NeilWarren
Posts 645
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It’s very pleasing to have a Guest Opinion piece running from Tom Bird because, with Jeremy Cassell, he co-authored the book Brilliant Selling which I have just finished. So you can get a further measure of the man and his moods on this piece - “It Takes A Change” – Sales Change Management article by Tom Bird – Expert Opinion – ModernSelling.com.
And I’d have to say that, for my personal, preferred reading matter, at this stage of my life/career, it is insightful and “changing” issues such as that article (brilliant, Tom) that crank my handle. The book before this was Dan Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” and I was alerted there to the changing aspects of many sales that require “orchestration” or “architecture” techniques from the seller. We now have to see all the individual issues and then piece them together, join up the loose ends, see the opportunities, strengths and weaknesses, and then tell a story that engages and involves all the stakeholders. And that whole area chimes beautifully with the sounds of Tom’s change article there.
Back to “Brilliant Selling” though, and Jeremy & Tom did not so much set out to cover the future, as the present. Well actually, for most, it probably will the future that is affected, because you’ll be learning from past and present masters of the art and science of selling. And it’s not just the authors who are claiming to be expert but more the fact that they can draw on lifetime experiences of, and engagement and study with, the best sellers (known to man or beast). As their strap-line says, it’s a book about “What the best salespeople know, do and say”.
In that respect, they have done an outstanding job. Here is an accumulated wisdom and insight that, if you pass it by, it will probably also take you a lifetime to accumulate. However do not buy in anticipation of a “rattling good read”. As they themselves point out on page 1, each chapter is a stand-alone summary of its topic and, even within each chapter there are sections to help you learn, sections to help you practice, summaries of the “brilliant” key points, and stories to illuminate your path. So expect instead to have this book on the shelf next to your desk and to end up with a dog-eared, well-thumbed reference book in 10 years time, when you’ve mastered a few of the areas.
And what will you learn? Oh, pretty well everything there is to learn about selling. The “Part” headings map out 5 or 6 chapters each around such themes as “You” (yep, it’s true, you will have to “sell yourself” before you can convince anyone of anything – but don’t worry, lots of different personality styles can do this, they’ll explain); “Process & Planning”; Your Power to Influence”; “Understanding Buyers & Prospects”; “Presenting Solutions”; “Developing Customers”.
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NeilWarren
Posts 645
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Although the material draws on a lifetime of experience, it is nonetheless thoroughly modern and learns as much from past mistakes as it does from successes. To give you one example from the “Presenting Solutions” Part, I got thoroughly engaged in the chapter about “Closing and Commitment”. That chapter starts with a spookily reminiscent mock-up of a flyer (loose insert) we used to carry in Sales Direction (print) magazine circa 1988 – entitled “Close That Sale!”. In fact so popular was that course or technique, in it’s day, that I remember the “entertrainer”, who used to deliver the evening wham-bam seminar, ringing me up as the 1990 recession took hold. He complained bitterly that his bookings from the last insert (for which we charged him £2,500) had “plummeted” from £40,000+ (that he could normally guarantee to make) to a “miserable” £25,000!! Suffice to say that the brilliant advice in this book is that…
“Consumers, let alone professional buyers, are so much more savvy to ‘closing techniques’ and see them for the absurd attempts at manipulation that they are.”
So I’d better not finish by trying to sell you the book, but it is available via Amazon if you have decided to buy - Amazon - Brillant Selling - Jeremy Cassell and Tom Bird
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