New Sales Simplified (Book Summary)

Here are my key takeaways from the book:

1. Be perceived as someone who brings value and helps solve business problems
2. Maintain discipline and focus to gain traction on a defined target set of leads
3. Go into sales calls with a solid plan and share it with the prospect
4. Dedicate blocks of time on your calendar for prospecting, honor the times, and stay on task
5. Know your company’s strategic direction and the competitive landscape
6. Align pay with business goals, typically by raising commissions on new business and lower commissions on retained business
7. Attend, but don’t necessarily exhibit at, tradeshows
8. Pick 4 or 5 dream clients and work at them over the long-term
9. “Stop talking about yourself and your company and begin leading with the issues, pains, problems, opportunities, and results that are important to your prospect.”
10. Tell a compelling sales story with the following three parts (a) client issues addressed (b) offerings (c) differentiators
11. Use a casual, comfortable tone rather than an overly formal “sales voice”
12. Use the following phone call script:
    1. Hi (prospect first). It’s (rep first & last) with (rep company). Let me steal a minute.
    2. I head up client relationships for (specific area).
    3. Right now a lot of (prospect’s job role) use (rep company) because (prospect problem). We help by (rep solution). (Strive to reference any pre-call research here as well).
    4. Let’s get together to see if we might be a fit for you. (ask for a meeting at least 3x)
13. Sit literally and figuratively on the same side of the table as the prospect
14. Use the following in-person discovery meeting outline:
    1. brief rapport building
    2. confirm the available amount of time
    3. spend no more than 5 minutes, optionally with slides, covering (i) company overview (ii) issues we solve for clients (iii) how we solve those issues in a differentiated way (iv) current understanding of prospect’s situation
    4. spend the bulk of the time asking questions to better understand their situation; take notes
    5. share relevant case studies and solutions based on specific prospect situation
    6. Schedule next step with action items for both prospect and salesperson
15. Split prospecting time into thirds covering (a) hot opportunities, (b) active deals, (c) targeted prospects who are not yet active
16. Overall, the book is simple, practical, and relevant. I especially appreciated the detail phone call, voicemail, and face-to-face meeting outlines.

If the book has a flaw it is in its editing – like many books in the genre there is too much repetition and it jumps around between generic motivational advice (“op performers in sales don’t wait for anything or anyone”), the banal (“Don’t cheap out on shoes and your carrying bag), and the meaty stuff I cite above.