Target Opportunity Selling 978-0-07-177307-2
Praise forTarget Opportunity Selling“Nic Read’s book reminds us that large, complex sales are differentin kind from transactional sales and therefore require a differentapproach. An interesting concept at the core of this book is of a‘looping’ process, in which the sales opportunity changes as the relationship with the customer develops. These opportunities can takemonths or years to land, so his insight into the longitudinal progression of a complex sale is a welcome addition.”—Professor Lynette Ryals, Professor of Strategic Sales andAccount Management, Director of the KAMBest Practice Research Club, Pro Vice Chancellor,Cranfield School of Management“As curriculum head of a leading university’s sales center, I amconstantly scanning for conceptual frameworks that better capturetoday’s value-creation process. Since we teach and develop the NextGeneration of sales professionals, we cannot use dated ‘Sales 1.0/2.0’materials from past decades. So it’s a pleasure to see that in this bookNic Read provides a research-based, forward-looking, and incrediblyuseful framework for 21st-century sales force value creation.”—Andrea L. Dixon, PhD, Executive Director of the Center forProfessional Selling and Keller Center for Research,Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University“A lot of books offer tips from an author’s glory days as a salesperson.But it’s difficult for readers to duplicate the same situations, so resultsare hit-and-miss. Target Opportunity Selling offers an alternative that’sbetter suited to the corporate world. It’s researched on best practicesand offers a scalable play-by-play guide any professional can follow toachieve predictable results. Highly recommended.”—Carl Farrell, Executive Vice President, SAS Americas
“Nic Read has created a sales bible littered with the confrontinginsights of new research, lessons from established leaders, and his ownobservations as a recognized sales process leader operating around theglobe. He’s woven this amalgam into a clear process and a good read.It’s recommended for any existing sales leader, and all who wouldbecome so.”—Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO, MathMarketingand author of The Leaky Funnel“Don’t even think of not studying this book in minute detail if youare in B2B sales. You have never seen ‘selling-on’ discussed in suchdetail and with such depth. When I started my consultancy twodecades ago there was nothing like this on the market. There is stillnothing like it. Get it!”—Bertie du Plessis, CEO, MindPilot (Pty) Ltdand Naspers Head of Training and Development“Insightful and one of the most practical manuals on the science ofselling yet written. Not only does it reveal an alternative to the salesfunnel more suited to solution selling, but by mapping proven techniques to today’s buyer behaviours, Nic shows how to create the typeof value that fuels growth beyond single transactions. If you’re intothe Challenger sale model, this book will take you to the next level.”—Joe Ringer, Sales & Market Strategist, CSC,Australia, Asia, Middle East & Africa“An exceptional ‘box of tools’ on how to win over and over in thecomplex sales environment. If you’ve been in the sales game all yourlife or are just starting out, Target Opportunity Selling is an essentialfoundation for every professional. This book is sure to become anindustry-defining work of timeless importance.”—Lindsay Lyon, Executive Chairman, Shark Shield Pty Ltdand former Partner, Siebel Systems
“I have read almost every book on professional sales. TargetOpportunity Selling tops them all. It is highly recommended as apractical guide for anyone with the conviction and will to succeed.Best buy ever.”—Ingrid Kast, Chairman, Kast & PartnersInternational Executive Search“Excellent. Target Opportunity Selling is enriched with many best practices, dos and don’ts. A must-read for sales management and accountexecutives selling high-level products with complex sales cycles.”—Thomas Emmerich, Sales Operations Director,SAS Institute GmbH“Nic’s original Selling to the C-Suite is a classic for engaging seniordecision makers. Now Target Opportunity Selling offers us a step-bystep road map to create new sales opportunities, with real strategy andwinning tactics. This book’s 300 pages are packed with sage advice forwinning complex B2B sales. Outstanding. There’s no padding here!”—Patrick Boucousis, CEO, Traxor“Target Opportunity Selling is a great combination of solid fundamentals and new approaches that are essential in today’s selling environment. Nic shows us how the best salespeople use research to ‘open’the sale and a perfectly executed selling process to ‘close’ the sale andbuild lasting business relationships.”—Duane Sparks, Creator of Action Sellingand Chairman, The Sales Board“Nic has used a wealth of research and real-life experiences to createthe most comprehensive sales book of modern times. Highly entertaining and readable, this can improve the productivity of your salespeople immediately.”—Paul Cooper, VP EMEA Sales, CallidusCloud
