What Did You Have For Lunch?

📅 24th September 2020 | 2020/21 Sales Book Reviews

Stroll across the business book section of many on-line stores and you’ll find “Eat Their Lunch” in pride of place. Published in 2018, this is Anthony Iannarino‘s third publication following “The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need” and “The Lost Art of Closing” both of which will feature here at The Sales Rainmaker in due course. ETL completes the trilogy.

Sales is a zero-sum game. To win deals you need to beat your competition. A statement made by Mark Hunter whose book, “A Mind For Sales” I reviewed on here a few weeks ago. Mark isn’t wrong and neither is Iannarino. The tough world of sales is as uncompromising as ever – and yet to many it’s still a dog-eat-dog scenario. Iannarino rejects this. This book is all about winning business away from your competitor’s clients – but not at any cost.

The Good

I liked ETL from the moment I saw the title of the first chapter which is ‘You Are The Value Proposition*’. The author proceeds to outline how your dream client can become your client in reality. A relationship between a competitive supplier and your dream client can become stale because of complacency, a sense of entitlement and apathy. In my mind, these are typical signs of the least effort principle. The reader is then taken through the four possible stages of value creation. The most powerful being the ‘strategic partner’. At the end of the chapter (as with all the others in the book) there’s an action checklist for you to complete. It’s replicated at Anthony’s fine website www.eattheirlunch.training

I loved the sections entitled “Dissonance and the Status Quo” and the “Impact of Super Trends” – both explain in some detail for the need of professional salespeople to be the best trusted advisors they can be. You have to know what’s going on in your clients world, the general economy and what what may lie ahead.

The author goes into some depth in the middle of the book about a prospective client’s company culture. Intended to help you the seller understand the what makes an organisation tick. This is done as an academic exercise but still part of a strategy to remove the incumbent supplier.

The Bad

For more years than I care to remember, some people at networking events have said that they “do business with people they know, like and trust”. The author expands on this in ‘Creating Preference’. In big-ticket, strategic B2B sales the individual salesperson has to be so much more. One has to be resourceful, have good leadership skills, be thoughtful and have a sense of humour? Moreover, you have to get on with others at all levels. Are you capable of learning to improve or be coachable? As the author suggests, take a long hard look at yourself and see where you need to improve.

The Ugly

For me, the most hard hitting chapter is ‘Developing An Executive Presence’. Having reached the exalted heights of a trusted advisor, you will realise that there’s another ‘mountain range’ of ability you have to climb. I impress on my clients the need to keep up-to-date with technology, sales knowledge and of course your clients business. Iannarino points out that you mustn’t enter the dangerous ground called ‘information parity’. You need to be the special advisor for your client. Letting him or her know what will happen if they don’t take a particular course of action. Or putting a more positive spin on it, highlighting hitherto unforeseen opportunities. You also have to robust in your opinions.

Finally, don’t forget that when selling into a new account you are the disruptor. You are having to circumnavigate the Status Quo Bias which some describe as ‘the devil you know versus the devil you don’t know’. Not easy task during these COVID-19 days.

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*I’m not keen on the term ‘value proposition’. In many sales scenarios it comes across as a seller’s opinion rather than true value.

Tags: customer-centricity