Brilliant Selling

352 Pages·2014·1.22 MB·English

by  Tom Bird

IRIUIANT
TOM BIRD AND JEREMY CASSELL 2nd Edition
Praise for Brilliant Selling
A must-read for anyone aspiring to excel in sales.
Patrik Frisk, President, Timberland
Brilliant Selling is very practical and accessible, without a lot of the
jargon you see in many sales books. Readers will get real and tangible
value from this rich and informative book. I highly recommend it!
Paul Matthews, Managing Director, People Alchemy
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve
their understanding of the sales process and the art of developing
and managing long-term commercial relationships, which turn into
enduring partnerships.
Philip Jansen, Group Chief Executive, Brakes Group
I am really impressed with Brilliant Selling. I am responsible for
a large corporate sales team and I have been looking for a book
that will support our people. I can thoroughly recommend Brilliant
Selling - it is full of practical tips, does not have the jargon con-
tained in so many sales books and will, I believe, make a significant
difference to both the new and experienced salesperson.
Neil Comay, Commercial Director, L'Oreal
I put this in the top three business books I have ever read (along-
side Julian Richer's excellent The Richer Way and Malcolm
Gladwell's The Tipping Point). Cassell and Bird effortlessly fuse a
range of techniques, templates, stories and tips into a handbook
that anyone can use - whether they are an out and out salesperson,
a business owner, or simply wanting to get better at influencing.
You don't need to change the way you are with this book - most
people are how they are. But it gives you the tools to start making
small changes in the way you operate. I heartily recommend it to
you, as I have to countless people personally.
Andy Coughlin, sales director and coach
Brilliant Selling is very pragmatic, which is exactly what we found
when we hired Jeremy and Tom to help us improve the way we
deliver sales presentations. Our salespeople and operators gained
significantly from their training and coaching and we can directly
link their involvement to our improved sales results.
Jeremy Alderton, Sales Director, Sodexo
Brilliant Selling: what it says on the tin - a brilliant book about sell-
ing brilliantly... a familiar friend and a refreshing change, all in one
very informative and useful package. A genuine message of Doing
It Right and Winning that resonates with a modernity and human-
ity for which the whole field was more than ready!
Business Development Manager, Tribal Group
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brilliant
selling
second edition
Jeremy Cassell
Tom Bird
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First published in Great Britain in 2009 (print and electronic)
Second edition published 2012 (print and electronic)
Rejacketed edition published 2015 (print and electronic)
© Pearson Education Limited 2009, 2015
The rights of Jeremy Cassell and Tom Bird to be identified as authors of this work have
been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN; 978-1-292-08324-7 (print)
978-1-292-08392-6 (PDF)
978-1-292-08390-2 (eText)
978-1-292-08391-9 (ePub)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for the print edition is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for the print edition is available from the Library of Congress
10 987654321
18 17 16 15 14
Series cover design by David Carroll & Co
Cartoons by Sarah Arnold
Print edition typeset in 10/14pt Plantin MT Pro by 71
Print edition printed by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport
NOTE THAT ANY PAGE CROSS REFERENCES REFER TO THE PRINT
EDITION
Contents
About the authors vii
Introduction to the second edition ix
How this book works xii
part 1 You i
1 The personality of a salesperson 5
2 How beliefs and values impact sales success 17
3 Your personal'brand' 29
4 Performance and selling 37
5 Continually improving through self-coaching 47
part 2 Process and planning 55
6 The sales process as a tool for improvement 59
7 Making the most of your time 77
8 Planning for success 85
9 Setting the right goals 93
10 Managing sales information 101
part3 Your power to influence 109
11 The C3 model - the foundations
of effective influencing 113
1 2 Asking the right questions 131
1 3 Listening and learning 145
14 Negotiating collaboratively 153
vi
part 4 Understanding buyers and prospects 165
1 5 How do you sell? 167
1 6 The modern buyer 181
17 Prospecting with purpose 193
18 Initial meeting(s) with the prospect 207
1 9 Identifying what the prospect wants and needs 213
part 5 Presenting solutions 223
20 Appealing to the customer 227
21 Writing great sales proposals 237
22 Preparing winning pitches 247
23 Persuasive delivery 257
24 Making the most of objections 267
25 Closing and commitment 277
part 6 Developing customers 283
26 The value of a customer 287
27 Managing the relationship 293
28 Your priorities in managing customers 309
