Having decided .. and having been hired, how would I actually become a salesman? I wasn’t born as one.
my grandfather took me so see the American classic Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. A study of an American family — and the strains of making it. It starred Dustin Hoffman, Mark Hamil. Fascinating…. You should see it.
at GE we all went through Xerox Professional Selling System. I can’t remember what was taught… but at the time, I just watched my reps work— that seemed most pragmatic.
It’s all a bit of a blur but I think I picked up training in the following order— no matter, my notes on each are perhaps the most helpful.
one of the first books I read was Consultative Selling by Mark Hanan. It was one of the first to layout how to seek and build an ROI case.
Strategic selling: a classic. Using their patented Blue Sheet, you learned to look for contacts on your side/or against; the Singke sales objective —this was important as you narrowed your focus to concentrate your efforts; look for differentiation between you and a competitor +/-; it helped make sense of all the data that you had, we’re missing.
SPIN Selling: this was a game changer: I could in deed should ask question? Spend time “listening”?
these three became the bedrock of my skill: understand the benefit you can bring, all the aspects of your opportunity and ask questions to learn… and start to position value.
Later, rackham released Major Account Selling. The main take away was how to position your differentiation and minimize the importance of a competitor’s advantage, e.g., yes they have Unix but do you?
These were all good books, good methodologies … but they didn’t spend much time on how to be a salesman…
top honors goes to: Track Selling by Roy Chitwood. The track selling institute is run by longtime friend Ron Holm. I engaged him to help me elevate the sales capability of my channel VARs.
here’s why I liked it: it’s a specific process easily adopted because it’s natural. But the secret sauce was it taught you how to behave: integrity, professional, friendly, and helpful. All great human virtues… and necessary as you help clients./m
let’s get real or let’s not play by Mahan Khalsa is just a fabulous approach to managing client relationships: a focus on establishing joint qualification and mananaging difficult situations. Probably the first book that fosters a Salesmen have rights approach —
honorable mention to Jim kasper and His Short Cycle Selling: a great process— and geared to sales that are lower in average order or where a short cycle is required.
In my career I’ve read many books and articles; I’ve watched reps, I’ve asked them questions — and had classroom training: take any and all that you can. It’s fun, it’s how you build your craft.
for extracurricular fun watch:
death of a salesman
glen Gary glenn Ross
door to door
tommy boy
tin men
and the old sixties band The Monkees did a fine song called Salesman from pieces Aquarius Capricorn
Take Away: I enjoyed reading and learning:,I found a way to blend it all into my own, natural style. As I got better at it, it became unconscious competence.
A blog by Paul Petersen 
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