I discovered Lee Child's Jack Reacher thriller series this spring, and, unusually for me, read three in a row . . . in part because they were so good, and in another part to try to find why they were so unusually gripping.

Turns out that Lee Child hadn't always been writing thrillers— fact is, he took it up only after being laid off unexpectedly from a job he loved, and had expected to hold till he retired.  This from his article in Parade Magazine last Sunday.  http://www.parade.com/news/2009/07/26-my-good-life-after-being-fired.html   Here's how he put it, and I think that resonates with a lot of readers of this blog:

"For 13 more years, I was happy as a clam.

"Second, I felt betrayed. Not by the people I had worked for—they went in the very first wave. I felt betrayed by my own naiveté. The modern world had snuck up on me, and I hadn’t seen it coming. The rules had changed, and I hadn’t noticed. My fault, basically.

"Third, I felt scared. Remember that old saying, “one missed paycheck from disaster”?  That was me."

He doesn't say in the article whether he ever wishes he had the old job back, but I kinda doubt it . . . not after that "tough break" propelled him into a new career with 13 best-sellers to date.

My point?  Sometimes what seems like the worst thing can turn into the best thing that ever happened . . .if we're flexible and open. And if we can envision ourselves in a new role and sell that vision to others.

Part One: EARLY PREPARATIONS

The crucial “must-do” before you invest any time in preparing to conduct a sales presentation or demonstration, or to invest time and effort in any other kind of proof source — including offering free trials or free samples.

Why and how to begin working out what both you and the prospect expect from this early: why it’s very smart to ask the Prospect to “invest” before you invest your time and effort.

“Decision influencers” are people who may not make the decisions, but they are key allies. How and when to work with them early-on.

Checklists on setting up the logistics of the presentation or demonstration.

How to Sell Face-to-Face: SURVIVAL GUIDE

In this little book, we work together through the need-to-know  steps of selling face-to-face—that is, face-to-face across the table from prospects.

That’s why I  call it How to Sell Face-to-Face: Survival Guide, with emphasis on the “survival guide” aspect.

Survival guides need to be as compact and “netted-out” as feasible, focusing on the “must-know now,” leaving the theory and advanced stuff for later.  It’s designed to help you get selling face-to-face on Monday morning, not  sitting home trying to pull out the need-to-know from a stack of other books.

Sample chapters

How to Sell Face-to-Face: SURVIVAL GUIDE –Table of Contents

        Preface   
       
A     Starting questions
  
B     Developing a list of potential prospects 
 
       
1.    Finding your way to the person (or team) who can say yes   

2.    How to initiate that first contact   

3.    Getting past the “Gate”   

4.   Your first phone contact with the Prospect   

5.   Preparing for your first face-to-face with the Prospect   

6.   Opening the first face-to-face with this Prospect   

7.   Working with the Prospect to uncover needs for what you offer   

8.   Asking the questions   

9.   Linking the Prospect’s need with how you will fill that need   

10.  Dealing with the issue of price: talk “value”   

11.  Being attuned to “buying signals”   

12. “Closing”   

13.  Responding to objections and questions   

14.  After the sale   

SELLING 101:

Essential Selling Skills for Business Owners and People New to
Sales

What are the differences between this
SELLING 101 our Selling Skills Step-by-Step:  TUTORIALS? Think of SELLING 101 as a
text-book, while SALES TUTORIALS is, as the name suggests, a
do-it-yourself guidebook.

You won’t find in SELLING 101 the templates that you will in SALES
TUTORIALS, though you will find the content more detailed, more what you’d
want if you’ve been selling for a while . . . . . . OR if you will be
attending a class (or teaching a class) in selling skills.

If you are a sales manager, looking for materials for sales meetings,
consider using SELLING 101 as a textbook, and use our accompanying
SALES MANAGER/INSTRUCTOR GUIDE as your source for covering the material,
or leading group discussions.

Note that at this time, SELLING 101 is available only in
conventional book format. We’re planning an e-book version later, but target
date for that is not yet set.

---

SELLING 101


Essential Selling Skills for Business Owners and People New to
Sales

Adams Media Corporation, 2nd Edition, 216 pages, 8.4 x 5.5 inches.
Illustrated. $10.95

target=”_blank”>Order via
Amazon

Table of Contents: Selling 101

PREFACE: The Entrepreneurial Option

BACKGROUND: Starting Questions

PART ONE: LOCATING PRIORITY PROSPECTS

1: Creating Your Prospect List.

2: Setting Priorities Among Prospects.

PART TWO: LOCATING AND GETTING THROUGH TO THE APPROPRIATE DECISION MAKER


3: Finding the Person or Team Who Can Say Yes.

4: Getting Past the Decision Maker’s Screen.

5: Cold-Calling — When You Must

6: Convincing the Decision Maker to Meet With You.

7: Organizing and Learning from Your Phone Calls

PART THREE: HELPING THE DECISION MAKER RECOGNIZE THE NEED FOR YOUR
PRODUCT

8: Opening the Face-to-Face Meeting With the Decision Maker.

9: Developing/Enhancing the Decision Maker’s Awareness of Need.

10: Selling by Asking Questions: the “Selling Wedge.”

11: Matching the Question to the Situation

12: Selling by Asking Questions: the Questions in Action

PART FOUR: SHOWING HOW YOU CAN FILL THAT NEED.

