The Funnel Principle: What Every Salesperson Must Know About Selling

by Mark Sellers

Selected by Selling Power Magazine as one of the 10 Best Books to Read in 2010! For years, sales executives have viewed the sales funnel, a.k.a. the pipeline, as a tool that salespeople might use to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0980190207
• ISBN13: 9780980190205
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Mark Sellers
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Its Time To See the World Differently

I liked this book for the simple reason that Mark Sellers offers us a new way to assess the risks associated with bringing in a deal. He is a sales professional himself and is all about getting to the close. Why would you care about "Your" organizational process when the deal is done in your client's organization. Mark's process stays focused on what is important ... your client's way of doing business. You will find his 8-Step process refreshing and effective. You will find him very engaging and informative. Get the book and get to know him. He will help you close more deals.

I bought it, I'm putting it in to practice, and it's working!

In this book Mark puts forward, in clear terms, a simple concept: match your selling activities to the buying and decision process of your customers. I know many sales people who say they already do this. In my experience they don't - they only think they do. Why is this? Because doing this is not as easy and as quick as saying it! When you match your sales activities to the customer's buying & decision making processes you get significantly increased chance of sales success plus you get this in a much more efficient way. Mark explains clearly how this works & why. To do this you have to change the focus and emphasis of your sales funnel - so it becomes more of a 'buy' funnel. This sounds trivial to do, and it's not! So Mark helps out with this too - in his book he sets out, again very clearly, not just the 'what' to do, but also the 'why' do it, and as much as possible, the 'how' to do it. Ultimately each sales organisation will have to create its own, unique, 'buy' funnel. I came across Mark and his book at the end of 2008. I started working closely with Mark and his material about 5 months later. I have some responsibility for a multi-cultural and internally-based sales operation. Mark clearly knows his stuff - this is not theoretical, it's totally practical. So dealing with the inevitable and unexpected challenges was easier than I hoped as we implemented this approach. The language and concepts in Mark's book have become every day language in our sales force, and as a result our sales people are beginning to approach each individual sales opportunity with even greater clarity and focus. We're beginning to see positive results. Short of actually working with Mark, buying his book and putting it in to practice as much as you can is truly the next best thing you can do to raise the game of your sales force. Does this book have relevance if your sales force is already hugely successful? Absolutely! The company I work for is the leader in revenue terms in its field, and has been for over 5 years. Implementing The Funnel Principle is a critical part of our strategy for staying in the Number 1 slot in future. I've been selling stuff since 1993, and all I can say is, I wish I'd had Mark's book back then!

Improved approach to the Sales Funnel

Mark Sellers has done an excellent job of redesigning the traditional sales funnel to capturing how clients really buy with the BuyCycle Funnel. His extensive experience in sales process management is obvious throughout the book. Using his easy to follow approach for implementing the BuyCycle Funnel, I am confident salespeople of all levels will more effectively and efficiently achieve their sales goals.

Great Advice for Sales Professionals

The Funnel Principle turns traditional sales funnel concepts on thier heads. It encourages sales professionals to take a customer's view of a sales funnel. By thinking more about a "BuyCycle" as opposed to a "sales cycle", sales professionals position themselves for more success.

This book presents a clear and effective guideline for the sales funnel principle.

With the Funnel Principle, Mark has developed an easy to follow, powerful structure to using the funnel to achieve your objectives. I'm certain that by applying his BuyCycle Funnel process a salesperson will maximize his or her chances of hitting quota.