Thursday, March 5, 2015
“Understanding why a deal is won or lost is critical, yet most salespeople have little (if any) understanding of the true reasons for winning and losing” writes recognized thought leader in Win / Loss analysis and sales training, and President of Anova Consulting Group, Richard M. Schroder in his opportunity creating and game changing book From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best. The author describes how to develop and utilize an effective debriefing process to provide detailed analysis about why sales were really closed or lost.
Richard M. Schroder recognizes that all too often salespeople leave a prospect not ever knowing why the sale was never completed. Most sales representatives, and even their sales managers, simply move on to the next prospect, seeking the next sale. What is not understood by the sales team is that the same mistakes can be repeated over and over again, resulting in even more lost closing opportunities. Richard Schroder provides a comprehensive system for re-examining the lost sale to analyze what went right, and also to determine what also went wrong. This debriefing process provides the sales person with deeper insights into their own sales strategy, helping them to continue using the techniques that worked well. At the same time, and perhaps even more importantly, the debriefing concept will uncover mistakes that can be corrected and avoided in future sales presentations.
Richard M. Schroder understands that all sales representatives possess strengths and weaknesses that vary from person to person. Without a thorough assessment of these strengths and weaknesses, the salesperson will never move past the status quo position of the potential customer. For Richard Schroder, the status quo is as much of a competitor for sales representatives as the products and services offered by another company. Richard Schroder presents a logical step by step procedure, for learning the real reasons, that goes far beyond the features and benefits of the product or service. The author seeks to uncover the much more important relationship between the buyer and the seller. For the authoor, a good salesperson solves an important problem for the customer through open and honest discussion. The book focuses on the critical relationship between the salesperson and the customer, and not on the technical mechanics of the sales process.
For me, the power of the book is how Richard Schroder describes the crucial factor of open and honest communication between the seller and the buyer. Unlike many other sales books that teach tactics and techniques, the author helps the sales person build a positive and open sales conversation. Should the sale fall through without completion, Richard Schroder provides a complete debriefing process to uncover the real reasons for the failed sale. Since this debriefing concept is important, the process must be conducted using the best practices and proper etiquette. The book contains valuable chapters on how to debrief the client honestly and with mutual respect. Through the procedure outlined by Richard Schroder, honest feedback can be obtained, and mistakes can be avoided in the future.
I highly recommend the unique and insightful book From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best by Richard M. Schroder, to anyone involved in sales from entrepreneurs, to sales representatives, to sales managers who are serious about understanding what really went right and wrong in a sales conversation. This book enters into the seldom discussed, but extremely important, area of the post-sales conversation debriefing process.
Read the sales building and very practical book From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best by Richard M. Schroder, and discover the best practices for utilizing the sales debriefing concept. The book contains all of the tools and ideas necessary to design, develop, and utilize the very valuable debriefing procedure. The end result will be more closed sales, a much more effective sales team, and many more satisfied customers.