Filed under: Books in General, Sales | Tags: books, Business, business book, business books, Sales
I’ve always enjoyed when we at Soundview work on business books that deal with sales. Selling is a key aspect of the success of any business and I have a lot of respect for the men and women whose job it is to make sales. They appear, to me, to have a rare combination of a winning attitude and skin made of Kevlar.
That’s why this article from the Newark Star-Ledger piqued my curiosity. Communication is the secret to sales success. There appears to be a bit of a growing trend toward the reversal of traditional logic about communication in the sales process. This article was refreshing because it addressed the main reason why so many salespeople struggle in today’s ultra-tough selling environment: they don’t spend enough time evaluating why their messages are or are not getting through.
It’s a concept that we’ve dealt with in many of the sales books we’ve covered. Check out Soundview’s collection The Art of Selling and see for yourself. There are new relationships forming between buyer and seller and salespeople need to be in control of establishing this bond.
Filed under: Economics, From the Editor, General Business, Marketing, Sales, Small Business, Strategic Management, ethics | Tags: Business, Economics, Marketing, Small Business, Soundview, Strategic Management
Part of producing each month’s edition of Soundview Executive Book Summaries involves recording and editing the audio version. While conversing with a colleague at a studio with whom we work, the subject of malls came up. My friend mentioned that he’s seen more than a few empty storefronts as he walked through one local mall.
By coincidence, I came across this interesting photo study from Time magazine today. It’s important to note that at least one of the photos included in this collection is of a set of stores that were abandoned decades ago. However, the remaining stores are all fairly recent closings.
I found the photo study while reading an article about hard times at clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F). If you have children, or attended college between 1996 and 2006, you’re probably intimately familiar with this company. As an editor, I love the way Time used the classic tactic of posing a question in its headline. Is A&F really the worst recession brand? We might want to cast a critical eye over other business sectors before we do too much picking on people who sell hooded sweatshirts and, as the Time article notes, $90 jeans.
Still, the central issue in the article that is most worthy of discussion is how companies that are perceived as luxury brands should handle tough times. I found the concept of price cutting to be of particular interest in this article. Theoretically, a luxury brand that cuts its price runs the risk of losing its status, but does this assumption apply during times of economic hardship? I agree with the marketing professor in the article who notes that if you keep your prices low for a period of time, you create an expectation among customers that they’ll stay that way.
What’s your take on how luxury brands should navigate a recession? Send me a comment and let me know your thoughts.
Filed under: Books in General, Economics, From the Editor, Sales | Tags: books, Business, business book, business books, career skills, Sales
If there’s one position that’s not exactly enviable during difficult economic times, it’s that of the salesperson. Sales professionals are often the first casualties in any layoff plan, and those that are lucky enough to remain behind are given elevated sales goals (often accompanied by decreased commission rates).
Still, I’ve got a lot of admiration for anyone who makes their living by persuading others. I don’t know if I’ve got the fortitude for it, particularly depending on the industry. Take a look at what’s going on in the auto industry right now, and it’s easy to see that the sales waters have never been more choppy.
Fortunately, we’ve taken note of the struggles in sales and have put together the Art of Selling Collection. It’s currently available at Soundview’s Web site. This collection of 15 titles covers a wide range of essential topics. It’s intended to give sales professionals the boost they need to power through the current economic situation. It takes a special person to be a salesperson, and it takes an even more rare breed to deliver consistent results quarter after quarter. We’re hoping these sales summaries will help you be among the best of the best.
Filed under: Books in General, Marketing, Sales | Tags: books, Business, business book, business books, Economics, Leadership, Marketing, Sales, strategies
I’ve always wondered how Arthur Miller came to select “salesman” as the profession of choice for his most famous character, Willy Loman. During the time in which Miller’s play Death of a Salesman made its stage debut, sales was among the most American of careers. Whether it was an insurance rep cold-calling people while a Lucky Strike burned in his desk’s ashtray, or a smart-suited gent standing in a field of shiny Chevrolets, sales was a position of some stature in any organization. Of course, it may be the sheer volume of rejection that gives plenty of opportunity for tragic underpinnings, but I don’t know if that was the sole motivator behind Miller’s decision.
