Selling in the business to business (B2B) setting requires its own set of skills. What works for selling a product to a single end-user does not always work in the context of a larger organization with multiple decision-makers.
This week’s book recommendation comes from an attendee of one of my Learning to S.E.E. (Sell Efficiency Effectively) workshops. He was trying to condense a complicated Demand Response sales pitch to concisely convey the value of his offering, and Geoffrey James’ book, How to Say It: Business to Business Selling, equipped him with the tools to accomplish that goal. If you’re looking for advice on a wide variety of B2B sales topics, this book provides some great tips and tricks.
One side note: Because Geoffrey James touches on so many topics in this book, each one is more of a high-level overview. If you’re looking for an in-depth exploration of any of the topics (listed below in the summary), send me an email and I can recommend a follow-on book or two.
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“There are approximately 35 million business to business sales reps in the country selling everything from books and computers to furniture and flooring. They know as well as anyone that selling to other businesses is not the same as selling to consumers. Businesses have different budgets, needs, demands, and expectations from those of general consumers. That means an entirely different skill set is required of business to business sales reps.
“How to Say It: Business to Business Selling is the only book of its kind that caters exclusively to business to business sales professionals. Its short chapters provide tips and strategies tailored especially for the unique business to business selling process. You’ll learn how to:
- Motivate Yourself to Sell
- Craft an Elevator Pitch
- Find Hot Sales Leads
- Make a Cold Call
- Use Voicemail to Sell
- Give a Sales Presentation
- Write a Sales Proposal
- Give a Product Demo
- Negotiate the Best Deal
- Close a Sale
- Create a Powerful Sales Process
- Sell to Top Executives
- Build Sales Partnerships
- Get a Customer Referral
- Accelerate Your Sales Cycle
