In many parts of the world – summer has arrived or is coming soon. (In Wisconsin, we are desparetly waiting still….)

Summer time often means a little more time to sit and enjoy life or maybe work in a little R&R on vacation! And that’s a great time to read…to let your mind fill with new possibilities or solve agonizing questions such as:

• Why did I ___________ ?
• How can I ___________ ?
• What on earth caused _________ ?

Well, I have put together a list of great sales books. I personally know many of these authors – and their insights, experiences and unique styles all provide something valuable to help YOU be more successful.

There are so many books we have made this a two-part post!  Look for Part 2 on May 30th.

And, to make it easy for you to reference the entire list, we’ll have a full listing of all 25+ books available for download on the 30th for you as well.

Enjoy!

42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness, by Michael Griego. If you are a professional salesperson, sales manager or director, vice president of sales or marketing, CEO, or anyone supporting selling efforts, this book is for you. If you are a senior executive, consultant, venture capitalist, board member, entrepreneur or aspiring up-and-comer, you should know the updated tools, language and tactics of selling in today’s market.

Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by using What You Already Know About the Game of Baseball, by Dave Kurlan. Summer and Baseball!  Baseline Selling makes for a great summer read because unlike most sales books, it’s enjoyable to read, it’s easy to apply and the Baseline Selling sales process is both intuitive and easy to remember.

Business Expert Guide to Business Success, 21 Business Experts Guide You to Profit by Lee B. Salz and Jeb Blount. Build your business right the first time with practical, proven strategies that grow profitable business for the long haul. Be in control of that business rather than it controlling you! 

Bypassing NO in Business, New Body language and Influence Strategies to Eliminate or Reduce Resistance to Anything by Harlan Goerger. 31 quick ideas to get you to the beach more often with more green! Get more YES without pushing, lying or negative manipulation of your customers.

Go for No! Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There by Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz. A short, fun easy read about a guy who learns an entirely new way to view success and failure and the “NO’s” he encounters in his sales career. Written in fable style, you’ll get plenty of entertainment and sales lessons along with your tan!

Mastering the World of Selling – The Ultimate Resource From The Biggest Names in Sales, by Eric Taylor. No other resource gives you such depth AND breadth on so many sales-related topics, from so many experts – literally everything you need to know to become a Master of Selling and take your sales to a level you could only ever dream of before now.

Secrets of Successful Selling by Kelley Robertson. A good summer read, because each two-to-four page chapter offers a different piece of sales advice, technique or strategy. Categorized alphabetically, it is a great reference book and its short chapters make it easy to pick up and review in-between sales calls. You can read one or two chapters, go for swim, read another few chapters, enjoy a BBQ, etc.

 SNAP Selling by Jill Konrath. If you’re frustrated dealing with today’s crazy busy prospects who never answer the phone, stay with a status quo they don’t like and take forever to make decisions, then check out this book. Tons of ideas and fresh strategies for dealing with frazzled prospects. #1 sales book on Amazon.

The Art of Social Selling – Free e-book from The Customer Collective, with contributions from Anneke Seley. Summer. It’s a time of relaxed deadlines, vacations, and the perfect time to let your mind explore new concepts and grapple with ideas your busy workaday mind doesn’t have time to explore.  This summer, consider the changing behavior of today’s customer that is prompting the contemporary sales organization to rethink how they sell. In this e-book, top corporate leadership and thought leaders who sell in a variety of industry sectors will share success stories and strategies for using social networks to generate leads and cultivate relationships.

The Selling Gap, Selling Strategies for the 21st Centuryby Harlan Goerger. Gain more beach time in less time with new ideas on how people buy in today’s market. It’s not about product, it’s about decisions and facilitating those decisions.

Negotiation Rules by Jeanette Nyden.  Big deal negotiators know the rules to winning great deals without sacrificing their bottom-line. This book is packed with dozens of relevant and practical skills that will help you successfully negotiate your next big deal.

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I just finished reading the Sales Winner’s Handbook by Wendy Weiss, the Queen of Cold Calling.  Wow!  If you are in a position where making calls (who isn’t) is ciritcial to your success, the easy-to-use and implement scripts and strategies will skyrocket  your sales performance – just like Wendy claims!

You already know questions are critical in sales.  The wrong questions end the sales conversation before it even gets started.  Yet, the right questions help you smoothly gain agreement to do business together. 

Wendy Weiss  shares 144 killer questions to qualify your prospects, get the critical information you must know, justify price, and close the sale.  These questions along with her word-for-word scripts are a game changer.  Included in the book are scripts – yes, actual word-for-word scripts you can adapt to YOUR sales for:

1. Appointment setting
2. Working through objections
3. Leaving voice mails
4. Following up with Prospects
5. Closing and more

Personally I appreciated one of the last chapters – Words to Use and Words to Avoid.  Words to avoid?

• Just
• Hopefully

Think about how MINIMIZING those words are to ANY message you are sending. 

Jennifer Younge, Ross Culbert & Lavery, Inc. says…

“Wendy Changed My Life!”
“The small design company I work for in the Flat Iron district was really strapped.  This is my first job in sales.  We are 14 people and I am the only sales person.  When I arrived six months ago I realized my natural abilities were not going to be enough.  Thanks to Wendy I’ve arranged meetings with The Trump organization, The Bank of New York, Trammel Crow Company, Cushman & Wakefield, The CIT Group, AIG, The Depository Trust & Clearing, Snapple Beverages and dozens more.”  Wendy is the genius behind my success.

The book is under $50 (and there are many freebies that come with it) and the potential benefits to your sales are priceless.  To get your hands on this practical and easy to implement handbook – click here.

