11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strong Contribution to Effectiveness in Complex Sales, September 1, 2005
This review is from: Selling is Dead: Moving Beyond Traditional Sales Roles and Practices to Revitalize Growth (Hardcover)
"Selling is Dead" is one of 10 best books on sales effectiveness published in the United States in the past 20 years. It makes a strong contribution to sales effectiveness for sales reps and sales managers who are involved in complex sales in major accounts. It is especially valuable for companies that sell innovative solutions.
Because of its focus on selling innovative solutions, the book cites examples that tend to be skewed toward sales of technical solutions and especially of information technology. But the book also carries useful advice for selling less innovative products and services.
Of course selling isn't dead, literally. But it's changing in major ways, the authors say. Sales teams are underperforming because they are ineffective. The cost of sales people has risen much higher than their productivity. If selling isn't exactly dead, it's broken. The authors say the main reason is that sellers are generally unable to cope with the quickening pace of innovation.
"Sales teams rarely falter when selling commodities because buyers see commodities as safe, comfortable, existing applications," they say. "However, once a company's core business has matured and the market for those commoditized offerings has become saturated, organizations must turn to innovation for growth and survival. Unfortunately, there is powerful evidence that the transition of sales teams from selling commodities to selling innovative new platforms is difficult and fraught with failure. The real challenge in selling is selling innovation."
The authors' answer, in part, is to develop sales people into "business people who sell."
The authors rightly give credit to Neil Rackham for his prior contributions in "SPIN Selling," "Major Account Sales Strategy" and other ground-breaking work. They then build beyond Rackham's work to distinguish between appropriate selling behavior for what they call "continuous" and "discontinuous" products.
Continuous products are already well known in their marketplace. Some level of demand already exists for them. Many customers are familiar with such products and are likely to know when they need them. They may already have set a budget and established a selection process to acquire them.
Discontinuous products, on the other hand, did not previously exist in their target market. They are so new that no budgets are set for them and decision processes are not in place to evaluate them. Most prospects have no idea they need them. Such products represent the greatest selling challenge and also the greatest profit opportunity. They are highly differentiated. Because they are not subject to direct competition, they command premium prices. The challenge for the seller is to help people recognize that they need them enough to outweigh the cost and perceived risks of buying them.
For sales of discontinuous solutions, the authors propose that sellers use a structured questioning process the authors call FOCAS. The acronym, like Rackham's SPIN, stands for different kinds of questions: Fact Questions, Objective Questions, Concern Questions, Anchor Questions and Solution Questions. The purpose of these questions is to help the prospect recognize his or her latent needs. Having done so, s/he can overcome innate resistance to change and aversion to risk. Only then is a sale possible.
For sales of continuous products, the authors propose a significantly different sales behavior. It is more oriented toward helping buyers choose which of several alternate products they prefer in a category they already know and understand.
As good as the book is, it could be better in some areas. The authors refer to empirical research they say they've done, but they provide no details on methodology or results. The book contains a few copy-editing errors and oversights. It seems to take more time than may be necessary to describe the differences between continuous and discontinuous sales. The book also seems to spend excessive energy in explaining the need to sell each type of solution differently. The authors describe FOCAS questions very briefly, and they provide no advice on how to develop or refine them. Nor do they give enough guidance on how to use FOCAS questions in everyday selling situations.
Even so, the book is well worth reading multiple times.
This field is full of books that are little more than thinly disguised, high-priced sales-promotion vehicles whose primary objective is to build the authors' consulting business. While it's clear the authors would also be happy to provide their consulting and training services, this volume is a quality stand-alone effort from a quality publisher (John Wiley). It does not invite you to visit the authors' web site to learn how much you can pay for the really useful stuff they've maddeningly withheld from the book you bought for $30.00.
With dedication and imagination, you can begin right away applying the principles they teach. When you overlay the ideas in "Selling is Dead" onto the step-by-step question-generation process in Rackham's "SPIN Selling Field Guide," you can start improving your sales effectiveness almost immediately.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If your product/service is not mission critical -- buy this book, July 6, 2007
This review is from: Selling is Dead: Moving Beyond Traditional Sales Roles and Practices to Revitalize Growth (Hardcover)
This is THE best book I've ever read (and I have shelves full of them) on the sales process as it applies to products and services which fall outside of being mission critical to the buying organization.
If a company has to have some form of what you sell even though they don't have to have your's this book would be of some value. If your offering falls in to the elective category - people like it, think it would helpful, has a wow factor - by which I mean it is a nice to have but the buying organization doesn't absolutely have to have it in some form to continue doing business this is a must have book.
The writing style is a bit stiff to the point of being slightly academic at points but this is a reflection of the process which has yielded their step by step methodology. If you've been in elective style sales such as much of the software world you will find that this book helps you think more systematically.
I have found help in making this my primary sales process resource and in making the "Advanced Selling" podcast my primary personal motivation resource.
If you are a student of sales you will welcome this addition to your library.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Potentially Groundbreaking, July 5, 2005
This review is from: Selling is Dead: Moving Beyond Traditional Sales Roles and Practices to Revitalize Growth (Hardcover)
In today's corporate world, the performance of a company's sales team can determine if they will sink or swim. The sales team is responsible for seeking out opportunities from current customers and creating opportunities from potential customers. In the new book "Selling is dead" by Marc Miller and Jason Sinkovitz, the Ohio-based authors explain the importance of hiring the right salesperson, recognizing the type of demand that is needed, and monitoring the progression of each sales stage.
"Selling is dead" introduces a new way of approaching potential customers based on four types of demand: new application demand, aggregate demand, continuous improvement demand, and economy demand because the authors believe that customer decision-making changes from one demand to another. According to this book, an informed salesperson should be able to recognize the demand type and respond accordingly.
This book is at its brilliant best when it explains the Buyer Psychological Model, the importance of creating demand, and how to overcome traditional objections such as a potential client's budget constraints. It also serves as a wake-up call for sales managers who employ mediocre salespeople who are ineffective at creating demand or selling to prospects who are satisfied with existing products or services.
However, there are a few problems with this book that may cause its words to fall on deaf ears. The first is that it reads like a dissertation and contains complicated language (i.e. the cadence of commoditization) that may cause the average salesperson without a college degree to run for cover. Next, the book is written from a very strategic point of view and lacks more needed tactical instructions. Finally, the book is written with a slant towards IT firms and may turn off those who are not in technology fields. In other words, it's great for IT sales managers but maybe not for other sales professionals.
"Selling is dead" has the potential to be a groundbreaking book. The authors understand the psychology of supply and demand, the pressures of a sales manager, and the need to move salespeople from inertia. But the success of this book will be determined by the buying public's willingness to make a major paradigm shift in the sales process and the hiring process and a clear understanding in the psychology of how purchasing decisions are made. This book makes an interesting and informative read but it will be even more interesting to see if salespeople worldwide accept or reject it.
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