ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: SPOTLIGHT ON CURRENT SALES PROCESSES

Chapter 2: HOW TO HIT A MOVING TARGET

Chapter 3: RETURN ON INFLUENCE - THE NEW ROI METRIC

Chapter 4: MANAGING SALES UNCERTAINTY - THE MISSING CRITICAL ELEMENT OF SALES

Chapter 5: RE-CREATING THE SALES FRAMEWORK / CHANGE-FACILITATION PARADIGM

Chapter 6: STRATEGIC & TACTICAL DISTINCTION REDEFINED (EFFICACY VS EFFICIENCY ARGUMENT)

Chapter 7: WINNING EARLIER, WINNING LARGER

Chapter 8: ON VALUE & NEED FOR CRITICAL EVALUATION

Chapter 9: ON FORMAL PROPOSALS & TENDERS - EOI, RFT, RFQ

Chapter 10:  ON PRESENTATIONS & WHY SALES 'WAR' STORIES ARE NECESSARY

Chapter 11: ON PERSONALIZATION - FINDING YOUR DISTINCT, AUTHENTIC STYLE & VOICE'

Chapter 12: KNOWLEDGE LEVER AS SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Chapter 13: CREATIVE LEVER AS SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

GLOSSARY & INDEX

The discipline of sales has taken the all too comfortable back seat in today's business environment. Nowhere is this situation more manifest and patent than at the world's top business schools' curriculum, where it is responsible for creating the leaders of tomorrow. While the discipline of Marketing, for instance, has evolved accordingly over the years to accommodate for the online, social, mobile, data-rich and digital world we find ourselves living in, the last significant stride in the sales discipline stopped in the mid 1970's with the arrival of the consultative sales process, more popularly known as Solution Selling. The business landscape and the world has dramatically changed, and through no fault of their own, businesses are forced to cling on to sales frameworks that over time have shown to be increasingly inefficient and less reliable in an information-rich, hyper competitive, globalized and socially connected economy.

The implications of holding onto an existing and an increasingly irrelevant sales framework stretch far and wide. These surface as constant symptoms that are observed  by leading organizations in every industry, particularly those whose primary sales activities are focused on business-to-business and business-to-government opportunities. Common examples of these symptoms include persistently inaccurate and perennially missed revenue forecasts, extended sales cycle times, frequently stalled buying decisions, eroded margins on deals, reduced ability to maintain premium pricing, lowered tangible and financial impact of the roll out of a sales training program, to name but a few of these sales related ailments.

It all doesn't have to be this way. Once a body of knowledge, whether it be Marketing, Strategy, Finance, Human Resources, or in this case, Sales have been updated appropriately, the element of predictability and certainty that businesses, entrepreneurs and stakeholders have seen with Finance or Strategy best practices will be evident in an organisation's sales efforts.

This sales process, described here as the Change-Facilitated Sales Process™ aspires to provide the revolutionary body of knowledge within the sales discipline that has been lacking over the last 40 years.

Ask any seasoned entrepreneur, venture capitalist or chief executive officer and they will agree on one thing: that of the two activities a) reducing cost or b) growing revenue, it is by far, at least by an order of magnitude, much easier to manage cost.

Put another way, if you were to ask any employee about their personal finances and whether it is easier to bring in a higher salary (growing revenue), or find ways to spend less (reducing cost), the majority of responses will not surprise anyone that finding cheaper substitutes, and particularly without having to tolerate a decrease in quality, is no doubt easier to do than negotiating with your manager for a pay rise.

The focus of this sales book is naturally, on the revenue side of the equation. And while the process can be used to more effectively initiate and facilitate a merger or acquisition event, which in turn can increase revenue inorganically, it is specifically effective at generating organic revenue growth for companies engaged in business-to-business or business-to-government sales opportunities.

Start-up's, non-profits, private and public companies will find the deployment of a sales process that, at the heart of it acknowledges the concept and dimensions associated with change, will deliver real, organic revenue growth outcomes that would far exceed what would be possible with their existing sales practices.

Putting 'change' at the center piece of the sales process is the revolutionary push that will enable and facilitate a sales paradigm shift such that at its core, will allow for and actually embrace increased complexity and greater uncertainties. It will make mapping and managing multiple moving parts, which is a characteristic of the sales environment today, a considerably more effective and efficient process. We'll explore why and how in greater detail.

The competitive advantage that comes from adopting a sales methodology which will enable a company or individual to out-smart, out-think, and out-wit competitors consistently on sales opportunities will translate into achieving formidable market share and momentum. Revenue is the lifeblood of any enterprise without which, over time, all other activities will eventually cease to exist, including the emerging class of companies that solely rely on external funding to operate.