He is an award-winning author, award-winning marketer, international speaker, sales trainer, consultant, and a veteran of twenty years in international sales and marketing management. He has held vice president roles in sales, business development, and marketing at numerous high-technology companies and was most recently at Microsoft Corporation. Clay is also the host of The Actuation Zone radio show, where he discusses how to help people grow in their businesses and in their lives.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 263 pages
• Publisher: Ariva Publishing (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982295235
• ISBN-13: 978-0982295236
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.9 x 5.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #68 in Books > Business & Investing > Organizational Behavior > Organizational Change

More About the Author

In a flat world where buyers have access to the best solutions at the best prices from all over the world, how can businesses compete?

It is a critical question that sales executive Brett Clay has been confronting since he began his career as a product marketing engineer selling computer chips into Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore 20 years ago. Over the years, he has also marketed and sold computer software, supercomputers, telecommunications equipment, and professional services. Through these high-ticket sales and as a student of Barry Posner at the Leavey School of Business he developed a deep passion for business value and leadership. After many years of managing and mentoring marketing and sales people, he developed his trademark Change Leadership Framework(R), the subject of his books.

Today, Brett Clay is the founder and CEO of the Change Leadership Group, a sales training and consulting company specializing in the areas of change leadership and business performance improvement. Clay says, "Change is as fundamental for growth as oxygen, water, and sunlight." His book, Forceful Selling, is a study in the psychology of change and the forces that drive it. His forthcoming book, Selling Change, to be released in January, 2010, contains 101 secrets for growing sales by leading change.

If leading change sounds revolutionary, it's because it is. It must be. The Internet is not just flattening the world-wide playing field, it is driving a revolution in sales.

Traditional selling formulas such as developing attention, interest, desire and action have moved onto the Internet. And yesterday's high-value solution-oriented approaches have become today's commodities. Buyers can satisfy their needs and solve their problems over the Internet without the assistance of salespeople. Salespeople are faced with a choice: become Internet marketers, or increase the value they add to the customer.

What is more valuable than solving a problem? Achieving a goal.

Salespeople and the companies they represent must become change agents who work on behalf of their customers to help them achieve their goals. Clay's Change Leadership Framework provides the blueprint for leading change and achieving goals.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading for an ever-changing market environment March 5, 2012

By ericbl

Format:Hardcover

Another great book by Brett, in which he lays out a compelling vision for how to drive deep customer relationships by focusing on helping our customers achieve their goals, rather than just fulfilling their immediate needs. I highly recommend this book to business leaders and sales people in any industry who need to learn how to thrive and prosper in today's environment, where customers have more market knowledge and power than they ever.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Secret to Salesmanship is in Selling Change December 30, 2009

By Tyler R. Tichelaar

Format:Hardcover

Brett Clay's "Selling Change" explains why it is imperative that in the twenty-first century, salespeople must be agents of change. The reason? Because four major forces are changing the current business world. Without giving away all four forces here, the first is that no longer do countries compete against each other, nor do companies compete, but because of the power of the Internet, now individuals must compete with individuals from across the world and be prepared to outsell one another. This new competitive market is the world that today's salesperson must operate within, and failure to keep up with the changes in the business world will simply result in--failure. In "Selling Change," Clay gives the modern salesperson the tools necessary to stay competitive and make the sale amid constant change.

The organization of "Selling Change" is what makes it perfect for the busy salesperson. Divided into 101+ secrets (there are actually 107), the salesperson can read one secret each day, mull it over during the day, and apply it. The book is laid out so each secret covers a two-page spread. On the left-hand page is "What I Need to Know" while the right-hand page contains "What I Need to Do." The reader is first given a nugget of truth about sales and needed change, and then the instructions for its implementation. The "What I Need to Know" section includes an Action Summary of the key points. For example, Secret # 11 is "Be an Amateur Psychologist," and the Action Summary points are: "Be a Student of People," "Put yourself in their shoes," and "Develop an infinite curiosity and appreciation for people." Included beside the Action Summary is a humorous cartoon, featuring the bulldog character first introduced in Brett Clay's previous book "Forceful Selling." The cartoons provide a visual memory to imprint on the brain and quickly remind the reader of the main points of the secret.

