The act of selling still remains the same from the negative perception of sales people to the exchange of dollars for a solution be it products, services or a combination of both.
What has changed is today's business buyers are far more educated and even more tainted than their predecessors.
Their concern as sales buying decision makers for their respective companies is adding value from a strategic perspective to ensure customer loyalty.
And herein lies the value of this book, A Seat at the Table How Top Salespeople Connect and Drives Decisions at the Executive Level.
Marc Miller takes a strategic approach in writing this book and brings in other books to create a unified front for those crazy busy sales people who want to meet with those crazy busy C-Suite Executives.
In the first chapter, he lays out the game plan so that you as the salesperson learn to have discussions with decision makers not about products, services or even benefits but rather about productivity and differentiation.
Miller uses numerous case studies as examples to have you better understand how to connect the value of the customer to the value your solution can deliver.
Even though this book is geared more for complex sales, those solutions that demand being embraced at the top or those mature commodities where price becomes the guiding factor, even the salesperson in the smaller business to business (B2B) sales worlds can benefit from this well written book.
Building upon the concepts of Blue Ocean and Red Ocean Strategies as identified by W.
Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, Miller creates a quadrant or what he calls the Master Strategic Plan Matrix.
This matrix also uses the urgent and important as originally identified by President Eisenhower through his quote "Most things which are urgent are not important, and most things which are important are not urgent.
" His words have been incorporated into many time management systems as well as in Stephen Covey's book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Also there is a great detail respective to the big picture of strategy as well as to the word value.
Miller emphasizes the ongoing critical need of mastery the buying decision through preparation, capture and feedback.
Again, he refers to the Master Strategic Plan Matrix and suggests the use of Sogistics Smartpen as a technology capture tool to assist the salesperson with capturing information that allows him or her to provide honest feedback.
This book is almost like taking a graduate course of psychology, sales and strategic thinking all at the same time.
The end result is to sit on the same side of the table with your potential client so that you and he or she are working together toward his or her critical vision.
By reading and applying the concepts in this book, you will indeed be the Red jacket in the sea of gray suits.