Pages: 2

The first professional salesman I ever met was Bill Blankenship, a recruiter for the US Navy. I went to the Navy recruiting center across the street from my high school to learn about joining the Navy. Bill immediately sold me; as I was only 17, I needed the permission of my mother. Bill came to my home, met my mother and other family members, and explained why joining the Navy was a good idea, especially for a young man just finishing high school. He sold my mother on the idea.

Pages: 5

This chapter covers accountability: what it is, why it is important, and how does it work to improve your sales success. The chapter discusses the accountability loop and how to implement it and explains why accountability is difficult to do on your own. The chapter includes perspectives on accountability from a professional: how to implement your own accountability process for yourself and in your business.

Pages: 5

This chapter covers beliefs and making the first sales to yourself is essential. It covers what beliefs are and how they are developed. The chapter includes how to develop a belief in your offering, develop your sales philosophy, and develop the right mindset to succeed in sales. It also discusses the seven misbeliefs that can derail a sales career. The chapter concludes with a perspective for professionals and key takeaways.

Pages: 5

This chapter covers developing a client-centered mindset to maximizing your vital few. It provides an overview of what a client-centered process is and why it is important. It also covers and explains the concept of the vital few and how to apply it to a business. The chapter explains how clients should be segmented into categories and concludes with perspectives for a professional on how they apply the concepts as well as a takeaway summary.

Pages: 5

This chapter covers discipline and how to use it to maximize strengths. It discusses why discipline is important for sales success, establishing priorities, and discusses the concept of the endless chain, and how it can be used to develop good sales habits for success. A professional perspective is provided with takeaways on how sales professionals can apply these concepts to their own work and career.

Pages: 6

This chapter covers end results, thinking about you would like something to turn out before you get started. It covers an understanding of what an ideal client is and seven ways to clarifying an ideal client. The chapter discusses about how to build a whole client overview and the questions to ask. It concludes with a professional perspective on application and key takeaways to assist with implementation.

Pages: 6

This chapter covers the doughnut concept and how it applies to selling. This chapter presents and explains four types of sales models and how to implement them. This chapter also covers what is raising the bar, what it means, and why it’s important for sales success. There is a sales calculation worksheet to establish objectives. This chapter includes perspectives from a professional on how the information is used and concludes with a field view and tips for implementation.

Pages: 7

This chapter covers goal setting and how to aim high to hit your sales targets. The chapter covers what goals are, why they are important to sales success, and how to establish the right type of sales priorities to balance your time. The chapter also includes how to make your goals bite size and provides a formula for doing so. It also discusses how to translate your goals and the three laws of writing good goals. It concludes with a perspective from a professional, notes from the field, and takeaway actions for implementation.

Pages: 7

This chapter covers habits and acquiring the right tools for success. It explains what habits are and the difference between developing good habits and bad habits. This chapter explores why habits are important and what are the basics of habits. There is a model showing different types of habits. Also, the chapter covers the seven personal traits of the top performers and how to replace poor habits. It looks into how to acquire good habits, perspectives from a professional on applying this across, and key takeaway notes to assist with the implementation.

Pages: 5

This chapter discusses ideas and why idea is a clean versatile four-letter word. It explores what is an idea and why ideas are important to the sales process. Next, it looks at where to find good ideas for your clients and prospects and explores how to sell your ideas, how to land meetings, and how to obtain discussions with perspective clients. It also covers how to package your ideas to make them presentable and how do you encourage ideas in your business. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a professional on implementing ideas in their business, notes from the field, and key takeaways.

Pages: 9

This chapter covers jargon and the understanding of buzzwords in your marketplace. It explores what a jargon is, the background, and examples of jargon that is used in other industries. It covers why jargon is important and some examples of common terms. It discusses the advantages that jargon provides for sales professionals and the difference between using jargon and a generic approach. The chapter covers word-finding jargon for an industry or market niche that you are working in and how to gain the right language. The chapter concludes with using jargon in emails, proposal writing, and some common industry terms. A top performer perspective, a view from the field, and key takeaways are included to help implement these ideas.

Pages: 5

This chapter covers knowledge and getting smart about selling, and it discusses what sales knowledge is. This chapter covers the difference between knowledge training and skills training and why you need both. It covers continual learning and why you need it to take charge of your own training and development. The chapter also covers knowledge areas that are important for sales success and how to improve your knowledge areas. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top professional on implementing the ideas, views from the field, and takeaway tips.

Pages: 5

This chapter discusses listening and how to be all ears. It explores what is listening and why it’s effective for sales. The chapter explores the difference between active listening and passive listening and how to use both. It also discusses what is paraphrasing, how and when to use it, and also note-taking during discussions. Techniques are provided on how to deal with ramblers. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top professional, views from the field, and takeaway tips for implementing the ideas discussed in this chapter.

Pages: 8

This chapter discusses marketing and promoting and selling your offering. It discusses what is marketing and why it is important. It explores four marketing strategies and the 5Ps. There’s a diagram explaining the 5Ps. The difference between indirect and direct marketing is explained, and how and when to use each. The chapter also discusses what is an ideal client and there’s a worksheet on how to identify an ideal client. It also covers how to package your expertise and create a verbal marketing message. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top performer, views from the field, and target market takeaways to apply.

