The Hard Truth About Soft-Selling
Restoring Pride & Purpose to the Sales Profession
By: John F. Tanner, George W. Dudley
Published: June 30, 2006
ISBN-10: 0935907084
ISBN-13: 978-0935907087
Format: Paperback, 200pp
Publisher: Behavioral Science Research Press
In Real World 101, in addition to meeting your customer's objective, your professional objective as the seller must remain the same: to close the sale. If it's not, you're wasting your time, write sales experts John F. Tanner and George W. Dudley in their no nonsense and eye opening book The Hard Truth About Soft-Selling: Restoring Pride & Purpose to the Sales Profession. The authors dispel many of the myths that have grown up around the soft-selling approach, and provide the real facts about sales as a profession.
John F. Tanner (photo left) and George W. Dudley pull no punches as they critique the concept of "no sell" sales. The authors believe that salespeople have been taught to build relationships and develop friendships over their real purpose of sales. The result is a loss of direction for sales representatives, as well as a more insidious belief that sales must become more professional. Salespeople have become almost apologetic for their career, in the opinion of the authors. The book reminds sales representatives to sell with honour, pride, and intention.
George W. Dudley (photo left) and John F. Tanner outline how the promises of the new relationship sales phenomenon has not always been met in the real world. The authors point out quite bluntly, that sales reps are not paid commissions on the number of friends acquired, or relationships built. Instead, sales employee compensation is based on the resulting sales completed. The no sell theory creates a group of visitors who close few sales, and the result is an even further decline in the reputation of sales as a career.
For me, the power of the book is its straight forward and honest discussion of what sales mean in terms of intention and results. The authors explain why ethics and honesty are often missing, from the often inflexible theories, of no sell type sales programs. In its place, the book outlines a more honest approach to closing the sale, based on intention. The sales rep must understand their intention when contacting a prospect, so as to close the sale. Ironically, this direct intention based approach is less manipulative, than many of the purported no sell and soft-sell techniques, currently in wide circulation.
I highly recommend The Hard Truth About Soft-Selling: Restoring Pride & Purpose to the Sales Profession by John F. Tanner and George W. Dudley, to anyone seeking an alternative selling approach to the widely promoted soft-selling theories. Instead of apologizing about the intended sale, the book honourable choice to call yourself a salesperson proudly.
Read The Hard Truth About Soft-Selling: Restoring Pride & Purpose to the Sales Profession by John F. Tanner and George W. Dudley, and stop being afraid of what might happen if your sales intentions are understood clearly. Honesty will help solve a customer's problems and meet their needs better and more quickly, than spending time attempting a relationship building process first.
