Exceptional Selling : How the Best Connect and Win in High Stakes Sales (Hardcover)--by Jeff Thull [2006 Edition] ISBN: 9780470037287

Praise for Exceptional Selling "Thull's leading-edge thinking makes this book extraordinary. This straightforward guide to communicating across all cultures with credibility and respect will give you a significant competitive advantage in a complex and crowded global marketplace." —Guenter Lauber, Vice President, Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., EA Systems "Exceptional Selling may be one of the most important books written on sales and marketing communications for high stakes sales. It shows you how to stand apart from your competition, communicate with great clarity, and position your solution as the most compelling choice for the long term." —Rob Mancuso, Senior Vice President, Investors Financial Services Corp. "Thull has taken consultative and collaborative sales to new heights. The knowledge in this book is priceless. The trust and respect created by the diagnostic process is a must-have for success here in Asia and around the globe. It enables us to differentiate ourselves early and achieve long-lasting success." —Tay Chong Siew, Major Customer Director, North Asia, BOC Gases "Having achieved exceptional success by working with Thull and implementing the strategy and process in his first two books, I'm astounded that his leading-edge thinking is captured in yet more detail in another brilliant book. The conversation examples of his powerful diagnostic approach will bring even greater success to our organization. Truly exceptional!" —Alberto Chacin, Director of On Demand Services LAD, Oracle USA "Exceptional Selling is a dramatic departure from the vast majority of sales books. It scares me to see all the ways in which we can self-sabotage our sales opportunities-but that's only chapter one. Throughout the book, Thull describes compelling examples of how to succeed in a cluttered marketplace." —Steven Rodriguez, Senior Vice President, Ceridian Corporation "Thull has again extended the concepts and thinking he developed in The Prime Solution and Mastering the Complex Sale. This is an essential read for anyone working to understand his customers in a complex world." —Wayne Hutchinson, Vice President of SalesMarketing and Consulting, Shell Global Solutions International B.V. Exceptional Selling: How the Best Connect and Win in High Stakes Sales 8 Contents 12 Foreword 14 Understanding Your Customer’s World 16 Getting to the Customer’s Real Problem Together 17 Designing Solutions That Sell Themselves 19 Preface 22 Acknowledgments 32 Part I: “What We Got Here Is a Failure to Communicate” 36 Chapter 1: The More You Sweat, the Less You Sell 44 The Emotional Mind-Set—The Root of Miscommunication 48 Presentation and Persuasion—Commoditize and Alienate 54 Customer Expectations—Snake Oil and the Hard Sell 59 Solving the Style Challenge 63 Chapter 2: Nobody Buys a Value Proposition 66 Commoditization of the Value Proposition 68 “Blah Blah, Fluffy” 71 The Burden of Proof 74 Translation Skills Required 76 Leverage Your Value Triad 81 Across-the-Spectrum Positioning 81 Imposing Order on the Value Translation 83 Chapter 3: You’ve Got to Get Your Mind Right 88 Diagnosis—The Mind-Set of Success 91 Summary 109 Part II: Taking It to the Street 110 Chapter 4: Earning the Keys to the Elevator 118 How Qualified Is Qualified? 119 Contact Without Proper Preparation Is an Exercise in Futility 120 The Research Conversation—Forget About Solutions and Decision Makers 122 The Engagement Conversation—The Quest for Access and Sponsorship 128 When Customers Come Knocking—A Word about Prospects That Come to You 135 Progressing Toward Change—Discover’s Role in Change Psychology 139 Chapter 5: Diagnosis Trumps Presentation Every Time 142 The Nature of Diagnosis—Cyclical Conversations That Cover All the Bases 147 Chapter 6: Cutting Through the Smoke and Mirrors 166 Staying on the Inside Track by Co-Creating Solution Parameters 167 Focus on Parameters, Not Features and Benefits 169 The Design Conversation—Guiding Customers on a Journey into the Positive Future 171 Selection Criteria and the Discussion Document—A Solid Foundation for a Compelling, Credible Proposal 190 Chapter 7: It Doesn’t Pay to Surprise a Corporation 194 The Deliver Conversations—Fingerprints, Graceful Recoveries, Mutual Feedback, and New Opportunities 198 Part III: Breaking Away with Exceptional Credibility 216 Chapter 8: “Show Me the Money” 222 Barriers to Financial Conversations 224 Financial Conversations—Cost, Return, Investment 226 Chapter 9: Connecting at the Level of Power and Decision 244 Barriers to Executive Conversations 247 The Executive Conversation—Rules for Engaging Rulers 252 A Final Word on the Sequence of Executive Conversations 260 Epilogue 264 Index 266

If you're one of the six million people who work in the fast-paced, high-stress world of complex sales, you want the latest strategies and skills for success. This practical guide gives you the tools to take your sales game, your communication skills, and your career to the next level of success.

Exceptional Selling features street-level straight talk about the one-on-one skills that professionals need to succeed. In this prescriptive and practical guide, author Jeff Thull challenges conventional thinking and gets down to the key ingredients of sales success—the magic formula based on a powerful communication mindset, exceptional skills, and winning disciplines taken from the best in the business. You'll get the edge you need to set yourself apart from the competition, connect to your customers' hearts and minds, and clearly establish the value you offer.

Exceptional Selling is about what works. Its focus is the most dynamic and challenging part of the sales process: the authentic conversation—what top sales professionals talk about with their customers as well as how they say it. Successful communication resides at the intersection of content and delivery, substance and style. It's your key to privileged access and privileged insight.

Exceptional Selling is a step-by-step guide to the kind of critical conversations you must have to win the high stakes sale and build powerful relationships. From the crucial first call that sets the stage, to the critically important C-suite executive conversations that build your credibility, to the financial conversations that create a compelling case for your value (and all the important conversations in between), you'll find specific examples that will propel you forward and help you achieve greater success and profitability.

This is the first book to apply powerful diagnostic principles directly to sales conversations. It shows you how to create a customer engagement in which the common barriers to success—limited access, ambiguous words, objections, and cutthroat negotiations—melt away. If you want to set yourself apart from the rest, connect with your customers, raise the bar for your competition, and win in the game of high stakes sales, Exceptional Selling is the book that will take you there.

Exceptional Selling's approach extols the value of Diagnostic Selling: professional involvement and emotional detachment, not confrontation and persuasion. Author Jeff Thull breaks down complex business-to-business sales with clear, step-based directions, easy to understand diagrams and charts, and case studies of successes and failures. Exceptional Selling gently prods salespeople toward corrective strategies for errors that often go undiagnosed in the chase for the deal "This is the first book to apply powerful diagnostic principles directly to sales conversations. It shows you how to create a customer engagement in which the common barriers to success - limited access, ambiguous words, objections, and cutthroat negotiations - melt away."--Jacket