Book Summary: "Mr Shmooze - The Art and Science of Selling," by Richard Abraham

This book has been on my reading list for awhile. Then, its recent endorsement by commercial real estate broker-extraordinaire Peter Pessetto prompted me to act. "Mr. Shmooze" is the story of a man who lives his life and performs as a salesperson with the conviction that selling is not about "taking" or "persuading," but about "giving." Sometimes shmoozing (or schmoozing) has a negative connotation, as when a person acts kindly toward someone else in order to take advantage of them in some way.

However, in "Mr. Shmooze," it is the act of asking questions and listening in order to understand what people really need (not just in business, but in life) and then giving of yourself to help them. Energizing others, making them feel special, and adding value to people's day-to-day lives is what Mr. Shmooze is all about. He is constantly giving people special gifts and otherwise letting people know that he is thinking of them and cares about them. He gives more than he takes and has come to learn that, when he does this, he gets plenty back in return, both personally and professionally.

Since Mr. Shmooze is a very successful salesperson, there are numerous ideas and suggestions in the book of how to apply these concepts in sales. It shouldn't be surprising that Mr. Shmooze says "Most successful service providers succeed because of their ability to build relationships" and also that "it's all about adding value through your relationships." Mr. Shmooze contends that the only way to win in sales is to establish an intimate, personal relationship with the buyer and to be able to clearly explain how your product and service will benefit her. These are not new ideas. However, there is benefit in reading about these concepts in the context of how Mr. Shmooze applies them.

Mr. Shmooze believes strongly in the benefits of a positive attitude; imploring us to elicit positive emotion from others and to always end each "encounter" on a high note. Mr. Shmooze also believes that people base most of their decisions on two basic sensations: pleasure and pain. If others associate you with pleasure, you win! If they associate you with pain..."

As a sales manager, Mr. Shmooze states that "I want passion, guts, drive and enthusiasm. And I want someone who is in love with life, who loves people and who laughs hard and often." Someone who is truly optimistic and who really lives. Living is comprised of actions and behaviors, which are driven by feelings and emotions. So, ask yourself: since feelings and emotions are contagious, are mine worth catching? Mr. Shmooze pushes us all to do better in this regard.

His mission statement is that "the happier I can make myself, the happier I can make other people." An enviable perspective to have there, Mr. Shmooze.

JFD Performance Solutions (http://www.jfdperfsolutions.com/)
As a business coaching and consulting firm, we specialize in helping individuals to reach more of their potential, companies to achieve greater results, and teams to work better together. We help our clients implement sustainable change and be more successful.

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Best Selling Books In Marketing And Sales

Joseph Michelli is one of the world's top authorities on creating an organizational culture dedicated to service excellence. In Prescription for Excellence, Michelli provides an in-depth look at the UCLA Health System and explains how you can use the same approach to dominate your own industry. UCLA Health system is known worldwide for its outstanding patient care and great staff and their overall success is driven by an organization-wide collaboration of visionary leaders. By breaking down the UCLA approach into five principles, Michelli shows you how to achieve similar goals by translating these steps into your own industry.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell explores the astounding phenomenon of when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. He describes the way tipping points have begun changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and spreading ideas. Through simple yet entertaining explanations, Gladwell explores this relatively new occurrence in the context of today's markets. Robert B. Cialdini's bestseller, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, explores the psychological foundations of marketing. Whether you are a consumer or someone trying to urge others to buy or vote for your product, this is an essential read to navigate the minds of consumers. This book will resonate with readers and strike chords deep in their psyche. Readers will be able to use Cialdini's theories on their own consumers in order to persuade them to buy their products.

In his first book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, Tony Hsieh, the iconoclastic CEO of Zappos, the online shoe retailer, explains how he created a culture with a commitment to service that improves the lives of its employers, customers, vendors, and backers. Drawing on anecdotes and stories from his own life experiences and the experiences of other companies, Hsieh connects with you by providing concrete ways that you and your company can achieve monumental success like Zappos. By providing details of the unique customer care practices of Zappos, Hsieh underscores the importance of company culture in order to bring forward great customer service and long-term branding. Delivering Happiness provides an account of Zappos employees and how their use Zappos' Core Values outside of work to bring happiness to their personal lives.

Gary Vaynerchuk's The Thank You Economy is about something greater than a single revolutionary platform. It is about the way we communicate, buy, and sell and the way consumers interact online and offline. This type of economy was born on the Internet and has given consumers back their voices by providing them with tremendous opinion-forming power through social media. Vaynerchuk describes how today companies must compete on a whole different level than they used to. Customers demand more from companies making it imperative for companies to provide excellent customer service and find compelling ways to grab customer attention. Vaynerchuk reveals the ways in which companies can become more personal to their entire customer base using social media. By offering data-driven evidence, this book shows that by harnessing the word-of-mouth power derived from social media can help companies profit and grow more than ever before.