“Target Opportunity Selling clearly outlines how top sellers consistently expand and win business with today’s Ideas Buyers. If you’regoing after big accounts, this book is filled with fresh strategies thatyou can immediately use.”—Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companiesand SNAP Selling“Every page will open your eyes, challenge you, even make you squirm.Nic Read pulls no punches making a case for change in the sales game.Then he shows how with a practical toolbox and conversationalstyle that’s as smooth as a great coffee shop coaching session. TargetOpportunity Selling is this generation’s bible for strategic selling.”—Yoke Barrish, Entrepreneur Magazine“If you’ve ever lost a sale you were sure was in the bag, seen decisioncriteria change to favour a competitor, or had customers stop takingyour calls, it’s because someone else is outselling you. Would you liketo turn the tables? This is the sales book for you.”—Andy Sim, General Manager, Enterprise & SMB,Samsung Electronics
TARGETOPPORTUNITYSELLINGTOP SALES PERFORMERS REVEALWHAT REALLY WORKSNICHOLAS A.C. READNew York Chicago San Francisco Athens London Madrid Mexico CityMilan New Delhi Singapore Sydney Toronto
Copyright 2014 by Nicholas A.C. Read. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under theUnited States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributedin any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior writtenpermission of the publisher.ISBN: 978-0-07-177323-2MHID: 0-07-177323-1The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-177307-2,MHID: 0-07-177307-X.eBook conversion by codeMantraVersion 1.0All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol afterevery occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefitof the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designationsappear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.McGraw-Hill Education eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums andsales promotions or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative, please visit theContact Us page at www.mhprofessional.com.TERMS OF USEThis is a copyrighted work and McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors reserve all rightsin and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under theCopyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may notdecompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon,transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it withoutMcGraw-Hill Education’s prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial andpersonal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may beterminated if you fail to comply with these terms.THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL EDUCATION AND ITS LICENSORSMAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACYOR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK,INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORKVIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY,EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIESOF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-HillEducation and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the workwill meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. NeitherMcGraw-Hill Education nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for anyinaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resultingtherefrom. McGraw-Hill Education has no responsibility for the content of any informationaccessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill Education and/or itslicensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similardamages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has beenadvised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or causewhatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.
For every salesperson who aspires to greatness,and every sales manager who embraces progress,this road map is for you.—NR
This page intentionally left blank
ContentsFOREWORD BY NICK LISI, VICE PRESIDENT, SAS AMERICAS viiACKNOWLEDGMENTS xCHAPTER 1BEYOND THE SALES FUNNEL 1CHAPTER 2RESEARCH 10CHAPTER 3CONTACT 25CHAPTER 4PRECISION QUESTIONS 38CHAPTER 5QUALIFY THEIR INTEREST 66v
C O N T EN TSCHAPTER 6QUALIFY YOUR SEAT AT THE TABLE 86CHAPTER 7QUALIFY YOUR ABILITY TO WIN 97CHAPTER 8SOCIAL CAPITAL 117CHAPTER 9FIND THE INFLUENCERS 137CHAPTER 10ALIGN TO KEY STAKEHOLDERS 161CHAPTER 11SELL YOUR SOLUTION 185CHAPTER 12FORM A COMPETITIVE STRATEGY 204CHAPTER 13ESTABLISH YOUR PROOF 238CHAPTER 14COMPETE ON VALUE 247CHAPTER 15CLOSING . . . AND OPENING 282ENDNOTES 299INDEX 305vi
ForewordThe modern sales approach was born in the rise of postwar industrialism nearly a century ago as factories retooled to crank out new products in fabric, plastic, and chromium steel. Competitors with similarproducts sent salespeople door-to-door, and their telephone-basedequivalents were given territories, demo kits, and rich incentives tohit the bricks and bring home the bacon.Those who had the right features, price, network, or personalityto “sell the sizzle” raked in the orders and pocketed the commissions. Advertising executives created slogans, marketing departmentsoffered incentives, and engineering teams developed new widgets.But it was always the salespeople on the front lines whose task it wasto outpace, outtalk, and outsell the competition. As depicted by MadMen’s Don Draper or sales booster Blake in the film Glengarry GlenRoss, persuasion and coercion went with the territory.This was a raw merchant culture, and we still see vestiges of it todayin the BRICS economies,1 market bazaars, and low-end transactionalsales. But there’s no room for it in the high-end business-to-busi-vii