13: Making the Link: Showing How Your Product Will Fill this Prospect’s
Needs.

14: Raising the Issues of Cost and Value: Showing How Your Product or Work
More Than Pays for Itself.

15: Using Other Methods For Highlighting Value Over Cost

16: Making Your Sales Points Clearly and Concisely

PART FIVE: CONVINCING THE DECISION MAKER TO ACT NOW!

17. Recognizing Buying Signals

18. Asking the Decision Maker to take “Buying Action.”

19. More Ways of Asking the Decision Maker to Take Action.

PART SIX: COPING WITH QUESTIONS, OBJECTIONS, AND HESITATIONS

20. Determining What is Behind the Objection or Question.

21. Restating, Responding, and Moving On From Objections

22. Applying the Four-Step Process

23. Responding to “Early” Objections and Concerns.

24. Handling “Core” Objections.

25. Dealing With Other Problems With the Decision Maker.

PART SEVEN: PRESENTING YOUR PROOF

26. Your Presentation as a Proof Source.

27. Using Demonstrations as Proof Sources.

28. Using Written Proposals as Proof Sources

29. Sending and Receiving Non-Verbal Messages.

PART EIGHT: ODDS AND ENDS

30. Follow-Up Letters and Other Customer Care

31. Winning Back Lost and Wavering Customers

32. Using Indirect Marketing Tools

33. “Prospecting” Resources

34. Organizing for Sales Efficiency

35. Selling Tools: Office Space, Computers, Sales Kits, etc.

Selling Skills Step-by-Step: DEMONSTRATIONS & PRESENTATIONS is a concise guidebook taking you  through
every phase in the process of setting up and conducting sales demonstrations,
sales presentations, and other kinds of “sales proof sources.”

Beyond that, it gives you a “mental roadmap” for
reading the subtle, unconscious signals sent by the decision makers and
“decision influencers” who attend your sales demonstrations and
presentations.

Further, it provides practical guidance on the
non-verbal signals you want to send . . . and to keep from sending in
your sales presentations and demonstrations and other sales meetings?

Selling Skills Step by
Step:
SALES DEMONSTRATIONS and PRESENTATIONS

E-book, 50 pages,
illustrated

Ready for immediate on-line delivery

NOW at introductory price: $9.00

To order for immediate on-line delivery

To order for immediate on-line delivery in PDF
format. $9.00 US introductory price:

To view sample pages

To
VIEW SAMPLE PAGES

About the author.

About the author: Sales Training Tutorials and the other books in the
Selling Skills Step-by-Step series flowed from my work as a management
consultant and my work in developing sales training and sales management
training for top marketing organizations including Kodak, Xerox operating
companies in the United States, Canada, and Europe, Kodak, Motorola, Sylvania,
Bank of American (yes, even bankers need to learn how to market their products
and services!), and others.Michael McGaulley

Contents: some of the practical selling skills you will
learn.

Part One: EARLY PREPARATIONS

The crucial “must-do” before you invest any time in preparing to
conduct a sales presentation or demonstration, or to invest time and effort in
any other kind of proof source — including offering free trials or free
samples.

Why and how to begin working out what both you and the prospect
expect from this early: why it’s very smart to ask the Prospect to “invest”
before you invest your time and effort.

“Decision influencers” are people who may not make
the decisions, but they are key allies. How and when to work with
them early-on.



Checklists on setting up the logistics of the presentation or
demonstration.

A sales demonstration, presentation, or trial offer
is a PROOF source, so what you cover and your key messages flow from what
exactly needs to be proven in order to close the sale. The Prospect’s role in
shaping the plan.

Mental strategies in preparing — not just what you’ll say, but
where you’ll stand, where you’ll position the Prospect, how you’ll get the
Prospect’s team actively involved in the meeting.

Preparing key visual aids, handouts, and other
paperwork.

Part Two: DELIVERING THE SALES
PRESENTATION OR SALES DEMONSTRATION.

In Section A we cover essential preliminaries to be handled on the
day of the presentation or demonstration.

Section B guides your sales presentation or demonstration
through the six key phases. These include early confirmations of purpose,
conducting the body of the session, handling questions and objections, and
closing for action.

Part Three: COMMUNICATING ON
ALL LEVELS
As the old saying puts it, “Words alone are not enough.” The words you
say, and the Prospect’s words — questions and objections — that you respond to
are, of course, crucial.

But research indicates that only about 7% of the messages
transmitted during fact-to-face communication are carried by the words that are
said. Let me underline that: the words alone total only 7% of the whole
communication

Which means that 93% of the messages back and forth during
presentations and demonstrations are conveyed non-verbally . . . via
indicators such as posture, hand gestures, movements, voice tone, eye focus and
facial expressions, even how people choose to sit or stand, or how they sit in
the chair and then draw back or move forward.

In the first section, the focus is on how to
shape and discipline the subtle and non-verbal messages that you as the sales
person sends TO the prospect and others.

The second section  focuses on interpreting and responding
to the clues and messages coming FROM the Prospect and other decision
influencers sitting in on the demonstration.

Some of these are signs of interest, some are signals of readiness to
buy. Some may be warning signs that the Prospect is tuning out. We examine what
these signals mean, as well as how to react to them in order to keep the selling
momentum going forward.

ORDER NOW AT SPECIAL ONE-TIME ONLY
INTRODUCTORY PRICE: $9.00.