Today’s buyers have changed, fundamentally and forever. They spend countless hours online researching their issues and challenges. They’re highly knowledgeable about the numerous options available and see minimal difference between them.

Sound familiar? It’s because we’re all doing it these days. We bounce from website to website, learning as much as we can about the problems we’re facing. We search for how others are solving them and what resources are available. We find out what others think of the various products, services, and companies we’re considering.

Then we’re finally ready to talk to a salesperson. But our guard is up. We don’t want to be sold.

Neither do our customers. They detest product-pushing peddlers. When listening to our messages or reading our emails, they take great pleasure in deleting us as fast as they can. When we meet with them they’re in self-protection mode, waiting for our inevitable pitch and pressure to take action.

This scenario is a recipe for disaster. We’re trying hard to sell. We’re asking about their budgets and decision-making process. We’re touting our features and capabilities. And we’re going nowhere fast.

Here’s the deal. To be successful in sales, you need to get in much earlier—even before your prospects are considering making a change. You also need fresh sales strategies that actually work in this volatile business environment. Today’s crazy-busy prospects expect so much more from you. They want you to be both a valuable resource and to collaborate with them to help them achieve their objectives.

This isn’t about selling. No one wants to be sold anymore. It’s about leveraging your offering, the research you’ve done, your previous experience, and your customer’s knowledge to help them get where they want to go. When you do that, they want to work with you—and will even pay more for the opportunity.

And that’s exactly why this book is so darn important. When I first met Nancy Bleeke, we talked about her “Genuine Sales” training course. Of course, the title itself stood out in stark contrast to the manipulative sales techniques taught by the old-school gurus.

When I asked her about it, she said, “It’s about being real with your customers. So many salespeople hide behind their products and services. They think that’s what matters. But it’s not. People want to work with you because of what you bring to the relationship.”

Bingo! She hit the truth head on. That’s all today’s prospects want. To back that up, check out the results of a recent survey by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) of 6000+ corporate decision makers regarding what they valued most in their sales reps. The single greatest contributor (53 percent) to customer loyalty was sales experience. This led to their reps being able to offer them unique perspectives, educate them, and help them to reduce risk and make tough choices. Notice that it’s nothing about the product, service, or price.

Further CEB studies showed that reps who exhibited these same qualities in conversations with new prospects were significantly more successful than those who didn’t. Notice again that it’s all about you, your knowledge, and how you leverage it.

That’s the good news too. While you can’t do much to influence your company’s offering, market position, or pricing, you have 100 percent control over you. Every bit of time and effort you invest in yourself has a lifelong impact. It’s something you can take with you, no matter what direction your career goes.

So let’s get serious about what really counts. It all comes down to the conversations that you have with your prospects. Will they capture their attention and pique their curiosity? Or will they be mundane and forgettable? Will they showcase you as a person who could bring value? Or will you sound like every other self-serving salesperson?

In this book, Nancy Bleeke does an excellent job of showing you what it takes to have those collaborative, engaging conversations—whether the conversation is an initial meeting with new prospects to sell them on your value or a meeting with existing customers to uncover new ways to help them.

As for getting by on your natural charm, that’s simply not enough today. Instead, you’ll learn how to augment it with a planning process that leverages your pre-call research and your personal expertise.

Yes, you’ll be investing more time upfront getting ready, but it will be well worth it. Your meetings will go so much better because you’ve changed your focus. You’ll need fewer prospects to meet your quota. And your sales cycles will be much faster—all because “right-sizing” your efforts and conversations for each prospect allows you to be smarter with your time and energy.

By embracing these strategies, you’re on your way to success. You’re going to need to practice, though. Learning new skills always takes time and feels awkward at first. But the upside is so worth it.

The choice is yours. You can continue down the path you’ve been on, working harder and harder to achieve your goals. Or you can decide to excel with Conversations that Sell!

—Jill Konrath, author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies