Sales Techniques

I read this book in Q107 and also listened to the CD version of this book about 4 or 5 times. The book inspired me to implement a formalized sales process at [...] for the first time in its history. My opinion is that if your company has a very robust lead generation program (prospects that are raising their hands and asking to be contacted by your company), multiple products to sell and your team is an outside sales team, this book is highly relevant. I've been managing our middle market sales team that is very transactionally oriented, sells one product (PPC/CPC advertising) and does the majority of its business over the phone. Furthermore, the leads we are calling are as cold as cold can be. While I picked up a lot of very valuable topics from this book (such as the powerful summary statement at the end of Probe, the Statement of Intention/Bonding Statement or the concept of stacking value), at the end of the day, this sales process was far to complicated for our sale at [...]. One specific benefit that resulted from implementing IMPACT was that we improved our proposal closing ratios from 40.9% in 2004 to 59.1% in 2008. Not too B-A-D. Unfortunately, we did not see a corresponding increase in new account production. It remained flat from April 2007-April 2008. Kevin Gaither is a highly motivated, seasoned, hands-on sales executive with a 15+ year track record of consistently exceeding sales goals, building highly motivated, energized and productive sales teams, and excelling at developing new business. Kevin Gaither is a highly independent, assertive, creative and confident self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced and entrepreneurial company. Kevin Gaither has the proven ability to recruit, hire, train, retain and develop top-ranked sales teams by clearly articulating objectives using analytical thinking, reference to facts and best practices. Kevin Gaither has excellent leadership, prioritization, communication and analytical skills. Kevin Gaither has the ability to develop and clearly articulate objectives using both analytical thinking, reference to facts and best practices.

If you're tired of reading reheated sales techniques from the 80s, this book is for you. I own a travel agency and I'm trying to motivate our sales staff. With a luxury product, we can't use cheesy and outdated "Which day is better, Tuesday or Thursday?" sales techniques. Bill Brooks infuses integrity and honor back into the Sales Professional and describes a way of doing business that sales people can both be proud of and create a good living. Bravo!