The Sales Success Handbook

“Top producers today realize they can no
longer get by on product expertise alone.
They know the real expert is the customer.”

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“The deeper the dialogue, the greater
the sales results.”

This page intentionally left blank.

no-longer-true feature-and-benefit focus. Too many salespeople tell
their product stories too soon, without necessarilymeaning to do so,
and invariably talk from a generic product vs. customer point of view.
When they ask about needs, they don’t go far enough. When they
identify a need, they jump to product, rather than create a rich dialogue
to understand why, how, or when.
Selling today is more demanding. As business becomes more
challenging, salespeople need a higher level of skill. My experience,
in morethan two decades of working with tens of thousands of salespeople in some of the finest organizations in the world, shows that at
best only 30% of salespeople truly practice need-based consultative
selling and no more than one third of those achieve trusted-advisor
level with their customers.
The bottom line is that too many salespeople are still too quick
to tell a product story. While mostthink solution, they present product.
Because they tend to talk more than they listen, they create an imbalanced give/get ratio instead of a 50/50 dialogue. Overall, the level
of preparation and questioning does not measure up. Most sales
organizations have good salespeople, but they lack enough superb
salespeople to drive the growth they need to succeed.
As much as everything else ischanging, the old formulas of selling features and benefits are still around, blocking dialogues and
holding good salespeople back from becoming superb.
The lessons in The Sales Success Handbook will let you tap into your
natural talents by helping you take advantage of your personal
strengths, build on them, and create Sales talk that sells.

“Check your sales talk. Measure your ‘give/getratio.’”

ix

The Sales Success
Handbook:
20 Lessons to Open and Close
Sales Now

LINDA RICHARDSON

M C G RAW -H ILL
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