Short Cycle Selling: Beating Your Competitors in the Sales Race [Hardcover]

Jim Kasper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2002

The first book on short cycle selling­­the fast-track route to a higher closing ratio

Sales professionals today waste untold hours worrying about identifying, tracking, and timing their sales cycles. In Short Cycle Selling, author Jim Kasper trains his sights on the only important concept and goal in sales cycles­­shortening them. He walks professionals point-by-point through the series of steps that constitute the sales cycle­­from identifying prospects to negotiating and closing­­and at each step shows how to streamline the process.

Short Cycle Selling is the first book to deal specifically with proven techniques that condense the time from prospecting to closing, while taking advantage of today's most innovative concepts in selling skills and E-technology. Packed with case studies and actual examples of short cycle selling success­­and techniques that were field tested on clients from Amoco and Pentax to Wells Fargo Bank­­this hands-on book reveals how to:

• Land more accounts
• Achieve greater sales volumes
• Generate greater sales income and satisfaction

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Strategies to Shorten--and Take Charge of--Each Stage in the Sales Process

As a time-pressed sales professional, do you waste untold hours trying to identify, track, and time your sales cycles? Short Cycle Selling shows you how to reclaim those lost hours and dramatically improve your results by focusing on the only meaningful goal you should have for any stage in the sales cycle--to shorten it!

The first book to present techniques proven in the heat of battle to measurably reduce the time spent from prospecting to close, Short Cycle Selling combines today's most powerful one-to-one selling and e-technology breakthroughs into one dynamic package. Use its proactive guidelines and techniques to:

• Land more accounts
• Make faster closings
• Hit higher sales targets
• Achieve greater sales volume
• Generate greater income

Each month, articles in top industry publications from Selling Power to Sales and Marketing Management preach the profit-making benefits of short cycle selling. But only Short Cycle Selling provides the in-depth coverage you need to understand, direct, and shorten each step in the sales cycle--and make yourself a year-in, year-out top-five-percenter in production, performance, and personal income!

"Officers of Fortune 500 companies know that in today's competitive global markets, the sales cycle cannot afford to be prolonged. They have the foresight to know that tomorrow's sales cycles must be even shorter. The sales race winners of tomorrow will be the Short Cycle sellers..."--From Jim Kasper's Short Cycle Selling

Top-level sales is a relentlessly competitive, dog-eat-dog world in which you'll find no awards for second place. Short Cycle Selling shows you how to get to the finish line first--and fastest--by eliminating aimless, undisciplined routines, applying time-based competitive concepts to your sales function, and focusing your every action on quickly achieving a successful close.

Leading sales trainer Jim Kasper walks you point-by-point through the series of distinct steps that constitute the typical sales cycle, from identifying prospects to closing to generating referrals, and gives you the techniques and strategies you need to streamline and shorten the time spent on each. Quickly getting the prospect's attention ... Letting customers tell you what to tell them ... Basing proposals on the buyer's behavior ... Disarming stallers ... Locking in an airtight close ... Short Cycle Selling shows you how to handle each step in less time--and with greater impact--than your competition. Look to this hands-on book for:

• Compression Concepts--Proven results-based practices guaranteed to shorten each step in the process
• A.R.E.B.A.--5 steps toward setting that first appointment with the fewest possible telephone calls
• Sales Race Rules--25 concise, memorable rules for consistently shortening each sales cycle
• S.A.F.E. Closing--How to first become comfortable asking for the close--then ask for it from every customer, without exception
• Actual Case Studies--Sales pros from Farmer's Insurance, Kraft Foods, and other leading firms reveal their cycle-shortening secrets

Too many customers are allowed to control the sales process when, in truth, customers expect the salesperson to dictate the course of action. Let Short Cycle Selling provide you with a proven template for regaining control of each sale by controlling the time you spend on each sale, and quickly getting your customer's signature on the bottom line--before your competitors have even finished their morning coffee.

About the Author

Jim Kasper is president and founder of the sales development company Interactive Resource Group. He has field tested and taught short cycle selling to corporate clients from Amoco and Pentax to Rubbermaid, Chase Manhattan Mortgage, and Wells Fargo. An assistant professor of marketing at Regis University, Kasper writes the international newsletter SalesCall along with several private-label newsletters.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (February 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071388737
• ISBN-13: 978-0071388733
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,392,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for large account selling and closing large deals, March 20, 2002

By 

Russ Emrick (Monument, CO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Short Cycle Selling: Beating Your Competitors in the Sales Race (Hardcover)

While there are hundreds of sales books only a handful deal with large accounts or the process of longer, more involved sales. Reducing the time it takes to get business and controlling the process instead of launching a proposal over the wall and then praying for a phone call is what this book is all about. May be the most important book on sales in a long time. A must read for anyone who sells to corporations, hospitals, or other sales that can't be closed in one meeting. This isn't a book about someone else's success or entertaining stories. The book explains a way of thinking and a process to control the sale in order to make more of them in a shorter period of time.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy One Sales Book and Stick to the Plan, March 20, 2002

By 

David G Rathbun (Englewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Short Cycle Selling: Beating Your Competitors in the Sales Race (Hardcover)

On a rolling sea of sales self help books Mr. Kasper sails a true course for success.

Every other quick-fix, programmatic, book-based, step-by-step approach to selling is weak and at best enjoy a limited shelf life. If find that customers today are sophisticaed enough to know when they are receiving a canned approach and are better prepared than ever to resist the most common methods.

Mr. Kasper offers a grown-up approach. Inside this book you will not find a quick fix. You will find the universal and timeless keys to unlocking sales - sooner. This book works for any professional sales person selling any product or service.

Easy to read without talking down to the audience - and perfect for novices to career sales professionals. This is one to keep handy - for reinforcing Mr. Kaspers clearly defined and detailed message or for just in time reminders about how customers buy and how effective sales people get more business sooner.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Ideas to help shorten your sales cycle, May 29, 2002

By 

JEFF SUMMERS (Tampa, Fl) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Short Cycle Selling: Beating Your Competitors in the Sales Race (Hardcover)

As a business owner I HIGHLY recommend this book. If you are currently selling products and services in a market where the sales cycle tends to drag on, then Short Cycle Selling is a great resource in reducing this potential lenghty process. I found myself stopping to take notes as I read the book. I have already started to implement some of the ideas shared by Jim Kasper. He does a great job of taking you from the early stages (prospect) all the way through to getting a referral from your client.