Adeline Yaw – Happiness Engineer @ Automattic

I’ve picked out parts of this book that I’ve found relevant to the work we’re currently doing as Happiness Engineers.

“Sales is not a matter of leads and appointments and closes. It’s not even a matter of the quality of your product or your service response. Sales is a matter of who you are, what your attitude is, and how dedicated you are to personal excellence. It’s how responsible you are for the actions that you take and how sincere you are about helping others win for themselves so that ultimately you can win for yourself. That’s not an idea or strategy. That’s a philosophy.” (page 25)

“Without questions, you’ll have no answers. Without answers, you’ll have no sales. Without sales, you’ll have no money.” (page 103)

“The question is the most important skill a salesperson should master. The importance of asking one properly lies somewhere between a sale and no sale.” (page 104)

“Sales solutions are easy once you identify the prospect’s problems. But that can only occur with well-crafted questions – questions that extract information, needs and concerns. The sale is most easily made one you identify the prospect’s real needs and harmonize with his concerns.” (page 107)

“When you answer a prospect’s question, avoid two words – Yes and No.”

1). Recognizing a buying signal is the sales discipline.

2). Being able to construct a response questions (much more difficult) requires creativity and practice.

3). Delivering the response soft and smooth is the mark of the master professional salesperson. And usually the one makes the sale.

(page 181, 182)

Asking ChatGPT to summarize the book…

“The Sales Bible – The Ultimate Sales Resource” by Jeffrey Gitomer is a comprehensive guide for salespeople to improve their skills and achieve success in sales. The book covers a range of topics such as developing a positive attitude, creating a winning sales strategy, effective communication, building trust, and closing deals.

Gitomer emphasizes the importance of building relationships with customers and understanding their needs and desires. He provides practical tips on how to create a personalized sales pitch that resonates with the customer and how to handle objections effectively.

The book also includes advice on how to build a strong personal brand, utilize technology to enhance sales efforts, and develop a strong work ethic.

Throughout the book, Gitomer stresses the importance of continuous learning and self-improvement. He encourages salespeople to embrace a “sales is a noble profession” mindset and to strive for excellence in every aspect of their work.

Overall, “The Sales Bible” is a valuable resource for both novice and experienced salespeople looking to improve their skills and achieve greater success in their careers.

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I’ve picked out parts of this book that I’ve found relevant to the work we’re currently doing as Happiness Engineers.

“By definition, a shift to solution selling results in customers’ expecting you to actually “solve” a real problem and not just supply a reliable product. And that’s hard to do. It requires that you not only understand the customer’s underlying problems or challenges as well if not better than they do themselves, but also that you can identify new and better means of addressing those challenges, articulate clear benefits from using limited resources to solve that problem versus competing ones, and determine the right metrics to measure success. And the only way to do all of that is to ask the customer lots of questions. So reps spend a great deal of time asking things like, “What’s keeping you up at night?” in an attempt to truly understand a customer’s competing challenges.” (page 8)

“The one who uses his or her deep understanding of a customer’s business not simply to serve them, but to teach them: to push their thinking and provide them with new and different ways to think about their business and how to compete. So what truly sets them apart? In our analysis, of the forty-four or so attributes we tested, six of them showed up as statistically significant in defining someone as a Challenger rep:

• Offers the customer unique perspectives
• Has strong two-way communication skills
• Knows the individual customer’s value drivers
• Can identify economic drivers of the customer’s business
• Is comfortable discussing money
• Can pressure the customer

(page 23)

“Teaching is all about offering customers unique perspectives on their business and communicating those perspectives with passion and precision in a way that draws the customer into the conversation. These new perspectives apply not to your products and solutions, but to how the customer can compete more effectively in their market. It’s insight they can use to free up operating expenses, penetrate new markets or reduce risk.” (page 36)

“When the topic of price comes up, a powerful technique is for the sales professional to shift the discussion from price to value. The value of the current offering is a great place to start this dialogue. During the course of such a discussion, it is useful to get the customer to rank the elements of the offering in order of importance. This sometimes enables the customer to see the offering in a different light; these new insights are very useful to both the sales professional and the customer as they think about value.” (page 41)

Asking ChatGPT to summarize the book…

I found the summary from ChatGPT quite uninspiring but nevertheless provides a basic outline of the book.