Pages: 5

This chapter covers niche marketing and how to become someone special in your chosen market. It explains what a niche market is and why it’s important to have a niche market. It covers how to select a niche market and become the go-to person in whatever market that is chosen. The chapter covers raising a profile of how to become recognized within a chosen niche market and concludes with perspectives from a professional, views from the field, and key takeaways for implementation.

Pages: 6

This chapter covers observation marketing and how to pay attention to what’s happening around you. It covers what observation marketing is and its advantages. It explores different observation techniques using newspaper and social media. The chapter explores how to record observations and listen and investigate techniques. The chapter covers developing a 24-hour observation awareness and using observation to learn new skills, qualify, and find perspective clients. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top performer, views from the field, and key takeaways for implementation.

Pages: 5

This chapter covers prospecting and how to get meetings with prospective clients. It explores what is prospecting and why prospecting is important to the sales process. It discusses the different types of prospecting approaches and the role social media can play with effective prospecting. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top performer, views from the field, and key takeaways for implementing the ideas discussed here.

Pages: 5

This chapter explores questions on the other side of listening and how to use questions. It covers what sales questions are and why sales questions are important and the role they play in the sales process. It also covers the types of sales questions you need and how to ask the right type of questions, the difference between open-ended questions, closed-ended questions, and leading questions. This chapter covers how to prepare sales questions. Finally, the chapter concludes with perspectives from a top professional, views from the field, and key takeaways for implementation.

Pages: 7

This chapter deals with referrals, leveraging existing relationships. It covers what referrals are and why they are important to the sales process. The chapter also explains the different types of referral relationships, the difference between a client referral and the client referral sources, and how to acquire them. It discusses strategic alliance partners and developing a referral mindset including how to plant referral seeds. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top professional, views from the field, and key takeaways for implementation.

Pages: 7

This chapter is about service: how to create a process for turning prospects into clients. It covers what unique services are and how to design one and why the unique services are important to your offering. The chapter also discusses the ingredients needed to compose the unique services and describes a worksheet for the purpose. Also covered is naming your unique service and the elements that should be considered therein, sales meeting outline, and what it should look like. The chapter concludes with perspectives from the top professional, views from the field, and key takeaway ideas for implementation.

Pages: 6

This chapter deals with time management about how to get stuff done. It covers what time management is and what are its fundamentals. It also covers why professionals need to organize themselves, how to delegate, time blocking, and how to prioritize your key activities with a sample outline. Also covered is the morning and afternoon system to get high-priority tasks completed and delegation of nonessential activities. The topic of time blocking is also discussed: what it is and how it works, how to avoid the business syndrome. The chapter concludes with living in your calendar, perspectives from a top performer, views from the field, and key takeaway ideas.

Pages: 6

This chapter covers upgrading and staying sharp with your skills. It also covers what is upgrading and why it is important during a career, and the fundamentals of upgrading with a chart showing the elements of keeping yourself updated in both skills attitudes and capabilities. There is an audit worksheet to identify strengths and weaknesses on skills and allow someone to access themselves . The chapter also discusses how to improve the knowledge of clients and concludes with a perspective from top professional, views from the field, and key takeaway actions.

Pages: 6

This chapter covers value selling and how to avoid competing on price. It discusses what a value is, how to create a value-based mindset, and how to create a value-based approach in your selling. The chapter also includes key principles of value selling and how to present your value to convert a prospect into a client. The chapter covers how do you present your value in proposals in the concept of the value link with an example. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top professional, views from the field, and takeaway ideas for implementation.

Pages: 7

This chapter covers win-win selling and how to create an ethical way to sell. It covers what win-win is and the four outcomes of any sale. The chapter discusses how to create a win-win situation for clients, prospects, and the business while staying in control. It also covers how to handle objections and a process for answering sales objections with guidelines. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top performer, views from the field, and key takeaway ideas for implementation.

Pages: 6

This chapter covers “X” factor in developing your personal sales power. It discusses why an X factor is essential, essential element of an X Factors, following the 80/20 rule. It also covers the elements of an X factor with examples and provides guidelines for finding an X factor. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top performer, views from the field, and key takeaway ideas for implementation.

Pages: 6

This chapter deals with packaging your X factor. It also covers what is a personal brand and why every sales professional should have their own personal brand. It covers how to build a personal brand, five steps to find and develop your brand. How to put your brand to work. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top professional, views from the field, and key takeaway ideas for implementation.

Pages: 6

This chapter covers zig-zag and recovering from setbacks. It discusses what a zigzag is and why having a zig-zag plan B is important for sales success. Also discussed are the different types of circumstances that could require someone to zigzag and how to create a zig-zag plan B that includes packaging your X factor and effectively managing the environment around you. The chapter concludes with perspectives from a top performer, views from the field, and key takeaway ideas for implementation.