F O RE WORDness solution sales that go down in the boardroom. Today, strategicopportunity management is not about dropping boxes, pushingtin, or looking for ways to trap the buyer. It’s about facilitating anexchange of ideas that adds the type of commercial or personal value acustomer cannot produce on their own and is willing to pay someoneelse to do for them.This is consultative by nature and richly rewarding in practice.Selling in this environment means you have to build relationshipswith multiple decision influencers across the customer’s organization,all of whom have unique needs. You’re the ringmaster for virtual teammembers that might include peers, managers, partners, or specialistsfrom the next cubicle or across the world. You keep everyone on thesame page. Selling is a team sport.It’s impossible to “wing it” and be successful in such a setting. Youneed a common sales language so the team members can talk aboutwhat’s happening in a sale and decide if they’re winning or losing—and what to do about it. Sales plans need to be written down andshared. After all, you can’t execute what you don’t plan. You can’timprove what you don’t measure.We at SAS know this better than anyone. Corporations and government agencies in more than 50,000 sites around the world useSAS solutions to anticipate opportunity, empower action, and driveimpact. As the accumulation of data increases exponentially, SASprovides the capabilities to not only answer “What happens next?”but also to make decisions on how to transform the way they do business. This insight, foresight, and action is what we call “the power toknow.” It’s such a valuable resource that SAS has seen steady growthevery year since our 1976 inception to become the largest privatelyowned software company in the world.But as good as our products, services, and people are, our cultureis one of innovation—we never rest on our laurels. With that in mindwe work hard to win, delight, and retain our customers. There areviii
FO R EWO R Dmany ways we do this. Most relevant to readers of Target OpportunitySelling is that the ideas you’ll explore in this book are what SAS andother industry leaders actually use.Back in 2008 we retained the services of author Nic Read and hiscompany SalesLabs to help us improve the effectiveness of our salesand sales management personnel around the world. Through embedding their consulting, training, tools, and coaching into our salesculture, we’ve seen results that buck the trends of the global financialcrisis. For example, SAS worldwide revenue continues to grow—newsales are up in the United States, as well as in Latin America andEurope. This has allowed our company to continue to invest in ourworkforce, while others in our industry have been cutting back.So you see, this book isn’t about theory. It’s about what reallymoves the needle. Like Nic’s previous book Selling to the C-Suite, thisone is based on real research, science, and field experience. It pullsno punches in challenging the status quo, and importantly it has theteeth to do so.At a time when corporate and government leaders in the UnitedStates and around the world are calling for jobs growth and greatereconomic stability, there’s a school of thought that says you can’thave jobs growth without top-line revenue growth.If selling is the solution to this malady, then this book is the medicine.Read it, execute, and prosper.Nick LisiVice President, SAS Americasix
AcknowledgmentsThere are some very clever people around the world working onbreakthroughs that I believe will revolutionize the sales professionand raise the bar on how companies achieve revenue growth. Theirtask is difficult because they’re attempting to bring about change ina profession that lacks a central governance body and has no globalstandard for sales education at the tertiary level. As a result, changewill come one company at a time—an exercise in herding cats. Butwith the world economy bearing witness to the need for change, Isuspect we’re about to see at least some of their ideas take root andspread like wildfire.I’m thrilled to call these pioneers my colleagues and collaborators.All were generous in sharing their time, data, insights, and experience.They helped shape this book materially and directionally throughtheir input or inspiration.Russell Ward of Silent Edge, David Thomson of the BlueprintGrowth Institute, Jim Dickie of CSO Insights, and Dr. Jim Loehr andDr. Jack Groppel of the Human Performance Institute all stand outx
A CK NO WL EDG MENT Sas visionaries who learned how top performers do what others onlydream of, found a way to measure these secrets, and made them available to the world. Their ongoing work turns “voodoo” into “how to.”Executives who volunteered their insights into what works in thereal world, who vested their faith and enthusiasm in this work or bytheir example inspired me to dig deep, include Steve Leonard andCraig Steel of EMC; Calvin Schmidt and Dwayne Wright of Johnson& Johnson’s Wellness & Prevention, Inc.; Carl Farrell, Nick Lisi,Werner Deumens, Riad Gydien, Jamie Robbins, and many more atSAS; Owen Hill and Kathryn Thomas at Life Technologies; Donald“Duck” Payen and Carla DaSilva at Air Mauritius; Andy Lang andMatt Lovegrove with Ernst & Young; Mervyn Myers, Steve Hollis,and Andrew Dinsdale at KPMG; Hugh Macfarlane at MathMarketing;Patrick Boucousis at Traxor; and Brad Milner at TechCSO. Not alltheir insights made it into the final manuscript, but their spirit imbueseach page.Of equal value were the sales professionals on six continents whoallowed my team and me to observe how they sell over a period offour years. They provided candid opinions about the tools they use(both internally developed and purchased from training and softwarevendors), what works, what doesn’t, and why. Then they allowed usto ride along on their customer calls; watch how they prepare anddebrief; listen to their telesales approaches; and experience how managers run their sales meetings, deal reviews, and coaching sessions.By seeing what top, middle, and low performers do on a daily basisand then graphing this to the revenue they produced, clear trendsemerged that turned some traditional wisdom about how sellingreally works on its ear. While they are not cited by name in this work,lessons from the collective made this book what it is.Academicians whose passion for sales research ignited a deep interestand rich source of collegial insight include Professor Andrea L. Dixonof the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University; ProfessorLynette Ryals of Cranfield University School of Management; Dr.xi
