Ghosts in the Machine Overcomi

Sales is hard. Fortunately, there is something you can do to make it easier: accept, understand, and embrace human irrationality.

Pretty much every part of the sales cycle—from prospecting all the way through closing—has been thoroughly dissected in countless books and training programs. Every part, that is, except the impact of human irrationality on all of it. Appreciating irrationality in decision-making at each phase in the sales cycle remains a blind spot for most salespeople.

By leveraging insights from behavioral science, Ghosts in the Machine unpacks the common challenges salespeople encounter at each phase in the sales cycle. In these pages you will discover why…

• Salespeople make prospecting harder than it already is
• Professional relationships are not built rationally
• People are too afraid and too distracted to think about changing
• Negotiating is not the game you think it is
• Salespeople are meant to be heroes

Ghosts in the Machine is not an attempt to recreate the sales wheel. The guidance herein will work alongside your preferred go-to-market sales methodology, whatever it may be. By applying behavioral science concepts and principles to the sales cycle in a systematic and holistic way, Ghosts in the Machine will give you a better understanding of the human beings you are communicating with and the hidden drivers behind the sometimes irrational decisions they make, decreasing their resistance to you and increasing your effectiveness selling to them.

Ryan Voeltz has had just about every type of sales job there is.In college he sold menswear at Nordstrom. In his first job out of college he sold copy machines. He has sold litigation support services, newswire distribution and web services, financial products and services, and driving range golf tees.He has worked for large corporations and small businesses. He has led the sales effort for a start-up. He has sold products and services, small-ticket and large-ticket items, B2C and B2B, to c-suite executives in high-rise conference rooms and middle managers in nondescript cubicles. He has sold directly to customers and as an internal product partner. You'd be hard-pressed to find a type of sales job that he has not done.20 years of experience holding a wide variety of types of sales jobs gives him deep insight into what it takes to succeed as a salesperson, as well as the many difficulties and challenges that come with a sales career. He combines his firsthand experience with insights from behavioral science to present novel approaches to sales that compliment and enhance existing go to market strategies. In Ghosts in the Machine, he argues that the impact of human irrationality on decision-making is the most underappreciated aspect of the sales cycle. By outlining a behavioral approach that covers the entirety of the sales cycle, he hopes to help salespeople of all stripes better understand and manage those irrationalities that have the greatest impact on the sales cycle, and sell more effectively in doing so.