Critical Selling

Master these top-performing sales skills to dominate the marketplace

Critical Selling is a dynamic and powerful guide for transforming your sales approach and outperforming your competition. This book is based on Janek Performance Group's, an award winning sales performance company, most popular sales training program, Critical Selling®. Let authors Justin Zappulla and Nick Kane, Managing Partners at Janek, lead you through their flagship sales training methodology to provide you with the strategies, skills and best practices you need to accelerate the sales process and close more deals. From the initial contact to closing the deal, this book details the winning strategies and skills that have supercharged the sales force of program alumni like OptumHealth, Santander Bank, Daimler Trucks, California Casualty, and many more. Concrete, actionable steps show you how to plan a productive sales call, identify customer needs, differentiate yourself from the competition, and wrap up the sale. You'll also learn proven techniques for building rapport, overcoming objections, dealing with price pressures, and handling the million little things that can derail an otherwise positive sales interaction.

Sales are the lifeblood of your company. Are they meeting your expectations? What if you could exceed projected sales figures and blow your competition out of the water? This book provides the research-based framework to ignite your sales team and excite your customer base, for sustainable success in today's market. Let Critical Selling® show you how to:

• Connect with customers on a deeper level to build trust
• Present a persuasive and value-based solution tailored to your customer’s needs
• Handle pricing pressure, doubt, and objections with confidence
• Utilize proven methodologies that help you close the sale

Sales is about so much more than exchanging goods or services for cash. It's about relationships, it's about outperforming the competition, it's about demonstrating real value, and it's about understanding and solving people's problems. Critical Selling shows you how to bring it all together, using proven techniques based on real sales performance research.

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction Critical Selling: Focusing on What Matters Most 1

1 Selling to Today’s Buyers: Remain Customer-Focused 13

Recognize That Buyers Have Changed 15

Use the Right Sales Approach 17

Know How Your Customers Perceive You 20

Become a Trusted Advisor 25

Critical Selling: Lessons Learned 26

2 The First Step is to Believe: Change Your Mindset 29

Mind Your Mindset 31

Always Be Improving 34

Stay Patient through Change 38

Critical Selling: Lessons Learned 43

3 Why Planning Matters: Determine Your Approach 45

Understand That Planning Matters 46

Think about Planning 48

Set SAM Objectives 50

Plan Ahead and Reflect After 55

Critical Selling: Lessons Learned 58

4 A Solid Opening: Connect with Your Customers 59

Plan Your Opening 60

Master the Greeting 61

Create Connections 62

Deliver a Legitimate Purpose Statement 65

Confirm for Feedback 69

Close the Opening with Some Reflection 72

Critical Selling: Lessons Learned 73

5 It’s All about Discovering: Get to Know Your Customers 75

Understand the Benefits of Discovering 77

Ask the Right Questions 79

Target the Six Critical Areas of Focus 84

Listen Actively to Understand Your Customer 90

Avoid Common Pitfalls 98

Critical Selling: Lessons Learned 101

6 Presenting What Your Customer Needs: Link a Tailored Solution 103

Take Advantage of Discovering 104

Plan the Approach 106

Tailor the Solution 108

Ask for Feedback 115

Strengthen the Solution 117

Link Your Solution 124

Critical Selling: Lessons Learned 125

7 Leverage Momentum at Closing: Capture Customer Confidence 127

Summarize Where You’ve Been 129

Gain Commitment to Move Forward 132

Define Next Steps 134

Confirm with Your Customer 136

Critical Selling: Lessons Learned 137

8 Dealing with Objections: Return to the Land of Discovery 139

Recognize Real Objections 140

Understand Why Objections Come Up 141

Be Prepared for Objections 143

Work through Objections 146

Maintain Goodwill and Ask for Feedback 155

Critical Selling: Lessons Learned 157

Conclusion

Putting it All Together: Mindset + Practice + Process + Action 159

Plan Each Sales Interaction 160

Connect and Reconnect 163

Ask Questions (and Listen to the Answers) 165

Adjust Your Attitude 170

Appendix

Case Study: The McCrone Group 177

Notes 191

About Janek Performance Group 195

About the Authors 196

Index 199

NICK KANE is a managing partner of Janek Performance Group and co-creator of the Critical Selling methodology. A recognized thought leader and sales performance expert, he guides numerous organizations in improving their sales effectiveness.