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Closing more sales. It’s the goal for sales managers and professionals alike.  And both are frustrated when it doesn’t happen.  How do I know this?  I ask!

During the needs analysis with a prospect, we always ask “What are the barriers to getting where you want to be?” or “What is keeping you from achieving the goals that are set?” Nearly 90% of the time, one of the reasons given by sales managers is that “My people aren’t closing sales. They do all the work and then the final decision is stalled. They don’t move them through the pipeline.”

If I ask sales people, “What keeps you from closing more sales?” I often hear, “The buyers don’t make decisions timely.”

When I ask buyers why they haven’t decided, they have said “They never asked!”

Okay, so what can be done to get buyers to decide and sales pros to close?  It may be more simple than you think – you need to ask! 

I can’t count the number of times I have observed or coached a sales pro to find out that they do a LOT of work to build the relationship, identify the wants/needs and demonstrate their value.  And then wait. And check in. And wait. Then check in again. But they never have asked to find out the answer!

Instead, there are important questions to be asked after the recommendation is made!  They questions fall into two groups:

• Objections
• Decisions

Unless we ask for their opinion on concerns/objections, we may never know where we really stand.  Until we ask for a decision we may never ‘win’ the deal.

What can you do to close more sales?  First, find out where they are in their thought process and if there are any objections, ask,

• “How does what we’ve discussed sound to you?”
• “What concerns do you have about this solution or me/my company?”
• “What barriers do you see in implementing this?”
• “How does this align with your goals?

Notice these are open ended questions that ask for opinions, ideas and feedback?

Then after listening and responding appropriately, ask for a decision:

• “What is the next action for you in the decision making process?”
• “Have we covered everything you need to make your decision?”
• “Are you ready to move forward?”
• “Can we initiate the paperwork today?”
• “Should we wrap this up?”

Some of these are still open ended to allow you ‘test the water’ before asking for a decision.  But then you HAVE to ask for a decision!

Want to know if this works?  Try it and you will see that it does.

The reason I am writing this post today is because I just used this process with the IRS. Yes the IRS!  They never say ‘yes’.  But I looked at appealing a penalty charge as an opportunity to sell – to build a relationship with the agent, ask for concerns, and then ask for the removal of the penalty.  The charge was relevant – in switching the Sales Pro Insider accounting systems last June, one of the federal tax payments was not made.

It took me two letters and a phone call – which is what sealed the deal. During the call I focused on building rapport, working through the situation together and then asking for the penalty to be removed. The agent cheerfully – really cheerfully – said he would recommend a removal.  I just opened the letter that said it had been approved! A large penalty was removed from the account.

This situation is a great reminder for us all – you don’t get what you don’t ask for. 

My recommendation to you?  Look at your pipeline. What prospects are stalled?  Which situations did you maybe not ‘close’ with the right questions? Then determine how to initiate contact with the prospect. Your objective is to first identify if there are concerns, find out if what you have discussed is of value to them and then ASK for a decision.  The decision might be the buying decision or a decision that they will take an action or talk with  you at a specific time.  And if you get a ‘no’?  Then you know where you stand and can move on to more probable prospects.

In the spirit of asking today – I ask you – who do you know would find value from this blog? Send them a link please!

And if you haven’t already done so, what keeps you from signing up for the Timely T ips ezine here?  Every few weeks you will receive the ezine with helpful tips and fun tidbits. Just for signing up you receive the Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals eBook – a great roadmap and toolkit for you!

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What happens when you hear an objection?  Do you freeze?  Do you run?  Do you get defensive?  There are many ways to respond to objections – and most will kill your sale!  But when you listen to the objection and respond appropriately, the sale will live on!

My energetic and unbelievably talented colleague, Colleen Francis of Engage  Selling just posted her two-step formula for responding to objections on her blog today:

Here’s a proven two-step formula that can help you handle any pricing objections your prospects throw at you.

 Step 1: Shut up!

 Whenever you’re faced with a difficult question or objection, the first thing you need to do is take a deep breath, make eye contact with your prospect and silently count to three.

 It is amazing how many clients will answer their own objections, or at least give you some much-needed information, when you simply say nothing. Don’t be afraid of silence. Practice it until the three-second pause becomes one of the most effective tools in your arsenal.

 Step 2: Ask questions.

 You can ask up to three questions before you have to answer an objection – provided you ask the right questions in the right way.

 The key is to acknowledge what the customer is saying and then offer them a compliment before asking your question.

 Which questions should you ask?

 Once you’ve acknowledged the objection, ask them a question that is both direct and phrased to elicit more information. Try the following.

 Prospect: “Your price is too high!”

Sales professional: “Thanks for sharing that. How much too high are we?” or “You’re right; we are more expensive than most. How much were you hoping to pay?” or “I appreciate your honesty. Is our price a showstopper?”

 Prospect: “I need a discount!”

Sales professional: “It’s good of you to be looking for the best deal. How much of a discount do you need?” or “Making sure you’re getting the best deal for your company is a good idea. If we can’t budge on the price, does that mean it’s over between us?”

I agree wholeheartedly with the two step approach.  One caution:  Be careful NOT to ignore the emotion that the customer is displaying when they share the objection.  Match the intensity of the emotion with your response/question.  Or there will be a disconnect.  In fact, this is so important, the next Sales Pro Inisider post will address intensity and emotion.

For today, Colleen Says “Shut Up”, I say “Be Quiet” for at least 3-5 seconds when you hear an objection. Then open your mouth and the discussion with a good question to learn more about the objection.

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