The Collaborative Sale

Buyer behavior has changed the marketplace, and sellers must adapt to survive The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in Today's Customer-Driven World is the definitive guide to the new reality of sales. The roles of buyers, sellers, and technology have changed, and collaboration is now the key to success on all sides. The Collaborative Sale guides sales professionals toward alignment with buyers, by helping them overcome their problems and challenges, and creating value. From building a robust opportunity pipeline and predicting future revenues to mastering the nuances of buyer conversations, the book contains the information sales professionals need to remain relevant in today's sales environment. Buyers have become more informed and more empowered. As a result, most sellers now enter the buying process at a much later stage than the traditional norm. The rise of information access has given buyers more control over their purchases than ever before, and sellers must adapt to survive. The Collaborative Sale provides a roadmap for adapting through sales collaboration, detailing the foundations, personae, and reality of the new marketplace. The book provides insight into the new buyer thought processes, the new sales personae required for dealing with the new buyers, and how to establish and implement a dynamic sales process. Topics include: Selling in times of economic uncertainty, broad information access, and new buyer behavior Why collaboration is so important to the new buyers The emergence of new sales personae – Micro-marketer, Visualizer, and Value Driver Buyer alignment, risk mitigation, and the myth of control Situational fluency, and the role of technology Focused sales enablement, and buyer-aligned learning and development Implementation and establishment of a dynamic sales process The book describes the essential competencies for collaborative selling, and provides indispensable supplemental tools for implementation. Written by recognized authorities with insights into global markets, The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in Today's Customer-Driven World is the essential resource for today's sales professional.

Buyer behavior has changed the marketplace, and sellers must adapt to survive The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in Today's Customer-Driven World is the definitive guide to the new reality of sales. The roles of buyers, sellers, and technology have changed, and collaboration is now the key to success on all sides. The Collaborative Sale guides sales professionals toward alignment with buyers, by helping them overcome their problems and challenges, and creating value. From building a robust opportunity pipeline and predicting future revenues to mastering the nuances of buyer conversations, the book contains the information sales professionals need to remain relevant in today's sales environment. Buyers have become more informed and more empowered. As a result, most sellers now enter the buying process at a much later stage than the traditional norm. The rise of information access has given buyers more control over their purchases than ever before, and sellers must adapt to survive. The Collaborative Sale provides a roadmap for adapting through sales collaboration, detailing the foundations, personae, and reality of the new marketplace. The book provides insight into the new buyer thought processes, the new sales personae required for dealing with the new buyers, and how to establish and implement a dynamic sales process. Topics include: Selling in times of economic uncertainty, broad information access, and new buyer behavior Why collaboration is so important to the new buyers The emergence of new sales personae – Micro-marketer, Visualizer, and Value Driver Buyer alignment, risk mitigation, and the myth of control Situational fluency, and the role of technology Focused sales enablement, and buyer-aligned learning and development Implementation and establishment of a dynamic sales process The book describes the essential competencies for collaborative selling, and provides indispensable supplemental tools for implementation. Written by recognized authorities with insights into global markets, The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in Today's Customer-Driven World is the essential resource for today's sales professional.

This book introduces sales professionals to the collaborative conversation skills they need to?capture the buyer's attention and secure business. Today's buyers want more from sales professionals than a simple consultation. What they're hungry for are?meaningful, collaborative conversations?built on mutual value and trust, that result in a win...where they, the seller, and the organization, achieve a winning outcome. Based on the author's five-step sales system, What's in It for Them (WIIFT) - Wait, Initiate, Investigate, Facilitate, Then Consolidate - Conversations That Sell shows you how to: Prepare for an?effective sales call - Identify sales opportunities and the factors that?drive buyers to act Adjust their approach?to the type of buyer - Achievers, Commanders, Reflectors, and Expressers Make conversations flow easily - Address problems, opportunities, wants, and needs Work through objections - Advance and close sales; and more Packed with valuable tools and examples, salespeople in all industries will discover how to increase their short- and long-term sales success by keeping the focus of every conversation where it belongs…on the buyer.

Collaborative Selling How to Gain the Competitive Advantage in Sales "Quality was the key word for success in the ’80s. Team selling that makes the customer a true partner will be the point of differentiation in the ’90s. Collaborative Selling lays out a clear road map for value-added marketing." —Buck Rodgers Former Vice President of Marketing, IBM Corporation Author, The IBM Way "The traditional ‘hard sell’ approach to customers is passé successful selling in the ’90s requires building a partnership with customers. Collaborative Selling tells you how to develop a cooperative, long-term relationship with your customers." —Og Mandino Author, The Greatest Salesman in the World "Tony and Rick are masters of win-win communications. Their new book will take you above and beyond the competition." —Denis Waitley Author, The New Dynamics of Winning "Collaborative Selling offers a fresh, new look at the art of selling that focuses on solving customers’ problems and meeting your customers’ needs." —Dr. Charles Garfield, President The Charles Garfield Group Based on a dynamic new approach proven in sales training programs in some of the nation’s most successful companies, Collaborative Selling supplies a results-driven, six-step communication and problem-solving program that helps you accurately target your market…identify and contact your best prospects, explore and meet their needs and expectations, then work collaboratively to select the solutions that reward you both.

