Foreword

“It’s not what you sell. It’s how you sell.”

Let’s take a quick look at where we are. Three societal and technological changes over the past few decades have totally disrupted business and irrevocably changed selling.

Globalization, a force that’s been occurring for thousands of years, has made the world a smaller place—and it’s brought new, competitive entrants from just about everywhere. Your marketplace is now crowded. You look a lot like your competitors, and they look a lot like you.

The Internet has disintermediated whole industries, like book sales (think Amazon.com), television (think Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube), and newspapers. If a salesperson can’t add value to a buying decision, that purchase can be made via a quick and easy transaction over the Web.

The final change affecting the sales force is commoditization. In the 1970s and 1980s, we were able to speak about a sustainable competitive advantage—the ability to do something in a way that was so difficult to duplicate that you could dominate your market for decades. The idea of “sustainable” is now quaint. What you sell, no matter how good, is going to be copied—and with lightning speed.

But there’s good news. Because it matters more how you sell than what you sell, you’re empowered to act in a way that provides you with a massive competitive advantage—and one not easily duplicated. There’s a way you can “Amp Up Your Sales.”

By learning what it really means to buy and to sell, you’ll discover the advantage gained by providing your customers with the help they need to make buying decisions (ones favorable to you). Once you understand the mechanics of selling this way, you’re ready for a move that will differentiate and define you in the minds of your prospects and clients.

If you want to compress your sales cycle, win new clients faster, and help them realize the advantages of what you sell sooner, you need to be more than responsive. You need to be super-responsive. In a short, powerful section of this book, you’ll recognize that helping your clients make a decision means giving them the information they need now. And not a minute later.

Creating a competitive advantage means creating more value than your competitors do. This means more than creating value through your solution. Remember, it’s how you sell that matters. Your time-starved clients expect you to create the maximum value during every interaction.

Selling is more challenging than it’s ever been. If you’re a salesperson, the book you hold in your hands holds the answers to the challenges you face. If you’re a sales manager or sales leader, it’s a powerful toolkit that can fundamentally change how your sales force engages your prospects in clients. You need a strategic plan to produce better results, and you need the tactics that allow you to execute and win. You’ll find both in Amp Up Your Sales.

S. Anthony Iannarino
www.thesalesblog.com
Westerville, Ohio