Smarter Selling
Next Generation Sales Strategies to Meet
Your Buyer's Needs - Every Time

By Keith Dugdale & David Lambert
July 2007
Financial Times / Prentice Hall
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications
ISBN: 9780273712466
254 Pages, Illustrated, 6 1/8 " x 9 1/4"
$39.50 paper original

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The old-fashioned hard sell doesn't cut it any more. Learn what works and what doesn't in selling today. Customers want to buy, not be sold to and this requires different skills and techniques from the salesperson. Find out how to develop trusting relationships and genuine rapport with your clients and customers and learn how to scope out and meet their needs, so that you can do successful business in today's new sales environment.

Through the author’s unique ‘I Owe You’ framework, Smarter Selling gives you an immediately applicable method for understanding your own personality and that of the buyers you deal with and demonstrates why it is critical that the first comes before the second.  More than that, it provides you with simple tools and approaches tested by leading organisations, to help you build deeper, more trusting and more successful relationships with your buyers so that you outperform the competition every time.

Contents

Acknowledgements

 About the authors

Introduction               

1   I Owe U - second generation consultative sales strategies

1.1                Selling today

1.2                Next generation selling

1.3                The I Owe U sales journey

1.4                Customer or client

2   How other people really see you

2.1                Why you need to know how others see you

2.2                Who you are

2.3                The OctagonTM Behavioural Assessment

2.4                What are you going to do next?

2.5                Finding out what other people really think

3 Understanding and changing your relationships

3.1                Types of relationship

3.2                Knowing where you are with a relationship

3.3                How to change your relationships

3.4                A matrix of relationships

4   Understanding and adapting to buyers

4.1                Different organisational approaches to buying

4.2                Buyer types and their influence

4.3                Roles

4.4                Personal preferences

5   Building rapport and trust – the I Owe U approach

5.1                Control and structure

5.2                I Owe U

6   Uncovering real needs

6.1                Personal power

6.2                Introducing SHAPE

6.3                Surface (the facts)

6.4                Hunt (for challenges)

6.5                Adjust (to signal direction)

6.6                Paint (for positive future outcomes)

6.7                Engage (to move to action)

6.8                Summary of SHAPE and tools to assist your learning

6.9                An easier SHAPE

6.10                Common areas for questioning

6.11                Spicy Questions

6.12                Value-Sheets

7    Moving to a higher level

7.1                Different levels of conversation

7.2                Getting from level 1 to level 4

8     Cementing credibility and trust

8.1                Confirming the situation

8.2                No proposals

8.3                Proof

9     Presenting your ideas for positive impact

9.1                Audience

9.2                Structure

9.3                Delivery

9.4                Pulling it all together               

9.5                Q & A

9.6                Visuals

10     Getting smarter: putting I Owe U to work

11   Summary of key messages

Appendices

1. Your OctagonTM behavioural assessment

2. Your OctagonTM action plan

3.  Buyer Feedback Tool

4. Blank planning sheets

5. Recognising SHAPE questions

Index

Reviews
“Every now and then, you read a book that turns accepted wisdom on its head and shows a new way.  This is one of those books.”
Rick Adkinson, CEO, Private Capital

"If you read SPIN Selling, you should read Smarter Selling.  This book completes the jigsaw of buyer influences through addressing the emotional and psychological aspects of the sales process.  This critical dimension provides a means for real differentiation."
Chris Greaves, Sales Director (Northern Europe), Ipswitch Inc.

“The tools this book introduces and the mindset change it drives will make a significant impact on the relationship and sales success of most organisations.”
Peter Savoff, General Manager, Hotels, Anthony John Group


Author
Keith Dugdale is the CEO of Inparallel Australasia Pty Ltd, an Australian based specialist in human behaviour in the workplace. He has been focusing on the sales side of this for the last seven years and has been consulting with individuals, local companies and global organisations.

Keith worked for many years with business consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers in the UK, China, Singapore, Hong Kongand Australia. He held senior positions in people development and business development. Keith is qualified in several personality and behavioural tools.

David Lambert is the CEO of MenTacTion Limited, a Hong Kongbased specialist communications and training consultancy. He began to specialise in communications more than 15 years ago and in the intervening period has consulted for many leading companies, organisations and government bodies – helping them improve their internal and external communications. 

David worked for five years with a specialist corporate communications consultancy in the UKand for eight years with business consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he held senior positions in business development, marketing and communications and, finally, as head of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers Leadership Academy. David is qualified in a number of personality and behavioural tools.

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