Collaborative selling comprises targeting your market, contacting your prospect, exploring your customer's needs, collaborating with your customer, confirming the sale, and assuring customer satisfaction.

Sales genius is a team sport. As a B2B sales leader, you know that by Murphy’s Law, despite your team's best efforts, some deals will inevitably get stuck or key relationships will go sour. And too often, it's the most important ones—the last thing you need when millions of dollars are on the line. "Dealstorming" is Tim Sanders’s term for a structured, scalable, repeatable process that can break through any sales deadlock. He calls it “a Swiss Army knife for today’s toughest sales challenges.” It fixes the broken parts of the brainstorming process and reinvigorates account management for today's increasingly complicated sales environment. Dealstorming drives sales innovation by combining the wisdom and creativity of everyone who has a stake in the sale. You may think you are applying teamwork to your challenges, but don't be so sure. There's a good chance you're operating inside a sales silo, not building a truly collaborative team across your whole company. The more disciplines you bring into the process, the more unlikely (but effective!) solutions the team can come up with. Sanders explains his seven-step Dealstorming process and shows how it has helped drive results for companies as diverse as Yahoo!, CareerBuilder, Regus, and Condé Nast. You'll learn how to get the right team on board for a new dealstorm, relative to the size of the sales opportunity and its degree of difficulty. The key is adding people from non-sales areas of your company, making them collaborators early in the process. That will help them own the execution and delivery after the deal is done. The book includes real world examples from major companies like Oracle and Skillsoft, along with problem finding exercises, innovation templates, and implementation strategies you can apply to your unique situation. It's based on Sanders' many years as a sales executive and consultant, personally leading dozens of sales collaboration projects. It also features the results of interviews with nearly two hundred B2B sales leaders at companies such as LinkedIn, Altera and Novell. The strategies laid out in Dealstorming have led to a stunning 70% average closing ratio for teams across all major industries, leading to game-changing deals and long-term B2B relationships. Now you can learn how to make dealstorming work for you.

Praise for Mastering the Complex Sale "Jeff Thull's process plays a key role in helping companies and their customers cross the chasm with disruptive innovations and succeed with game-changing initiatives." —Geoffrey A. Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Dealing with Darwin "This is the first book that lays out a solid method for selling cross-company, cross-border, even cross-culturally where you have multiple decision makers with multiple agendas. This is far more than a 'selling process'—it is a survival guide—a truly outstanding approach to bringing all the pieces of the puzzle together." —Ed Daniels, EVP, Shell Global Solutions Downstream, President, CRI/Criterion, Inc. "Mastering the Complex Sale brilliantly sets up value from the customer's perspective. A must-read for all those who are managing multinational business teams in a complex and highly competitive environment." —Samik Mukherjee, Vice President, Onshore Business, Technip "Customers need to know the value they will receive and how they will receive it. Thull's insights into the complex sale and how to clarify and quantify this value are remarkable—Mastering the Complex Sale will be required reading for years to come!" —Lee Tschanz, Vice President, North American Sales, Rockwell Automation "Jeff Thull is winning the war against commoditization. In his world, value trumps price and commoditization isn't a given, it's a choice. This is a proven alternative to the price-driven sale. We've spoken to his clients. This stuff really works, folks." —Dave Stein, CEO and Founder, ES Research Group, Inc. "Our business depends on delivering breakthrough thinking to our executive clients. Jeff Thull has significantly redefined sales and marketing strategies that clearly connect to our global audience. Read it, act on it, and take your results to exceptional levels." —Sven Kroneberg, President, Seminarium Internacional "Jeff's main thesis—that professional customer guidance is the key to success—rings true in every global market today. Mastering the Complex Sale is the essential read for any organization looking to transform their business for long-term, value-driven growth." —Jon T. Lindekugel, President, 3M Health Information Systems, Inc. "Jeff Thull has re-engineered the conventional sales process to create predictable and profitable growth in today's competitive marketplace. It's no longer about selling; it's about guiding quality decisions and creating collaborative value. This is one of those rare books that will make a difference." —Carol Pudnos, Executive director, Healthcare Industry, Dow Corning Corporation

THE MARKET-PROVEN PRINCIPLES OF SOLUTION SELLING FOR TODAY'S HIGH-SPEED, HIGHER-PRESSURE SALES ENVIRONMENT The long-awaited sequel to Solution Selling, one of history's most popular selling guides Nearly 10 years ago, the influential bestseller Solution Selling literally rewrote the rules for selling big-ticket, long-cycle products. The New Solution Selling expands the classic text's cases, examples, and situations and sharpens its focus on streamlining the sales process to achieve greater success in fewer steps and a shorter time frame. Much in sales has changed in the past decade, and The New Solution Selling incorporates those changes into an integrated, tailored approach for improving both individual productivity and organizational return on investment. Written to enhance the results and careers of sales pros and managers in virtually any industry, this performance-focused book features: A completely revamped, updated sales philosophy,management system, and architecture Tools to increase the quality and velocity of sales pipeline opportunities Techniques that "Best of the Best" use to prospect for success Solution Selling created new rules for one-to-one selling of hard-to-sell items. The New Solution Selling focuses on streamlining the proven Solution Selling process and quickly differentiating both oneself and one's products from the competition while decreasing the time spent between initial qualifying and a successful, profitable close.