The following is an excerpt from the book, Cooked Up Sales. (This book is available for purchase at Amazon.com.)
First, the fundamentals
Sales is about relating, learning, and solving. If a salesperson is telling or advocating or pushing, they cannot listen, learn or connect. It doesn’t matter if you’re a great orator. It is not how great your product is. It is not your company or its capabilities that closes the deal. Rather, it is how well you have personally developed an understanding of what the customer is trying to accomplish and how they envision you addressing their needs. In order to effectively accomplish this, a sales professional must be able to focus on the client, the needs, the discovery, and the relationship. In the end, the key is to demonstrate a value based link to your product offering and their very specific needs. Do not push yourself—because it is not about you–but rather pull from them. If you are starting to get tired of hearing yourself talk, it’s already too late—you have probably jeopardized the sale.
Author’s Note:
Cooked Up Sales was written to bring the basics back to selling. This book is short, concise, and focuses on the fundamental key to excellent selling results–relationships that add value. Today, people do not have the time to fool around with pushy sales people or aggressive business tactics. They are looking for business relationships that help them solve a problem or fulfill a need. This book is written around that basic theme. And, it teaches how to maintain a strong, effective business relationship throughout the selling process while simultaneously producing effective sales results.