Roberto Sedycias works as an IT consultant for PoloMercantil

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The New Strategic Selling by Diane Sanchez and Stephen E Heiman

The world of sales has changed, and things have become much more complicated. In the world of today, those high skilled sales professionals no longer have the comfort of relying on the old methods, those old methods consisting of good contacts, a will to persist, and sales tactics that would have world flawlessly in the old world. There are so many things to take into consideration these days, and you will need a decent guide such as The New Strategic Selling by Diane Sanchez and Stephen E. Heiman if you are to push forward in your sales career.

First of all, it is important to forecast your sales results in a realistic manner. You do not want to overestimate your income, though underestimating is never a terrible thing. In addition to that you want to ensure that you are dealing with customers who know what they want. If the customer does not know, then can you help them to arrive at a conclusion?

Another problem you might run into is dealing with the middle man, so to say. You can make a perfect sales pitch, and you can win the hearts of many, but if you are not dealing with someone who can render the final decision then it may all be in vain. You need to make sure that you are dealing with the Chief Financial Officer of a company or at least a store owner if you want your sales to go through properly.

The New Strategic Selling, a course by Diane Sanches and Stephen E. Heiman will teach you all of this and more. As we said before, being a salesperson in today's world, whether you find yourself selling your own personal products or corporate products as a member of the sales department, but in any case, you HAVE to know how to see, and you HAVE to know how to do a decent job of it if you are to make it. That being said, this course will undoubtedly provide you with the information you need.

As you can see, there are plenty of methods by which you might find yourself improving in the area of sales, and before you know it you will be selling left and right like never before. Accomplishing this goal however will depend on your willingness to move forward in your sales career and your ability to master brand new techniques. That being said, now would be a great time to look at the New Strategic Selling and see just how it can be implemented into your career. This isn't to say that you cannot progress without it of course, but it is to say that it never, ever hurts to have a helping hand when you need it in the area of sales. So what are you waiting for? Take a look at this course and see where it might lead you on the long and interesting road to a lucrative sales career. After all, you work hard, and you deserve it.

Please visit The Personal Development Company if you would like to learn more about The New Strategic Selling by Diane Sanchez and Stephen E. Heiman

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Successful Selling Solutions

Some businesses thrive better than others not because they produce better products or services but because they sell more than others through unique sales strategies. It is not out of place therefore to X-ray this text christened "Successful Selling Solutions".

It is written by Julian Clay, a management consultant that specialises in selling techniques. After a successful career with Kodak, Clay developed his own consultancy, and his clients include the James McNaughton Group, ICI, Racal, Gillette and Novartis. He is the co-author of "The Sales Manager's Desktop Guide".

Clay says what would you not give for the expertise of your own coach who followed each stage of your sales campaigns, unlocked problems whenever you got stuck and ensured that you got from almost there to actually making the sale? He adds that this text gives you the equivalent, using self-assessment models which he has developed over many years with major international clients.

Clay assures that the text will show you how to track your progress in your sales campaigns as well as how to identify where you may be going wrong and how to build a successful sales path of development.

According to this author, unlike many books that simply list prescribed techniques and leave readers to interpret them, "Successful Selling Solutions" is different in that it offers clear, practical advice on every aspect of making a sale.

Clay says this text is aimed at people who have begun a career in sales as well as those that want to refresh themselves on some of the main issues. By developing a sale well, you stand a better chance of gaining genuine commitment and maintaining good profit margins, reflects this author. Clay adds that it will also help middle and senior managers to have a better understanding of the sales process. Clay stresses that although each reader's market and level of experience will be different, many of the disciplines will be the same.

This text contains ten chapters. Chapter one is entitled "Preparation and sales development". According to this consultant here, before you begin selling to any target account, it is worth preparing yourself. This can involve knowing something about your market, your products and those of your competitors, educates Clay.

He says by doing this, you will find it easier to manage each stage of a sale correctly. "This can be made easier by having sales models in place to help you develop a sale well...Knowing your products and services well, how they compare with your competitors and their strengths and weakness, is part of the preparation process," stresses the author.

Clay says as you target new and existing accounts, the two key areas in which you should continually update yourself are the strengths and weaknesses of your company and the products/services you sell; and your competitors and products/services they sell. He educates that this knowledge will gain you credibility in the eyes of a buyer and give you confidence that you are offering the right solution when you get a requirement.

