books:

	Exceptional Selling: How the Best Connect and Win in High Stakes Sales Jeff Thull Wiley, 2006 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"Thull's leading-edge thinking makes this book extraordinary. This straightforward guide to communicating across all cultures with credibility and respect will give you a significant competitive advantage in a complex and crowded global marketplace."
?Guenter Lauber, Vice President, Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., EA Systems

"Exceptional Selling may be one of the most important books written on sales and marketing communications for high stakes sales. It shows you how to stand apart from your competition, communicate with great clarity, and position your solution as the most compelling choice for the long term."
?Rob Mancuso, Senior Vice President, Investors Financial Services Corp.

"Thull has taken consultative and collaborative sales to new heights. The knowledge in this book is priceless. The trust and respect created by the diagnostic process is a must-have for success here in Asia and around the globe. It enables us to differentiate ourselves early and achieve long-lasting success."
?Tay Chong Siew, Major Customer Director, North Asia, BOC Gases

"Having achieved exceptional success by working with Thull and implementing the strategy and process in his first two books, I'm astounded that his leading-edge thinking is captured in yet more detail in another brilliant book. The conversation examples of his powerful diagnostic approach will bring even greater success to our organization. Truly exceptional!"
?Alberto Chacin, Director of On Demand Services LAD, Oracle USA

"Exceptional Selling is a dramatic departure from the vast majority of sales books. It scares me to see all the ways in which we can self-sabotage our sales opportunities-but that's only chapter one. Throughout the book, Thull describes compelling examples of how to succeed in a cluttered marketplace."
?Steven Rodriguez, Senior Vice President, Ceridian Corporation

"Thull has again extended the concepts and thinking he developed in The Prime Solution and Mastering the Complex Sale. This is an essential read for anyone working to understand his customers in a complex world."
?Wayne Hutchinson, Vice President of SalesMarketing and Consulting, Shell Global Solutions International B.V.

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Recommended Reading for All Loan Officers

It's one of the best sales books I have read in years.

What you will learn from it:

As one who is an advisor, you realize that not every client is a perfect fit for you. This book focuses on the language and mindsets you use with clients. With the right mindset and approach, you come off far more credible and actually sound like an advisor -- rather than just saying you are one.

Further, the book focuses on first diagnosing (like a doctor would) before prescribing solutions. Again, taking this approach creates a true advisor relationship -- rather than just saying you're an advisor.

Secondly, when approaching referral sources like Financial Planners and CPAs, they are going to be very perceptive in sensing if someone is presenting them with a hard close and pressuring their clients. Their relationships are the life blood of their business and they will not jeopardize them by referring them to someone they may perceive as a wolf. Again, the "maybe, maybe not" type approach in the book is essential in building relationships that demand both professionalism and credibility.

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Consultant and Trainer - Sales & Management

Jeff is an exceptional writer and leader in the area of mastering the complex sale. I coach companies and sales professionals coast-to-coast in the area of sales and sales management. The distinction in Jeff's concepts can APPEAR to be simplistic in theory. When put into practice, they will set you apart from 95% of the sales professionals selling today. Many people talk about the true CONSULTATIVE approach. Few EXECUTE on this methodology. If you want to improve your revenue and your success as a sales person, attend one of Jeff's seminars. Then buy and read all of his books. Next, practice having thoughtful conversations with your prospects and clients about their business without talking about your product or solution. This is a small change in approach that WILL make a huge difference!!

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Vice President, Sales

WOW! As a student of the sales process and a real world practitioner.....I can tell you that this is more than a lot of fluffy theology! Jeff has distilled some very key thoughts on the practice of High Tech, Highly Competitive, and Complex Sales. These are more than just organized platitudes. For those that really seek excellence in their craft....this book can provide an insightful and thought provoking roadmap! Not for the faint of heart...this books acts as a call to action! I have seen Jeff present his ideas in person and I also highly recommend him for any corporate sales gatherings that you may be contemplating...it will make you and your sales force much more effective in communication and in execution!

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A practical guide

'Exceptional Selling' is a practical guide to sales success that shows sales professionals how to avoid the many traps of self-sabotage brought about by self, peer, and customer pressure and traditional sales approaches. It shows sales professionals how to create a different kind of relationship with the customer and to reframe the typical sales conversation into open, honest and straightforward communication. The author says that by replicating the practices of top-performing professionals, you'll learn new, exceptional ways to sell that can set you apart and pull you ahead of the pack.

Here are some notes I took while reading this book that might be helpful to you:

Every salesperson must understand the customer's world. This is done by not only being a good listener, but by understanding the client's meaning system--the whole set of assumptions, experiences, values, and beliefs that create the context for their perceptions, judgments, and decisions. Before we can listen at this level, our customers have to be willing to talk to us as equals. We need to establish peer-to-peer relationships with them. How can this be done when everyone is competing for their attention? According to the author, establishing a mind-set of mutual respect is the secret to walking this fine line. We have to assume that our customers are experts in their businesses and, furthermore, that they know their own organizations far better than any outsider ever will. We don't have to insult customers by telling them everything we think they don't know (p. xiii-xiv).

In the rush to sell something, as soon as the customer mentions a problem, the salespeople start talking about how to solve it with their solution. They make premature judgments, and in doing so, they shut down or change the direction of their conversations and miss the richness of insight, perspective, and depth of knowledge that the customer could provide. The usual outcome is a dissatisfied customer¡ªdissatisfied because he knows that the salesperson has stopped listening and won't know enough about his situation to propose the best solution. The ideal sales conversation starts with actually hearing customers in their own terms and with their own meanings. As a conversation progresses, you migrate to a more structured discourse in which you are trying to make sense of what customers are telling you in light of the frameworks in which you are expert. You're situating your expertise inside the customer's world (p. xiv-xv).

