"With his technology-supported buyer enablement approach, Garin has elegantly figured out how to flip the buyer and seller paradigm. The approach not only empowers his customer champion to do the complex internal sale for him, but it also creates more personalized, true win-win, lasting business solutions. The approach allows presales people to happily say yes to one of their historically most hated requests--give me your standard demo. Now presales people can deliver their standard demo without investing time and get automated discovery and qualification delivered for free. This will certainly enhance the often troubled relationship between sales and presales."
--Kevin O'Brien, Global VP Presales and Virtual Experience at SAP
"Today, more than ever, we live in a world of information overload. Helping buyers make sense of all the information is key to building confidence. What our research shows, is that the best go-to-market sales strategies focus more on helping buyers buy and not just helping sellers sell. Garin Hess captures the essence of modern buyer enablement with actionable, evidence-based advice that put the customer's problem, not your product, at the heart of your sales strategy."
--Alastair Woolcock, Gartner Research & Advisory
"As someone who has built many enterprise software sales teams, I was surprised to discover a fresh and compelling approach to winning the complex sale in Selling Is Hard. Buying Is Harder. B2B buyer behaviors are changing, and Garin's buyer enablement methodology makes it easier to buy and accelerates the buying process. Every software sales and presales professional should understand and apply the principles in this book."
--Jonathan Temple, Operating Partner at The Riverside Company and former CEO at HEAT Software
"Make it easier for the buyer to buy--and you make it easier for the seller to sell. In this tactical guide to buyer enablement, Garin Hess breaks down this winning equation into actionable steps. Hess shares hard-won insights from his software startup experience, case studies, and the latest research on what buyers want and need from sellers and how to successfully implement a customer-focused sales effort through automation and personal touch."
--Julie Hansen, author of Sales Presentations for Dummies and Act Like a Sales Pro
"At last, here is the book on effective B2B selling by the champion of the buyer enablement concept! Garin has been one of the few voices calling out the need to create consensus among the large and growing number of buyers involved in the typical B2B decision. His work becomes more important as companies continue to expand, flatten, and become more virtual. Garin does a masterful job of awakening the B2B selling and marketing community to our true calling as buyer enablers. He has written the guide to the one true way to sell--helping buyers buy."
--Wayne Cerullo, Founder at B2P Partners
"A major reason why complex sales are lost occurs when salespeople present a solution that does not meet the needs and priorities of behind-the-scenes decision makers. Selling is Hard. Buying is Harder. shows you how to get more key stakeholders to engage and reveal their needs during the earlier phases of their buying process. It's a blueprint for creating buyer consensus much faster than your competitors."
--Kevin Davis, author of The Sales Manager's Guide to Greatness
Garin Hess is a serial entrepreneur whose entire career has been in enterprise software and is passionate about combining technology and methodology to make B2B buying easier. He has been directly involved in building several B2B sales teams and has held roles as acting Head of Sales and sales engineer. Garin has founded two software companies, two industry conferences, and a non-profit organization. He is currently the founder and CEO of Consensus (goconsensus.com), the leader in intelligent demo automation, winning Gartner's coveted Cool Vendor designation. Consensus helps sales engineering teams use interactive video demos to scale productivity by reducing wasted time doing repetitive, unqualified demos so they can do more of what they do best: solutions consulting. Outside of his love for beautifully designed enterprise software, Garin enjoys reading history, mountain biking, hiking, playing tennis, choir conducting, and spending time with his wife and their children.