Clay explains that another way of preparing well is to ensure that you ask the right questions in a call and record the right type of information. He adds that by doing this, you will increase your chances of developing the sale properly, and keep the buyers' interest. Getting the correct information will also help you turn interest into commitment more easily, submits the author.

Chapter two is based on the subject matter of targeting new accounts. Here, Clay says knowing your products, your competitors and having a forecasting model to help you develop a sale will make it easier to target new accounts. He stresses that breaking into accounts is harder than maintaining existing ones. Clay educates that acquisition of this knowledge will make it easier to build new business relationships.

According to him, having good information about a target account before you meet a buyer will help you build your credibility, confidence and knowledge. Clay says to do this, you will need to find out something about the account.

He expatiates that some of the information you will need to find out should include something about the target account's products and services; company history; competitors; turnover and profit; current challenges; core business objectives; strategic direction; company structure; and buying cycle/behaviour/attitude.

The author explains that with this knowledge, you will show buyers respect and make it easier to begin a dialogue with them. Most of the information listed above can be found in a company's annual report; a company's sales literature; on the Internet, etc., adds Clay.

The author says it can take you time to learn about your target accounts, but it will help you to develop a good understanding of the accounts. In his words, "You will need to decide which ones to spend time researching. A company's annual report and accounts will give a greater insight into their products, services and most importantly - their cultures! It will help you to know how much value they put on the products and services you sell."

Clay says this has a number of benefits as it will enable you to assess the account's potential; develop a good/better relationship with the buyer/decision-maker; decide how much to spend pursuing the account; differentiate yourself against your competitors. Clay adds that the effort you put in has to be compared with the results you get.

This consultant stresses that by doing, this you can assess the value of the time spent on each account.

He educates that you can also look at the type of relationship you have with each account contact, explaining that this will help to ensure that your relationship develops in the way you want it to. Clay says when you first meet someone in a target account, it is a good idea to discuss any stated goals/intentions/policies that the organisation has. "This will help to give the impression that you are interested in them and their company. You can then look to link the benefits your company has to offer with the target account information," adds the author.

In chapters three to six, this author looks at concepts such as telephone and personal introductions; turning interest into commitment; developing a sale correctly; and presentation.

Chapter seven is entitled "The sales proposal". According to Clay here, presenting your solution to a target account will confirm that it can meet its needs. He says this is a stage that a buyer will often need a more detailed confirmation of the financial investment in your product and service.

The author educates that deciding when to put something in writing or in an email will depend on the price of your products, the type of relationship you have with a buyer and the length of your sales cycle. Clay says for low-cost, fast-turnover products, you might need to send written confirmation after a first meeting. If you sell high-cost products, you will take longer to gain genuine commitment, meaning that a detailed proposal will be needed to link your solution to the target account's needs, adds the author.

He says the timing of any written confirmation can be a key factor in a buyer making a decision in your favour. Clay explains that for high-cost products that have a longer sales cycle, this decision might not happen until after a presentation has been done on the product and is likely to include a number of key players, not only the buyer. It is this point, in many cases where target accounts actually make their buying decisions, educates Clay.

Chapters eight to ten are based on the subject matters of negotiation; closing the sale; and managing your accounts and sales performance.

Stylistically, this text is able to score a pass mark as a result of the inclusion of segments such as "Chapter summary", "Practical pointer", as well as graphics to achieve conceptual amplification and ensure concrete understanding on readers' part. The language of the text is standard and simple, while the subject matters are brilliantly articulated. What's more, the title is short, assertive and arouses potential readers' interest.

However, errors of punctuation, technically called graphological errors are noticed, e.g., "By doing this you can assess the value...." (page 44), instead of "By doing this, you can assess the value...."; "When you first meet someone in a target account it is a good idea...." (page 44) instead of "When you first meet someone in a target account, it is a good idea...." There is another one on page 149 line five.

In spite of these errors, the text still passes for a masterpiece. Are you determined to surpass your sales target this year? If you are responding in the affirmative, part of what you need to achieve this is this text. It is very fantastic.

GOKE ILESANMI, Editor-in-Chief/CEO of http://www.gokeilesanmi.com/ and Managing Consultant/CEO of Gokmar Communication Consulting, is a Certified Public Speaker/Emcee, (Business) Communication Specialist, Motivational Speaker, Career Management Coach, Renowned Book Reviewer, Corporate Leadership Expert and Editorial Consultant. Tel: +234(0)8055068773; +234(0)8056030424
Email: info@gokeilesanmi.com; gokeiles2010@gmail.com

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