Consultative Closing: Simple Steps That Build Relationships and Win Even the Toughest Sale

by Greg Bennett

Book Overview

"For the past several years, the often-unwarranted myth of the pushy, aggressive, and, worst of all, deceitful salesperson has become ingrained in American culture. While consultative selling, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814473997
• ISBN13: 9780814473993
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: AMACOM/American Management Association
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 17 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Consulative Closing

Enjoyed the idea of the mini steps. It was a refresher for things I been doing for years. It is a great reminder of things to do!

Useful, step-by-step guide to help you finally seal the deal

Often, salespeople - even those who already practice "consultative" selling - are reluctant to ask for the sale because they don't want to jeopardize a client relationship they've worked hard to develop. Yet, the whole point of developing the relationship is to generate sales. Sales trainer Greg Bennett offers a solution to this conundrum in the form of his "mini-steps" sales approach. He explains how salespeople can break the sales process down into small, actionable steps, to help the client buy into it and advance the sale, without appearing self-serving or pushy. His system reworks existing sales practices, so some of his concepts may feel familiar, but he points out that many salespeople, and even sales managers, are too comfortable living in "Maybe-Land." He advocates taking up permanent residence in "Reality-World" by asking for an answer, even if that answer is "no." We encourage those who want to refine their consultative-selling techniques to read Bennett's book.

Practical Plan

Drawn from decades of selling situations and experiences, this book lays out a 3-part method to improving professional sales: 1. Working from a set of mini-steps to achieve buy-in 2. Recognizing that "no" is always better than "maybe" 3. A set of mini-steps for after the sale The book also has a wonderful story on replacement window-buying, and having just lived through that "process," I found his insights spot on. Unfortunately, the book has several minor weak points that keep it from the 5-star rating: * Out of 200+ pages, only 10% cover the 3rd and final step in the method (post-sale mini-process). * There is significant repetition (a paragraph or two on how clients and salesmen want to avoid conflict must be in every chapter at least once). * Large parts of the book are written specifically for the small business owner; other sections clearly just for the dedicated salesman or sales manager. Depending on your role, you can skim. That said, the first two out of three steps are incredibly well developed and very powerful tools. Thus, four stars. J. Avellanet, Co-Founder of Cerulean Associates LLC