Summary - your brilliant future 321
Index 328
About the authors
Jeremy Cassell: I started out as a teacher when I left uni-
versity. I taught English to A level. History to GCSE, ran the
hockey club, coached other sports and ended up as Head of
Drama at Kelly College in Devon.
After a brief spell in commercial finance, I started my formal sell-
ing career in a classic FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) role
- as a territory salesman for L'Oreal. I doubled the sales turno-
ver in three years and even won a new Mini in a generous sales
promotion! I ended up as Head of Training and Development,
focusing on developing the sales force. After a brief spell at
Pepsi and a management consultancy, I ended up doing what I
always wanted to do - being my own boss.
So, I have been involved in selling learning, drama, hair
products, crisps, consultancy, training and coaching.
I am TEFL-qualified, a certified coach and an NLP (Neuro-
Linguistic Programming) trainer. I work in professional service
firms, large organisations, delivering training and coaching
around all areas of influencing and communication.
Outside work I play and watch a lot of sport, collect second-
hand books and love spending time with my partner Nicky and
our three kids (Felix, Benjamin and Isabella), who are learning
how to sell all the time!
Tom Bird: I enjoyed a 15-year career in sales and business
management before becoming a full-time consultant, trainer
and coach. Ed like to say that the move into sales was strategic
Introduction to the second edition
Welcome to the second edition of Brilliant Selling. We are
delighted you are with us! Whatever your motives for buying
this book, our intention is very simple: that Brilliant Selling
will improve your results with practical ideas on how to sell
successfully.
After a lot of soul searching we decided to write a business
book back in 2007. We had a host of questions. Are we the
right people? Can we write a book that will make a positive dif-
ference? Do we have enough to say? The end result was not
the book you are reading! We wanted to write a book focused
on sales management. It was not to be. Samantha Jackson,
our commissioning editor, offered us instead the opportunity
to write Brilliant Selling and the first edition appeared on the
shelves, much to our delight, in October 2009.
We have been amazed by the response and the enthusiasm of our
readers. You have told us via the Amazon five-star reviews that
Brilliant Selling is 'almost a training manual', 'an example of the
Brilliant Series at its best', 'full of very practical tips, exercises
and suggestions that will have an immediate and positive impact
on your selling'. In addition, the book 'hits the mark perfectly',
'simplifies how to get outstanding sales results' and 'has helped
me immeasurably'. We have had numerous people connected
to sales visit our website - www.brilliant-selling.com - and
download our additional resources and complete our survey.
viii About the authors
and the result of careful consideration, but in fact it was because
British Airways didn't want to take someone with my poor eye-
sight and lack of qualifications to fly 747s (my original dream!).
Starting as a sales executive, I cut my teeth opening new accounts
for measurement systems used in petrol forecourts. I moved
into high-tech and software and worked with four companies
over a period of 12 years in roles including Sales Manager, Sales
Director, Vice-President of European Operations and Managing
Director. A number of these companies started life as privately-
owned US parent companies that eventually went public on the
NASDAQ. This gave me broad exposure to the different chal-
lenges of private and public companies, as well as experience of
sales and management in the UK, Europe and the USA.
My training, consulting and coaching work in sales is supported
by a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Coaching and qualifica-
tions in Business and Finance. I am also a Master Practitioner
of NLP.
Outside my work I am passionate about music (in which I have
little talent), cooking (in which I have absolutely no qualifica-
tions whatsoever) and spending time with my wife Jeanette and
two children Ellie and James (both of whom give me lots of
opportunities to practise and improve my sales abilities!).
Training and development is our business
www.brilliant-selling.com specialises in sales training and
development to meet the specific needs of modern sales pro-
fessionals. We have over 30 years' experience across a wide
range of organisations and work with both large corporates and
SMEs. We offer bespoke in-house sales, negotiation and influ-
encing programmes and one-to-one coaching. In addition, we
are regularly invited to speak at sales conferences and offer
open programmes to anyone interested in improving their skills
and confidence around all aspects of selling. Contact us if you
would like to find out more: [email protected] or
[email protected].