The Collaborative Sale

Buyer behavior has changed the marketplace, and sellers must
adapt to survive

The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in Today's
Customer-Driven World is the definitive guide to the new
reality of sales. The roles of buyers, sellers, and technology have
changed, and collaboration is now the key to success on all sides.
The Collaborative Sale guides sales professionals toward
alignment with buyers, by helping them overcome their problems and
challenges, and creating value. From building a robust opportunity
pipeline and predicting future revenues to mastering the nuances of
buyer conversations, the book contains the information sales
professionals need to remain relevant in today's sales
environment.

Buyers have become more informed and more empowered. As a
result, most sellers now enter the buying process at a much later
stage than the traditional norm. The rise of information access has
given buyers more control over their purchases than ever before,
and sellers must adapt to survive. The Collaborative Sale
provides a roadmap for adapting through sales collaboration,
detailing the foundations, personae, and reality of the new
marketplace. The book provides insight into the new buyer thought
processes, the new sales personae required for dealing with the new
buyers, and how to establish and implement a dynamic sales process.
Topics include:

• Selling in times of economic uncertainty, broad information
  access, and new buyer behavior

• Why collaboration is so important to the new buyers

• The emergence of new sales personae - Micro-marketer,
  Visualizer, and Value Driver

• Buyer alignment, risk mitigation, and the myth of control

• Situational fluency, and the role of technology

• Focused sales enablement, and buyer-aligned learning and
  development

• Implementation and establishment of a dynamic sales
  process

The book describes the essential competencies for collaborative
selling, and provides indispensable supplemental tools for
implementation. Written by recognized authorities with insights
into global markets, The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in
Today's Customer-Driven World is the essential resource for
today's sales professional.

Auteur

KEITH M. EADES is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sales Performance International, one of the largest sales improvement companies in the world. Founded in 1988, the company does business in over 54 countries. Keith is one of the leading authorities on transforming companies into world-class sales organizations and is a bestselling author of The New Solution Selling.

TIMOTHY T. SULLIVAN is the Director of Business Development for Sales Performance International. Tim is a frequent public speaker and published author on advanced sales and marketing practices.

Résumé
Buyer behavior has changed the marketplace, and sellers must adapt to survive The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in Today's Customer-Driven World is the definitive guide to the new reality of sales. The roles of buyers, sellers, and technology have changed, and collaboration is now the key to success on all sides. The Collaborative Sale guides sales professionals toward alignment with buyers, by helping them overcome their problems and challenges, and creating value. From building a robust opportunity pipeline and predicting future revenues to mastering the nuances of buyer conversations, the book contains the information sales professionals need to remain relevant in today's sales environment.

Buyers have become more informed and more empowered. As a result, most sellers now enter the buying process at a much later stage than the traditional norm. The rise of information access has given buyers more control over their purchases than ever before, and sellers must adapt to survive. The Collaborative Sale provides a roadmap for adapting through sales collaboration, detailing the foundations, personae, and reality of the new marketplace. The book provides insight into the new buyer thought processes, the new sales personae required for dealing with the new buyers, and how to establish and implement a dynamic sales process. Topics include:

• Selling in times of economic uncertainty, broad information access, and new buyer behavior
• Why collaboration is so important to the new buyers
• The emergence of new sales personae Micro-marketer, Visualizer, and Value Driver
• Buyer alignment, risk mitigation, and the myth of control
• Situational fluency, and the role of technology
• Focused sales enablement, and buyer-aligned learning and development
• Implementation and establishment of a dynamic sales process
  The book describes the essential competencies for collaborative selling, and provides indispensable supplemental tools for implementation. Written by recognized authorities with insights into global markets, The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in Today's Customer-Driven World is the essential resource for today's sales professional.

Contenu

Foreword Dave Stein xi

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xix

Definitions xxi

Part I Foundations of the Collaborative Sale 1

1 The Story and What's behind The Collaborative Sale 3

The Collaborative Sale 7

What Is Sales Collaboration? 9

2 Solution Selling Meets the New Buyer 13

The Emergence of the New BuyerBuyer 2.0 16

The Effect of Information Access on Buyer 2.0 Behavior 16

The Millennials Are Coming 21

The Effect of Economic Uncertainty on Buyer 2.0 Behavior 23

Buyer 2.0 versus Buyer 1.0 27

Adapting to the Buyer 2.0 Paradigm 28

The Relevancy of Solution Selling and the Evolution of the Collaborative Sale 33

The Story (Continued) 35

3 What the New Buyers Expect: Situational Fluency 39

Seller Agility 42

Situational Fluency 44

Components of Situational Fluency 45

Hiring for Situational Fluency 50

Developing Situational Fluency 51

Technology's Role in Situational Fluency 53

Part II Three Personae of the Collaborative Sale 57

4 The Micro-Marketer Persona 59

Why Be a Micro-Marketer? 60

Micro-Marketers Demonstrate Situational FluencyWith Constraint 62

Micro-Marketers Create Their Own Personal Brand 63

Planning and Executing a Micro-Marketer Strategy 66

Enabling the Micro-Marketer Persona 74

The Story (Continued) 82

5 The Visualizer Persona 85

What Is a Visualizer? 85

Buyer States and Strength of Vision 91

Visualizer Conversations 95

Embracing the Visualizer Persona 99

The Story (Continued) 101

6 The Value Driver Persona 105

Focusing on Value 107

What Is the Value Driver Persona? 107

Using a Collaboration PlanA Buyer Alignment and Risk Mitigation Strategy 115

The Myth of Control 118

Create an Online Collaboration Site 119

Collaborating to Close 121

Enabling the Value Driver Persona 122

The Story (Continued) 124

Part III Making the Collaborative Sale a Reality 127

7 Establishing a Dynamic Sales Process 129

Buyer-Aligned Sales Process 134

Dynamic Sales Process 135

Automating Dynamic Sales Processes 137

Expanding the View of Sales Process 138

Sales Process Enables Management and Marketing 140

8 Coaching the Collaborative Sale 143

Sales Management Cadence 144

Motivation 151

9 Implementing the Collaborative Sale 157

Right Process: Buyer-Aligned Learning and Development 159

Right People: Talent Assessment and Analytics 162

Right Tools: Focused Enablement 167

Committing to SuccessIndividually and Organizationally 177

Epilogue 179

Afterword 181

Appendix 183

Essential Competencies for The Collaborative Sale 183

Additional Collaborative Selling Tools 186

Contributors 195

*Keith M. Ea…