Sales Effectiveness Training: The Breakthrough Method to Become Partners with Your Customers

Surprise! A sales book tops my list of negotiation resources. But this sales book focuses on the most basic communication strategies which, if mastered, form the basis of any interaction--including negotiation. Sales Effectiveness Training is an offshoot of Gordon's earlier book, Parental Effectiveness Training (PET), itself an invaluable negotiations resource. But I didn't think that even I could convince people to read a parental training manual to improve their negotiation skills. For extra credit, check out PET; it's well written, by Gordon alone; he develops his examples in greater depth than is done in Sales Effectiveness Training. What's exciting about Sales Effectiveness Training is its unique emphasis on skills we'd otherwise overlook. When most people come to me for advice, they want to know what to say, and how to say it. But the most important thing is how you listen, not what you say. This book puts the importance of listening skills -- both as a technique for understanding and as a method of creating rapport in the context of sales effectiveness. Other Batna.com articles will examine these principles in the specific context of negotiations; but the material in Sales Effectiveness Training is highly valuable as is.

When in presence of a salesperson I have the impression he/she leads the discussion where he/she wants to go. The main difference with Sales Effectiveness Training is that the client leads: the salesperson acts as a consultant, faciliator to help the client make his/her own decision. That brings trust and make THE difference