The Challenger Sale is a book that outlines a new approach to sales. The authors, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, conducted a study that found that the most successful salespeople were those who challenged their customers’ thinking rather than just building relationships.

These top-performing salespeople were referred to as “Challengers” and they had a specific set of skills that set them apart from others. They were able to teach their customers something new about their business, tailor their approach to each customer’s individual needs, and take control of the sale by leading with insights rather than just responding to customer requests.

The book provides practical advice and techniques for salespeople to adopt the Challenger approach, including how to research customers’ businesses, how to build a strong business case for their product or service, and how to deliver insights that will change the way customers think about their business.

Overall, The Challenger Sale challenges the traditional sales approach and provides a roadmap for salespeople to be more successful by becoming Challengers.

Conclusion…

“Insight is all about teaching customers new ways of thinking, pushing them to rethink their current perspectives and approaches. And that’s exactly what Challengers do. They teach customers new perspectives, specifically tailored to their most pressing business needs, in a compelling and assertive enough manner to ensure that the message not only resonates, but actually drives action. After all, if you don’t change the way a customer thinks – and, ultimately, acts – then you haven’t really taught them anything to begin with. At least nothing worth doing anything about. And where’s the value in that?”

Page 54

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I’ve picked out parts of this book that I’ve found relevant (mind you, this whole book is very relevant to the work we’re currently doing as Happiness Engineers)

“A – always. B – be. C – closing. Always be closing. Always be closing.”

Always be closing is a cornerstone of the sales cathedral. Successful salespeople, like successful hunters of any species, never relent in pursuing their prey. Every utterance and each maneuver must serve a single goal: pushing the transaction to a conclusion – your conclusion – and getting the person across the table, as Blake says, “to sign on the line which is dotted.”

A – Attunement
B – Buoyancy
C – Clarity

“Attunement, buoyancy, and clarity: These three qualities, which emerge from a rich trove of social science research, are the new requirements for effectively moving people on the remade landscape of the twenty-first century.” (page 68, 69)

“Start your encounters with the assumption that you’re in a position of lower power. That will help you see the other side’s perspective more accurately, which in turn, will help you move them’ (page 72, 73)

“Servant selling is the essence of moving others today. It begins with the idea that those who move others aren’t manipulators but servants. They serve first and sell later.” (page 220)

“Upserve. Upserve means doing more for the other person than he expects or you initially intended, taking the extra steps that transform a mundane interaction into a memorable experience. This simple move – from upselling to upserving – has the obvious advantage of being the right thing to do. But it also carries the hidden advantage of being extraordinarily effective. Anytime you’re tempted to upsell someone else, stop what you’re doing and upserve instead. Don’t try to increase what they can do for you. Elevate what you can do for them.” (page 226)

“Salespeople are no different from engineers, architects, or accountants. Really good salespeople want to solve problems and serve customers. They want to be part of something larger than themselves.” (page 227)

Asking ChatGPT to summarize the book…

I’m pretty impressed by what ChatGPT has to say about the book. Here’s the summary…

“To Sell is Human” by Daniel H. Pink is a book about how everyone sells in some way or another, whether it’s a product, an idea, or even just themselves. The author argues that selling has evolved from a traditional, aggressive approach to a more nuanced and empathetic one, where understanding the needs and desires of the customer is key.

Pink also discusses the importance of pitching, or presenting an idea, in a way that is compelling and memorable. He outlines several techniques for doing so, such as using analogies and asking questions.

Throughout the book, Pink emphasizes the importance of being attuned to others’ perspectives and using empathy to connect with them. He also encourages readers to embrace the idea of “servant selling,” which involves focusing on the customer’s needs rather than just one’s own.

Overall, “To Sell is Human” argues that selling is not just for salespeople, but for anyone who wants to persuade others and get things done. It’s a thought-provoking read that offers practical advice for anyone looking to improve their communication and persuasion skills.

Conclusion…

“Finally, at every opportunity you have to move someone – from traditional sales, like convincing a prospect to buy a new computer system, to non-sales selling, like persuading to buy a new computer system, to non-sales selling, like persuading your daughter to do her homework – be sure you can answer the two questions at the core of genuine service.

1). If the person you’re selling to agrees to buy, will his or her life improve?

2). When your interaction is over, will the world be a better place than when you began?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, you’re doing something wrong.”

(page 232, 233)

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