Great Business Read #3: How to close the sale, with Why
Johnny Can't Sell ...and What To Do About It
OK, you've got some great software, and some solid leads to work. You
fire up your sales force and turn them loose... so why aren't the deals rolling in? Could it be you never trained your sales
force properly? Are they still using the old-fashioned approaches from the 1990s, and fumbling the ball on the 10-yard line?
This book aims to clear up all that, and bring your sales force and
management into the 21st century. It's clear, up-to-date, and compelling. And it's hard to see how any sales person who follows
this step-by-step process can fail to close deals.
Co-authors Michael Nick and Robert Kantin are familiar with the software
world, with consulting and training clients like Great Plains Microsoft, HP, and Oracle. Both have published previous books,
and this one is equally meaty.
"Why Johnny Can't Sell" starts out with chapters on bad habits, myths
you need to shatter, and how to morph into a business consultant. There are numerous checklists that any sales person (or
manager) can use to assess themselves and their company's support for their efforts.
Then the book introduces an eight-phase selling cycle, driven by
real-world research, compelling ROI statements, and hype-free sales tools. The text is livened up by checklists, tables, and
even cartoons that spell out the message in accessible terms.
Along the way, we hear how Johnny has worked at IBM, at a CRM startup,
at a network services firm, and then at a small software firm. Now he is stumbling through another career move with a new
company. "Johnny is a true story of a salesperson who was once good, but had to relearn his whole approach.
Each chapter deals with another aspect of that," says co-author Nick.
"In software, there's a big difference between what it can do, and what it can do for someone," he says. In other words, always
stress how your software offers an attractive ROI and solves a real business problem, rather than focusing on the glitzy new
features it may offer. Most prospects don't care about that anyway.
At the end of the book, Johnny is at a crossroads again. Will he
do the right things: apply himself to research to narrow down his prospect list, encourage marketing to create appropriate
sales tools, and get proper support from upper management? Or will he do what he always does: gloss over these steps, hope
to make a few appointments, and pray that they turn, somehow, into big sales?