JUSTIN ZAPPULLA is a managing partner of Janek Performance Group and co-creator of the Critical Selling methodology. In addition to successfully working with hundreds of well-known brands to develop and implement strategic sales performance solutions, he has trained and coached more than 15,000 sales and sales management professionals worldwide.

Sales isn't about gimmicks, gadgets, or the next silver bullet. Research shows us that a successful sale comes down to a few critical moments during the sales process between the customer and the sales professional. Critical Selling presents an actionable system for sales professionals in every industry who want to improve their approach to identify and capitalize on these critical moments, shorten the sales cycle, and close more deals.

For the first time, the award-winning sales training program from Janek Performance Group is available in a convenient guide for the self-motivated professional. This system is the result of a decade of ongoing research into how customers make their decisions and why top-performing sales professionals win more sales. A cover-to-cover training program, the turnkey performance booster shared in Critical Selling brings you up close to the strategies, skills, and best practices of top-performing sales professionals.

Trusted by some of the most recognized brands in the world, this wildly successful sales approach provides step-by-step insight into how to successfully sell to today's more-informed buyers, by looking at how to:

• Strategically plan for each sales call and differentiate from the competition
• Always know the right thing to say to quickly begin the rapport-building process
• Discover known and unknown customer needs to build trust and fast-track a sale
• Build the confidence customers need to make purchasing decisions

By fine-tuning your sales approach with Critical Selling, you can achieve more impressive sales results and bring more value to your customers—time and again.

Whether you're seeking to improve your own sales performance or to turn around an entire sales department, this real-world guide has all the answers to the challenges you will face. Convenient checklists and real-world examples make it easy to work the concepts covered into your everyday routine to become the top seller everyone else chases—just ask the thousands of alumni already leading the pack.

Become the insightful educator, trusted advisor, and professional salesperson today's sophisticated buyers are looking for by discovering the secrets of Critical Selling.

What it takes to be a top seller

Sales isn't about gimmicks, gadgets, or the next silver bullet. Research shows us that a successful sale comes down to a few critical moments during the sales process between the customer and the sales professional. Critical Selling presents an actionable system for sales professionals in every industry who want to improve their approach to identify and capitalize on these critical moments, shorten the sales cycle, and close more deals.

For the first time, the award-winning sales training program from Janek Performance Group is available in a convenient guide for the self-motivated professional. This system is the result of a decade of ongoing research into how customers make their decisions and why top-performing sales professionals win more sales. A cover-to-cover training program, the turnkey performance booster shared in Critical Selling brings you up close to the strategies, skills, and best practices of top-performing sales professionals.

Trusted by some of the most recognized brands in the world, this wildly successful sales approach provides step-by-step insight into how to successfully sell to today's more-informed buyers, by looking at how to:

• Strategically plan for each sales call and differentiate from the competition
• Always know the right thing to say to quickly begin the rapport-building process
• Discover known and unknown customer needs to build trust and fast-track a sale
• Build the confidence customers need to make purchasing decisions

By fine-tuning your sales approach with Critical Selling, you can achieve more impressive sales results and bring more value to your customers—time and again.

Whether you're seeking to improve your own sales performance or to turn around an entire sales department, this real-world guide has all the answers to the challenges you will face. Convenient checklists and real-world examples make it easy to work the concepts covered into your everyday routine to become the top seller everyone else chases—just ask the thousands of alumni already leading the pack.

Become the insightful educator, trusted advisor, and professional salesperson today's sophisticated buyers are looking for by discovering the secrets of Critical Selling.