Sales Is A Verb

📅 29th October 2020 | 2020/21 Sales Book Reviews

It’s hardly surprising that Mike Weinberg’s New Sales. Simplified. was ranked by Hubspot as being in the top twenty sales books of ‘all time’. It’s written in a fairly blunt style and doesn’t pull any punches. Early in 2021, I’ll take a look and review his latest publication ‘Sales Myths’. It’ll be interesting to read how Mike has moved on.

NSS was published in 2013, so references to the advancing science of Behavioural Science, Artificial Intelligence etc aren’t mentioned. But this book is about getting back to basics. Mike’s whole schtick is that salespeople in the 21st century don’t know how to hunt for new business. By and large I agree with him (even under the current difficult circumstances).

What’s New

Mike Weinberg goes into some depth to explain why so many salespeople fail at new business development. Mike cites sixteen reasons. One of the most damning is that many don’t own their own sales process. Part of this is an all too willing acquiescence to doing a demo or presentation instead of a discovery call. Then the salesperson offers to send a proposal or is asked to by the prospect. This is a waste of everybody’s time. It’s now 2020 and prospects don’t have the time to listen to an ordinary ‘sales rep’ blathering on.

“Most salespeople spend the majority of their time majority of their time in reactive mode responding to potential opportunities that come their way. The need for a defined list of target accounts does not register because, honestly, they are not targeting anyone”. Chapter 3. That doesn’t feature too highly on the sales effectiveness scale does it? Sitting down with pen and paper and asking yourself “who would be a good customer for our business?” would be a good strategic start for your business. Weinberg takes this to another level in demanding that you have in effect three types of lists a) Focused b) Written and the most important C) Workable. As a further check, Weinberg suggest you use “Who” and “Why” questions as to determine what firms you should target.

Another great tip is for salespeople to reach out to contacts higher up in their chosen targeted firm. Selling to the “C” Suite isn’t as scary or as difficult as some salespeople think. Your preparation though needs to be appropriate and thorough.

What’s Old

The social selling brigade or Sales 2.0 will have fits over Mike’s Chapter 9 entitled Your Friend The Phone. But to be fair he does say that Sales 2.0 do have some good sales methodologies. Back to the phone. Mike shows us three words – and when used correctly will really help you fix up an appointment (or as we are in the Pandemic Mode, a Zoom call). There’s also a guide to leaving effective voice mails.

Sometimes if I hear or see printed the phrase “God Gave You Two Ears and One Mouth” ever again I’ll scream! But by keeping quiet and listening in a sales meeting will ensure that you can advance a sale more rapidly than if you chat too much. Most salespeople do. They can’t help themselves.

What’s Better

Chapter 11 is all about structuring, and in some fine detail, winning sales calls. The key here is that every sales call comes with an agenda. And an agenda which involves the prospect. It shows him or her where you are headed with the call and should prove to the prospect that you are there to do a thoroughly professional job. Purchasing the book is worth it for this chapter alone!

Equally useful is the story Weinberg tells about a presentation, or as some pronounce it Preezentation! In brief, its all about Mike deferring the sales call/presentation authority to a channel salesperson who is more interested in the machinations of Powerpoint. The result is a disaster not only for Mike and his colleagues but also for the end user, who seemed to be keen to learn about what was on offer. In sales, as in life, it’s never about you.

What’s Worse

I guess I could criticise Mike for being too self-referential. Throughout the book there are stories about what he’s done and what he could and should have done in certain sales situations. Yet Mike’s authority as a speaker, author and star of various podcast shows means one can give the guy some slack. Furthermore, his stories are very relevant to today’s difficult market conditions across all sectors.

Seven years on from the publication of this superb book, there is once again, the need for true “sales hunters” to come to the fore.

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Tags: Finding Customers, work ethic