Grasp New Sales. Simplified.: The Essential Handbook For Prospecting And New Business Development Illustrated By Mike Weinberg Depicted In Electronic Format

this was an excellent selection for the sales team, I enjoyed most the concepts of making it about your client and what they are looking for and needing, more than making it all about your company, Spotlight on the client and what can be done to help that client is so key,

Dont know that I would ever recommend it, but it was terribly thought provoking, This is an excellent book about sales prospecting and new business development, The author offers specific advice with things you can do and examples,

Here are some examples from the book,

“Our Sales Story, The story is foundational to everything we do in sales, and we use bits and pieces of it in all of our weapons, By story I'm referring to the language or talking points we use when asked what we do or when we tell someone about our business, It's so critical to our success that the next two chapters are dedicated to helping you create and implement a succinct, powerful, differentiating, customerfocused story, ”

“A compelling, differentiating, clientfocused story is a prerequisite for new business development sales success, It's our best opportunity to set ourselves apart from the competition to beautifully package our offering to gain the prospect's attention and to position ourselves as experts, value creators, and problem solvers.
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“Most customers couldn't care less about what we do, However, they were incredibly interested in what our products or service could do for them, ”

“As important as this profound sales truth is when dealing with existing customers, it's magnified exponentially when trying to gain the attention of a prospect, So many people in sales lead with statements such as We make or We are suppliers or We do this, that, and the other thing, And when salespeople lead in this manner, buyers are almost immediately thinking: So what
I encourage you to try the so what test, Listen to another salesperson on the phone attempting to earn an appointment with a tough prospect, Or accompany a rep on sales call, Every time the salesperson makes a statement, simply ask yourself, So what It's very convincing when we begin to realize how much of what we regularly say is selffocused drivel that has no real meaning to the customer.

What happens when we the start our pitch by talking about what we do The prospect thinks or may even say aloud, We already have that, We already have a banking relationship, We already have a widget supplier, We already have an advertising agency, We already have someone cleaning our data center, Fill in what your company does:
We already have a, In all likelihood, your prospects think they have it covered, ”

“Three Critical Building Blocks for a Compelling Story
There are three critical sections, or building blocks, to a compelling sales story:
, Client issues addressed
. Offerings
. Differentiators”

“Customer/client issues, the first building block and bedrock of our compelling sales story, refers to:
Customer pains we remove
Client problems we solve
Opportunities we help customers capture
Results we achieve for clients
Offerings, our second building block, simply state what we sell emphasis on simply.
Our offerings are what we dothe services, solutions, or products for which we bill customers,
Differentiators, the third building block, explain why we are better and different from other alternatives, This final building block provides solid reasons why we are the best choice to address the client's issues, as listed in the first section of the story,
These three building blocks are all necessary to craft a succinct, compelling, clientfocused sales story, And the sequence mattersa lot! As important as the actual components themselves is the order in which we use them, ”

“Why lead with client issues The issues we address for clients serve as the leadin to our sales story because that's where the power is derived.
Client issues are the sharp tip of our sales spear, No one cares what we do, how smart we are, or how special we think our company is, Sad, but true. It's not about us. Prospects are interested in one thing: What's in it for them, We lead with the pains we remove, the problems we solve, and the results we achieve for customers because those things are important to them, They're relevant. These issues draw people in, They shake prospects out of their slumber and help delay their reflex resistance to our sales pitch,
A whole lot of salespeople make the mistake of leading with their offerings, That's the worst thing we can do, It screams commodity to the buyer, It also communicates that the most important part of the conversation is about what we sell, I'm the sales rep and I am here to tell you about we do, Awful. And way too common. ”

“When we lead with client issues, we get a prospect's attention fast, We're talking about what's likely on the other person's mind, We also set ourselves up as problem solvers, By talking about the clients' needs first, we position ourselves as professionals who can address their issues,
Another benefit of leading with client issues is that it sets us up to ask probing questions about those very issues later in the sales process, In a sense, we foreshadow where we plan on taking the sales conversation, When the first things out of our mouth or in writing communicate to the prospect that we are all about addressing their issues, the dynamic of the sales dance radically changes.
We're no longer viewed as the typical productpitching sales rep that buyers try to avoid at all cost, Instead, we're seen as experts with solutions positioned to open a dialogue about the issues on the prospect's mind,
Leading our sales story with issues has one final practical application: It helps us qualify the prospect, If potential customers have no pain, no problems in need of solving, and are not trying to achieve a different result, then why would they make a change If nothing is wrong or in need of improvement, why bother Businesses and people don't change direction for no reason.
If we take our best shot describing the reasons our customers turned to us and can't get a reaction or interest from the buyer, then the sales conversation is pretty much over.
No Issues No Sale. If the issues we address don't interest them, there's no reason to talk about what we do or why we're different, Just move on to the next prospect, ”