Sales professionals who are exceptional conversationalists as well as exceptional diagnosticians are like chess masters. They know the pattern of the board, the strategies of the game, and they know where they are, where they're going, and their options at every instant (p. xvii).

Salespeople often have two strikes against them every time they engage a customer: they are relying on unconscious patterns that were already set in stone by the time they entered kindergarten; and they are working with a sales process that encourages an atmosphere of confrontation. These sabotage our relationships with customers (p. xxv).

A study revealed that the number-one reason that patients change doctors was not based upon the doctor's competence, but on the doctor's bedside manner, that is, how well the doctor appeared to understand and respond to the patient (p. 10).

When you're feeling pressure, you're doing something wrong (p. 19).

Do not answer an unasked question (p. 11).

When customers are engaged, they learn. When what they learn is compelling enough to make them want to change and take action, they will buy (p. 10).

You may be sabotaging your own career. A very common scenario occurs when salespeople unwittingly play the parent with customers and alienate them at the very beginning of the sale. Many customers hear a parent or superior insinuating that they don't know their own business. Once the parent and the child manifest themselves in a business conversation, old patterns of reacting often kick in, and what's left of your connection and credibility with the customer quickly deteriorates. In the dialogue that follows, you'll see that salespeople often respond as the child to their customers:

Prospect: Our Company is planning to purchase an integrated CRM software package for our marketing, sales and service staff. We would like you to demonstrate your solution to our management team by the end of the month.

Salesperson: First, I need to get a better understanding of your company's needs and budget. I'd like to meet with several of the executives at your company.

Prospect: We'd rather not take the time for that. We'd like to start with an overview first and if things look good, we can progress from there.

Salesperson: It's very difficult to present such a complex solution without understanding more about your situation and budget constraints.

Prospect: We don't have time to waste on meetings. Do you want to work with us or not?

Salesperson: Certainly, when would be the most convenient time for the demo?

What happened here was driven by emotion. The customer says he wants a product demonstration, a normal and often costly part of the complex sales process. The salesperson responds as an adult and seeks to ensure that a demonstration of his product can be tailored and is appropriate for the customer and his own company. The customer responds like a parent; it's going to be his way or the highway. The salesperson, overly anxious to please and scared to lose the sale, responds like a child by complying and, in doing so, commits to an expensive course of action that may very well have no chance of yielding a sale (p. 14-15).

Just as it takes two to tango, salespeople and customers enter conversations with preconceived perceptions and expectations and distinct mind-sets. Customers tend to paint all salespeople with the same brush. To them, salespeople--no matter whether they sell advanced avionics or used cars--all come out of the same mold. And customers' negative perception of salespeople is often based on direct experience. To break these patterns and establish credibility and trust with customers, the author recommends the following:

1. Salespeople need to be professionally involved and emotionally detached in conversations with customers.
2. Salespeople must retrain themselves and learn new conversational processes and skills.
3. Salespeople have to confront their conditioning and establish themselves as valued business advisers.

What is the one and only thing your customers really want to know? Value. You can't count on customers to recognize on their own the value you bring to the table, to calculate what it's worth or accurately determine if they should pay its price. You must help the customer connect the dots. The customer is the judge and jury in the sale, but you are the expert, the guide. The value proposition is nothing more than a capability, and your primary responsibility is to make it relevant. Once you know how to translate value, you are on your way to regular and predictable success in sales. When a value translation is done properly, the pieces of the customer's puzzle come together and you get the credit (p. 39-40).

Successful sales professionals maintain and protect their self-esteem and their customer's self-esteem at all times. What does self-esteem have to do with sales? When salespeople inadvertently damage their customer's self-esteem, they risk losing the cooperation and participation that are so important to the sales process. Some salespeople ask the customer questions like: "What's keeping you awake at night?" and "What types of pain are you feeling in your manufacturing process?" The danger is you are insinuating that the customer doesn't know what he is doing. If you "get to the pain" without being sensitive to self-esteem, you can easily alienate the customer and destroy the relationship.

A sales engagement is not the right place to get our emotional needs met or give our emotions free rein. Salespeople should be professionally involved, but emotionally detached (p. 173).

There are only two reasons why customers don't buy:

1. They don't believe they have a problem, so they don't have incentive to change.
2. They don't believe the solution proposed will work.

Never be afraid or unwilling to tell a customer your price the moment the question is asked. The right question is not whether the price is reasonable or not. The right question is, "Does the customer's situation warrant our level of solution in financial terms?"

You have competitors; your customers have alternatives (p. 143).

In his book, 'Failure Is Not an Option', NASA Mission Control Director Gene Kranz described the necessity of having a mental map in the world of test pilots. Test pilots, he said, are always trying to stay ahead of the airplane; they are trying to get ahead of the power curve. They work hard to 'anticipate what could happen rather than just reacting to what was happening at the moment.' That is the mark of a professional in any field of endeavor (p. 79).

This is a good book to read if you want to master the art of selling. It offers great advice and workable methods.

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Useful insights into complex, high-cost sales

Every book jacket sales guru disparages "traditional" sales methods to promote his or her revolutionary approach, and Jeff Thull is no exception. However, Thull adds substance to his claim as he examines the arena of the complex sale and espouses his four-step sales sequence: "Discover, diagnose, design and deliver." In his sales system, every stage is a collaborative effort between the salesperson and the decision makers at the prospective client company. By working together, both prospect and salesperson identify a problem, research its financial impact, decide to make a change and design a solution. This system relies on gaining access to all the necessary players and getting them to participate throughout. Thull tends to gloss over the difficulty of clearing this daunting hurdle, though it may be harder to manage than he proposes. However, for those working in high stakes sales, this text is certainly worth studying. We particularly recommend its advice regarding orchestrating productive sales conversations.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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