It would be wrong for me to give away any more of the "Secrets" of "Selling Change," but I will say that Brett Clay has a keen understanding of clients and what motivates them to purchase a product, and this understanding is essential for salespeople to acquire if they wish to succeed. Clay's belief that the salesperson must become an amateur psychologist is reflected in his use of animal metaphors to describe different clients, ranging from turtles and geese to beavers. He illustrates the scale of these various clients' anxiety, stability, action, confidence, openness (to change) and risk. Clay also explains how people respond differently to the same forces, so it is important to understand both the forces and how the client perceives them. He reminds the salesperson not to analyze situations from how he would react or what he would do in that situation, but to understand that if he were the client, why the client would react in a certain manner.

While psychology is important to "Selling Change" so is the use of logic and data. Clay reminds us that people have a fear of change from past experiences, and even if they view an experience as positive, chances are the memory of the experience is better or worse than how the experience actually played out. People are always biased too negatively or too positively, so the salesperson wanting to help the client implement a change must always ask for "quantifiable and verifiable data."

Most importantly, Clay points out a major misunderstanding about sales and products. Most salespeople wrongly assume the client's problem is that the client doesn't have the salesperson's product--that the product is the solution to the problem. Clay clarifies that sales are about change, not solutions, and he goes into detail about the difference between a products' features, its benefits and its solutions to a problem. Clay demonstrates great common sense by reminding us that the client does not care about features, benefits or solutions. It is the outcome that matters to the customer. Clay's discussion of the difference between change and solutions is alone worth the price of the book--from personal experience in sales, I have seen how often salespeople and marketers make the mistake of focusing on the product as a solution before they even understand the customer's problem or what change is necessary to achieve the outcome the client wants. Clay teaches the salesperson how to listen to clients and how to read them so the salesperson can provide clients with the change they need to accomplish their goals.

I doubt any salesperson, new or experienced, would not benefit from reading "Selling Change." Clay is obviously an expert in the field of sales. Besides having an M.B.A., his resume includes over twenty years of experience as a sales trainer, a consultant and a vice president of sales, marketing, and business development at numerous high-technology companies. He is currently the owner of the Change Leadership Group, and he has spoken to hundreds of people about implementing change. Clay is highly qualified to train salespeople because he has studied and experienced what works and what doesn't; now he offers his vast breadth of knowledge in an easy-to-read, practical book that allows for daily application.

The secrets of "Selling Change" will change how salespeople do business by becoming agents of change. The result will be more successful salespeople, happier customers, and increased business opportunities for both. "Selling Change" can implement the change for which businesses have been waiting. With this book, that change has arrived.

- Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., and author of the award-winning "Narrow Lives."

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book on Sales - Smart and In-Depth, but Easy to Digest January 28, 2011

By Avinash Parashar

Format:Hardcover

"Selling Change" is a great book that provides a new look at the sales process. The book's primary message is that salespeople must look beyond talking about features, espousing benefits, and solving problems, and start helping customers "change." It is a great way of re-framing the sales process in a way that leads to a consultive selling approach.

What I really like is the contrast between the depth of information in the book and the ease with which the concepts can be grasped. Brett references psychology, physics, mathematics, and military strategy, yet each chapter is exactly two pages long. Each of the chapters is also broken into three sections: 1) what I need to know, 2) what I need to do, and 3) action summary.

There really is a wealth of knowledge here, and it may seem overwhelming, especially for someone who is looking for a simple, "1-2-3 system" to sales success. Personally, I prefer a lot of information that explains both the "how and "why." In fact, to be able to implement the "Selling Change" method, I believe you have to have a deep understanding of the ideas along with a willingness to work the process.

But that's the point; transactional selling is being taken over by websites. To be able to offer real value to a client, we must help them change, and in order to do that we need a deep understanding of both the client and the change process. "Selling Change" gives plenty of information on how understand both of those things, and then gives action steps for what do with that knowledge.

If you are looking for a smart, in depth, and effective book on sales, then I heartily recommend you pick up, "Selling Change." You won't be disappointed.