“I created what I call The Power Statement as my answer to the elevator pitch and the value proposition, two annoyingly overused expressions that mean different things to different people.
Last time I checked, there was not a whole lot of business being transacted in elevators, So it doesn't make sense trying to cram our sales story into a format designed for use between the lobby and the ninth floor, Something wonderful, powerful, and magical happens when combining the three building blocks of our story under a brief headline and a transitional phrase, I've used this formula with more than fifty companies and continually receive unanimous positive feedback on its transformative power, Once complete, the power statement serves as a onepage, two to threeminute encapsulation of our sales story, It can be used by itself in full form when speaking with someone facetoface on sales calls or when elements from the power statement are excerpted for use in other sales weapons telephone,

voice mail, email, presentations, proposals, etc.
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Let's take a look at the construction of the power statement, ”

“Headline
The headline is a one to twosentence introduction, It helps provide context and allows your audience to place you in a category to better digest your story,

Transitional Phrase
This brief phrase sets the stage to grab your contact's attention, It opens the door to share the client issues your business addresses, It starts with either the type of business you are pursuing or the position of the contact you are addressing, For example:

GHI companies turn to Tour Company Name Here when,
Or:
Senior marketing executives look to us or Tour Company Name Here when they,

This type of leadin is a shrewd technique that allows us to speak in the third person about what we accomplish for our customers, Instead of simply declaring our results in a brash or braggadocio fashion, we make compelling points about why our customers look to us for help, In a sense, the transitional phrase couches our strongest selling points as if they were a testimonial coming from our best clients,

Client Issues / Pains Removed / Problems Solved / Results Achieved
This section of the power statement lists between three and seven client issues we address, Use a conversational, bulleted format, describing each issue briefly using provocative or emotionally charged words, For instance:
Striving to achieve Result,
Frustrated from dealing with Painand ready to take action,
Under significant pressure to eliminate Problem,
Committed to accomplishing Result,
They've had it with Pain,
Facing threats or regulatory pressure from Issue,
They are finally tired of living with Problemand want help tackling it,

Offerings
This very brief section of the power statement is where we rattle off what it is we actually sell, It works best to simply describe our offerings in a few sentences, being careful not to embellish or oversell here, Our offerings are the least compelling component of our story, and that is why this section is short and sandwiched between the client issues we address and our differentiators.


Differentiators
The power statement concludes with a strong list of reasons that we are the best choice to address the client issues we previously described.
This is our opportunity to brag and declare why our offerings are better than other options available to the customer, I suggest leading into a list of at least five differentiators with an intriguing sentence, For example:

Tour Company Name continues to grow or dominate our space because we are very different from what you will find in the marketplace, . .

Differentiator
Differentiator
Differentiator
Differentiator
Differentiator”

“Example
Allsafe Security Power Statement

HEADLINE
Allsafe is the premier security services provider in Canada.
We work with building owners, property managers, and individual corporations to deliver true integrated security,

TRANSITIONAL PHRASE AND CLIENT ISSUES ADDRESSED
Building owners look to Allsafe when:

Seeking a competitive advantage by offering the finest security available to tenants and guests.

Frustrated that their current system is not doing what was promised when it was "sold" to them,
Facing excessive liability exposure and growing life/safety fears,
Continually embarrassed by the image projected by their security personnel,
They've had it with guards who are poorly trained, unreliable, and constantly turning over,
They're searching for a truly integrated solution
combining manpower, system monitoring, and CCTV,
There is no peace of mind regarding a potential
emergency the current provider lacks the appropriate resources, coverage, and experience to handle a crisis,

OFFERINGS
We provide true integrated security, Allsafe services include firstclass manpower, access systems, monitoring, mobile response, and closedcircuit television,

DIFFERENTIATORS
Allsafe continues to dominate the security market because we are very different from the other available alternatives:
We are a true onestop shop that provides real integrated solutions.

We offer inhouse financing and leasing options help clients manage capital expenditures and cash flow,
We are vendor agnostic, allowing us to provide the bestfit products for your particular application,
No one handles crisis situations better or responds faster, It is our specialty.
We have, without question, the most professional, polished, responsible, and courteous officers in the business clients tell us that our officers are like their own key employees.

Our clients don't leave us, And the very few that did came back, ”


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