Selling Machine: How to Focus Every Member of Your Company on the Vital Business of Selling [Hardcover]

Stephen E. Heiman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 1997

Using dozens of examples from some of America's best-run companies, the top executives of Miller Heiman, the world's leading sales-consulting firm, reveal their winning strategy for business success: Focus every member of an organization on the vital business of selling.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Selling Machine, by sales consultants Diane Sanchez and Stephen E. Heiman, advances a perfectly logical but all-too-rarely followed business concept: because sales revenue is the driving force behind practically every company, all employees should share responsibility for maximizing it. After working with major firms such as Coca-Cola, DuPont, Hallmark, and Chase Manhattan, the authors concluded that top companies actively encourage everyone--from top to bottom--to help the sales force do its job. The related principles that these firms adhere to are outlined and explained here, and then applied to the types of problems that salespeople face daily.

From Booklist

The authors present an infomercial on their company, Miller Heiman, which specializes in the retooling of corporate sales processes. We learn that their approach is not about selling but rather about how to use a completely transformed sales process as the key to changing almost everything about the way a company does business. They believe that for optimum results everyone in a company sells and the sales force orchestrates the effort. This is unheard-of in many quarters where sales is considered of secondary importance to manufacturing and finance and where sales revenue, described by the authors as the fuel of business, is virtually ignored. The authors suggest using the sales process to solve a variety of business problems as well as treating it as an operating system. Their focus on the customer is repeated throughout the book, and the final section acknowledges the value of teamwork and how teams can enhance customer focus. Mary Whaley

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (July 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812927176
• ISBN-13: 978-0812927177
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #491,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Selling Machine: making everybody in your organization sell!, May 11, 2000

By 

N. J. S. Pereboom (Lanaken-Rekem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selling Machine: How to Focus Every Member of Your Company on the Vital Business of Selling (Hardcover)

Reading the books written by Miller, Heiman and Tuleja (The New Conceptual Selling, Successful Large Account Management and The New Strategic Selling) changed the way I looked at complex sales processes completely and increased sales success of the companies I work(ed) for dramatically. Their books (and excellent training courses) represent a customer-centric vision rarely to be found in other writings (and training courses) on how to sell.

The Selling Machine gives an excellent overview of the Miller-Heiman philosophy and goes one step further by propagating that all employees should share responsibility in enhancing revenues by supporting the sales force. A must-read for everybody in an organisation - be it sales or marketing, administration or reception desk, CEO or his/her driver. All who understand that in the end it is the customer who is paying your salary. So better make sure all people on board are helping to get sales in.

Especially a good read for people who want to get acquainted with Miller-Heiman's work or who just think they have not enough time to read all the other books I mentioned.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Selling Machine reinforces modern selling methods!, October 21, 2005

By 

Donna L. Cohen "Author: 'GO BIG...or Stay Hom... (Englewood, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selling Machine: How to Focus Every Member of Your Company on the Vital Business of Selling (Hardcover)

The message to be made to companies...to survive in today's highly competitive marketplace, everyone, not just the sales department,from top to bottom, must be selling to help the salesforce do its job.


Selling Machine proposes that the whole company focus on the customer. The book wraps up with emphasis on the value of teamwork and how teams can enhance customer focus.