E-Book Overview
Today’s sales professionals are hungrier than ever for new ideas to help them avoid the dreaded ''vendor'' label.
Yesterday’s sales professional relied on comparing product features and benefits, low prices, and aggressive closings. Today, a new vernacular is emerging to describe sales success.
Selling value. Selling as a process. Being more than a vendor. Increasing margins. Making price irrelevant. Winning executive-level credibility. Creating competitive immunity. These are the watchwords driving the 21st century sales professional. Where challenges abound, however, genuine solutions remain scarce.
Breaking out of the ''vendor trap'' requires nothing short of a wholesale rethinking of what it means to sell value. Salespeople must reevaluate the types of opportunities they pursue, how they plan accounts, what they learn about their customers, and the level of customer they’re willing to sell to. Such a revolutionary change in approach to the nature of sales also requires a new strategic step-by-step plan for progressing through the sales cycle. That is precisely the process described in Beyond Selling Value.
Featuring success stories culled from dozens of real-life selling challenges, Beyond Selling Value takes the reader out of the world of dry, textbook selling and onto the corporate front lines. Using these battle-tested strategies as a guide, Beyond Selling Value walks readers through every stage of the sales process, from targeting the right customers through presenting a strategic business solution to the executive- level decision maker-that one elusive person in the customer organization who is truly positioned to buy value.
Along the way, readers learn the most effective methods to:
• Gather critical intelligence about the customer’s business.
• Outmaneuver the gatekeepers who try to block the path to the top.
• Gain access to senior-level executives to deliver high-impact business presentations.
• Establish long-term business relationships where you work closely with decision makers.
For the crowd captivated by strategic selling and enamored with spin selling, the next generation in selling has arrived. Beyond Selling Value delivers just what today’s sales professionals need-a proven method to stop getting beat up on price and start becoming a critical player in their customers’ future success.
E-Book Content
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Vice President and Publisher: Cynthia A. Zigmund Editorial Director: Donald J. Hull Acquisitions Editor: Mary B. Good Senior Project Editor: Trey Thoelcke Interior Design: Lucy Jenkins Cover Design: Design Solutions Typesetting: Elizabeth Pitts IMPAX is a registered trademark of the IMPAX Corporation.
© 2002 by IMPAX Corporation Published by Dearborn Trade Publishing, a Kaplan Professional Company All rights reserved. The text of this publication, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America 02 03 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shonka, Mark. Beyond selling value : a proven process to avoid the vendor trap / Mark Shonka, Dan Kosch. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-7931-5470 -7 1. Selling. 2. Value. 3. Customer relations. I. Kosch, Dan. II. Title. HF5438.25 .S53 2002 658.8’1—dc21 2002006508
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