A C KN OW L ED G M ENTSTerry Loe of the Center for Professional Selling at Kennesaw StateUniversity; Professor David Roberts of the Kenan-Flagler BusinessSchool at the University of North Carolina; and Professor AdrianPayne of the Australian School of Business at the University of NewSouth Wales.Colleagues whose encouragement, humor, and generosity ofspirit energized me while writing include Richard Owers, MarkLindsay, Ingrid Kast, Dr. Anthony Mahler, Betty Catchpole, MaibrittThoft-Christensen, Jason Huls, Mike Gersten, the artistic StanleyVonMedvey, the irrepressible Jillian Upton, and the “action wrangler” Chad Burns.McGraw-Hill Education executive editor Donya Dickerson andediting manager Jane Palmieri are highly prized for their support, prudence, and patience. Thanks also to Amy Lynn Lee, Jamie Salisbury,Tori Amos, and Hans Zimmer for anthems that jump-started thenarrow hours. And of course, I’d be handicapped without the amazing people at the Wikimedia Foundation, Apple, and Adobe, whosehardware, apps, and information helped a project of this magnitudefind form.Of course my ultimate thanks go to the most supportive team ofall: my polar stars Cassandra, Jonathan, Ashleigh, and James, whorelocate to foreign lands and do breakfast-by-Skype in their stride,and my bonny wife Heather who not only keeps all the wheels inmotion but makes it look easy.xii
Chapter 1Beyond theSales FunnelThe Sales Expansion Loop
T A R G ET OP P ORTUNITY S ELLINGMy preceding book, Selling to the C-Suite (McGraw-Hill, 2009),demystified why executive buyers single out some salespeople to beTrusted Advisors but give others the ejector seat. The book was basedon a decade of research in bull and bear markets, and it reported whatleaders across industries and cultures said about how, why, and whenthey get involved in their company’s large purchasing projects.And with so many people struggling through a financial crisis at thetime of C-Suite’s publication, it hit a chord. I was invited to keynot
funnel more suited to solution selling, but by mapping proven tech-niques to today’s buyer behaviours, Nic shows how to create the type of value that fuels growth beyond single transactions. If you’re into the Challenger sale model, this book will take you to the next level.” —Joe Ringer, Sales & Market Strategist, CSC,
Test Bank 978 0 131 84930 3 TestGen CD-ROM 978 0 131 95954 5 Fundamentals of English Grammar Intermediate: Third Edition Student Book 978 0 13 246932 6 Student Book (w/AK) 978 0 13 707169 2 Student Book A (w/o AK) 978 0 13 138353 1 Student Book B (w/o AK) 978 0 13 707523 2 Workbook (w AK) 978 0 13 802212 9 Workbook A (w/AK) 978 0 13 707524 9 Workbook B (w/AK) 978 0 13 707490 7 Teacher’s .
Therefore, target 1 has three target drops, i.e., target 1-A-1, target 1-B-1 and target 1-C-2. In this manner we can enumerate all possible target drops from target information. From source and target information we can set all possible assignments, and each of them is composed of a source and sequence of target drops, called a target drop set .
The Giraffe the Pelly and Me 978-0-14-241384-5 Going Solo 978-0-14-241383-8 James and the Giant Peach 978-0-14-241036-3 The Magic Finger 978-0-14-241385-2 Matilda 978-0-14-241037-0 The Minpins 978-0-14-241474-3 The Twits 978-0-14-241039-4 The Witches 978-0-14-241011-0 Revolting Recipes
Grant Cardone Training SELLING-selling is for me-selling impacts everyone-determines survivability-you have to be able to convince others of your opinion-selling is used everyday by everyone-selling is a way of life -you need to know how to negotiate in life-getting other people to like you is selling-you want to get to other people to please you
The Selling Process Relationship selling is a multi-stage process. Unfortunately, most treatments of relationship selling focus on the duration, rather than the creation. Instead of paring relationship selling as a polar opposite to traditional selling, it should be a transformation of the traditional selling process.
The Reigate Puzzle 978 0 19 460745 2 A Pretty Face 978 0 19 424704 7 Rip Van Winkle & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 978 0 19 424702 3 Sing to Win 978 0 19 462438 1 Pocahontas 978 0 19 478916 5 UNIT 7 UNIT 8 UNIT 9 UNIT 10 UNIT 11 UNIT 12 Remember Miranda 978 0 19 478918 9 Love or Money? 978 0
covering three key areas of selling skills. It also provides an assessment of a salesperson's selling style against three well-established behavioral concepts in the sales literature--adaptive selling, relationship selling and customer-oriented selling (Figure 1). Figure 1. SCQ concept model of sales process CUSTOMER-ORIENTED SELLING
personal selling is the only organisational function that still espouses contact (direct or indirect) with customers, where concluding that sale is the desired outcome. Personal selling Personal selling. 1 1 .6 .1 Personal selling and the customer. personal selling and , , , the .