Take a look at some of the other depictions of salesmen in film and literature and you can see that this “hard luck” element came to dominate the cultural landscape. Who can forget the late John Candy’s sympathetic turn as Del Griffith, “Director of sales, American Light and Fixture, shower curtain ring division” in the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles? David Mamet added to the portfolio with Shelley “The Machine” Levine in his play Glengarry Glen Ross. With the recent announcement that Google, the company thought unassailable by the current financial crisis, will be cutting sales and marketing jobs, there is the temptation to think that many current sales representatives may take on the bleak world view of their pop culture predecessors.
Out of that void, however, I’d rather remind people of a man named Blake. Despite not appearing in Mamet’s original play, this abrasive, intense sales “motivator” exploded onto the screen in the film adaptation of Glengarry. With an equal mix of smolder and brashness, Alec Baldwin gave salesmen everywhere a memorable mantra “A-B-C: Always Be Closing.” Despite the portrayal being an exaggeration of the field, tough times likes these call for a little motivation, and it’s hard not to take something away from Baldwin’s speech.
We’re doing our own part to help the sales cause. Our latest iPhone collection Sales Summaries Volume I is now available. This collection includes Making the Number by Greg Alexander, Aaron Bartels and Mike Drapeau, as well as The Perfect Salesforce by Derek Gatehouse and The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes.
Go to iTunes now via your iPhone to download the collection!
Approximately 40 percent of salespeople miss their targets every year. As a sales manager, you want to draw this percent down as much as possible, challenge your sales force effectively, and bring home the bacon—figuratively speaking.
Lucky for you, the co-founder and CEO of Sales Benchmark Index (SBI) Greg Alexander and SBI cofounders and executive vice presidents Aaron Bartels and Mike Drapeau have teamed up and produced Making the Number: How to Use Sales Benchmarking to Drive Performance, published by Portfolio. According to the authors, sales benchmarking takes the guesswork out of sales and turns the sales function into a highly predictable, dependable engine that ultimately increases shareholder value.
Alexander, Bartels and Drapeau walk the reader through their five steps to sales benchmarking—metric identification, data collection, comparing and contrasting, focused action and sustained improvement—however, what might be the book’s real gem is the inclusion of case studies. Reading about how Discover Financial Services and Covad Communications Group used sales benchmarking can give sales managers a better idea if this is a practice that will work with their sales force.
If you’re interested in other good sales books to read, be sure to look into the following:
The Perfect Salesforce by Derek Gatehouse: The Author argues that sales is about people, different types of people who excel naturally in different types of sales jobs.
Exceptional Selling by Jeff Thull: Thull shows readers how to create a different kind of relationship with the customer and use powerful diagnostic principles to reframe the typical sales conversation.
Nowadays, I think we could all use a little cheerleading, though I’m sure we need a little less of “You Can Do It!” and a little more explanation and encouragement of just how we can do it.
Perhaps Brian Tracy’s latest, Reinvention: How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life—due out in early January 2009 from AMACOM—can give us that bit of direction we’re looking for. Tracy, a world renown personal success expert and founder and chairman of Brian Tracy International, might be just the person to give us that much needed motivational kick in the pants. Reinvention focuses on the idea that everyone is engineered for success, and with the right focus, we can remake ourselves into whatever we want: Given the right focus we can move ourselves out of a dissatisfied life and into a productive life and solid career.
If this book seems of interest, then perhaps you should also visit Tracy’s Web site, where you can find everything from his books to newsletters, articles, seminars, and his blog.
I think “reinvention” would be a worthy New Year’s resolution. If that’s not quite up your alley, you might want to consider at least taking the time to do a year-end review, outlining the good, the mediocre, and the not-so-good of 2008 for you. See what you discover; you might be surprised.
