Buying Styles: Simple Lessons in Selling the Way Your Customers Buys - Softcover

Wilkinson, Michael; Smith, Richard; CHORBA, Tierah; SOKLER, Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814436528 ISBN 13: 9780814436523

Publisher: AMACOM, 2009

Synopsis

Most sales professionals spend all their time and energy trying to perfect their own style of selling. Yet they fail to recognize that buyers have individual “buying styles,” and a one-size-fits-all approach--even your own--won’t win them over. Buying Styles reveals that the key to dramatically increasing your success rate is learning to adapt your own methods to best suit one of the four main customer buying styles. Presented as a “learning adventure,” this easy-to-follow guide takes readers through fictional situations in which salespeople have just lost a major sale and deciphers why, how, and what could have been done to prevent it. Readers will learn how to: understand what to do (and not to do) when selling to customers exhibiting each of the four main buying styles; quickly spot the tell-tale signs that they are using the wrong approach; gain the confidence of prospects; improve their relationships with existing clients; develop a strategy for approaching new prospects; and increase their chances of closing each and every sale. This easy and fun read, packed with tips, checklists, and on-the-go references, unveils powerful new insights for successfully selling to any buyer.

About this title

Book Description

Most sales professionals spend all their time and energy trying to perfect their own style of selling. Yet they fail to recognize that buyers all have their own individual “buying styles”...and when sellers learn how to adapt their own methods to best suit each buying style, they can dramatically increase their success rate. Presented as a “learning adventure,” Buying Styles begins with a fictional situation in which a salesperson has just lost a major sale...and decides to find out why. Readers are then brought along on an interactive lesson that shows them how to:

· recognize the four key buying styles

· understand what to do (and not to do) when selling to customers exhibiting each

· quickly spot the tell-tale signs that they are using the wrong approach

· gain the confidence of prospects

· improve their relationships with existing clients

· develop a strategy for approaching new prospects

· increase their chances of closing each and every sale

This quick and easy read, packed with tips, checklists, and on-the-go references, unveils powerful new insights for successfully selling to anyone.

From the Inside Flap

Does this constellation of characters sound familiar? One of your customers is will­ing to meet with you—again and again—yet never buys and doesn’t tell you why. Another relentlessly questions your data and brushes off your pleasantries. Yet another is upbeat and fun but has a talent for always bringing the conversation back to himself. And one is brusque, impatient, and wants everything boiled down to a short series of bullets, no matter how complex the information.

If you’re selling to all these people in a single style that you’ve perfected over the years, be aware that you are probably losing a great deal of potential business. But tailor your approach to best suit each client’s buying style, and your success rate can immediately and dramatically improve.

Buying Styles shows you how people buy differently and gives you tips and scripts for easily modifying your sales message to best match individual buying preferences. And it does so in a brief, easy-to-read format, with no jargon or unnecessary complexity. The book includes a set of conversations between a group of salespeople and a facilitator that keeps you actively involved by “hearing” the material and “seeing” the characters react and respond. You’ll quickly master Buying Styles’ techniques, including how to:

● Recognize the behaviors associated with each of the four main buying styles: high-D (drive or dominance), high-I (influence), high-S (steadiness), and high-C (compliance)

● Look for clues that tell you how your clients like to buy, and quickly understand what they mean

● Know which tactic to take with each client, whether it’s to get straight to the point, flood him with data, ask questions to let her sell herself, or keep your pitch personal and unhurried

● Escape the common trap of selling the way you like to be sold to, and tailor your approach to match your customer’s buying style

● Be aware of the natural strengths and weaknesses of your selling style, and how it can harmonize or clash with other people’s styles

● Assess the buying styles of your current customer base—as well as your own style and those of your sales team—and develop new strategies for more effectively selling to each

Don’t lose another big contract or impor­tant sale because you can’t quite connect with your customer. This insightful book uncovers the selling dos and don’ts for every buying style—so you can deliver a powerful, tailored sales approach that brings maxi­mum results.

Michael Wilkinson is the CEO of Leadership Strategies—The Facilitation Company, a strategic consulting and training firm. He is the author of The Secrets of Facilitation and The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and is a much sought-after speaker, trainer, and facilitator.

Edition details

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0814436528
• ISBN 13: 9780814436523
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 158