"New Sales. Simplified." A Must-Read!

Several weeks ago I sat in on the 2015 Virtual Sales Kickoff hosted by S.Anthony Iannarino and Jeb Blount. It was an excellent session overall, but I was particularly blown-away by the first speaker, Mike Weinberg, author of the book published by AMA entitled New Sales.Simplified.: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development.

Following the kickoff I corresponded with Mike, and he was nice enough to send me two copies ofhis book (autographed, of course)--one for me and another for a friend. Great!

Mike's style is no-nonsense. He doesn't pull any punches. I get the impression that he is passionateabout everything he believes in. The fact that we agree on many things helps, I guess.

Over the years I've been sent a lot of books. While I read them all, I only review the ones I like, orthe ones that I feel add substance to the discussion. I liked Mike's book and it is definitely NOTlacking in substance.

My friend S. Anthony Iannarino who wrote the foreword for the book sums it up perfectly: "This isn'tan academic treatise on sales. It's not full of theories. It's an action-oriented guide for sales people,sales managers and executives." And, the fact that it is focused on prospecting and new businessdevelopment is timely. What the world needs now (in addition to love) is lots of prospecting andbusiness development. Read Mike's book and you will know what to do, and what not to do.

And now for an overview of some of my favorite chapters...

At the core of Mike's philosophy is this quote from Chapter 1: "Many inwhat's called the Sales 2.0 movement harshly declare that proactive targeting and prospecting fornew business is dead. These so-called experts proclaim that cold-calling is ineffective and pursuingprospects that aren't coming to you is a waste of time. These false pronouncements are having asevere negative impact on sales performance." I couldn't agree more.

Chapter 2 presents a list of 16 reasons sales executives fail at business development--some of whichinclude: attitude, style, aptitude (they just can't sell) and, my personal favorite, they are too busybabysitting existing accounts. I have a perfect example from my own experience. A while back wedealt with a sales rep whose territory was Warner Robins Air Force base. He told us he is thereevery day and there was no sense in our calling into Warner Robins. The first week we uncovered a$1,000,000 opportunity he knew nothing about. He was probably having coffee with the same buyerhe met with every week for years.

I like that Mike places responsibility for arming sales executives with what they need on CEO'sshoulders. He specifically uses the word "clarity" to describe how the CEO should articulate thecompany's strategy. He also points out that sales reps and organizations fail when they have poortargeting, lame weapons, and lack of execution. He spends a lot of time on this framework, but Ican't begin to do it justice. All the more reason you should read the book for yourself!

In Chapter 5 Mike explains why you should sell higher up in organizations. I agree with his view thatthe executive suite is filled with nicer, smarter, more professional and bigger thinking people thanlower levels in the organization. I believe this is why senior executives are about 2.5 times moreresponsive to quality voicemail and email than their juniors. Mike is very pro-email and pro-voicemail. (Chapter 6 does a great job of explaining why.) C-level executives aren't likely to respondto marketing automation; however, if you approach them with something of interest to them theywill talk to you almost every time.

Mike presents the idea of "building an arsenal of weapons" to strategically and successfully conquerchosen targets: the sales story, the proactive telephone call, and the face-to-face sales call. How isthe "sales story" a weapon? He explains: "It's the verbal explanation of your brand, the value youcreate and the experience you deliver. We should be enhancing, not diminishing the value of whatwe sell." He provides examples of "power statements" he has developed for clients that are powerfulexamples of how to pack your own sales story with a punch. I like Mike's sales story advice a lot. Hequotes Charles Revson, founder of Revlon, who said: "We don't sell cosmetics, we sell hope."

My favorite chapter is Chapter 9: Your Friend the Phone. In it he writes: "Trust me. If inboundmarketing was a magic bullet and perfect panacea for creating demand, then we could stopproactively pursuing target accounts. But it isn't.... Inbound marketing is a magnificent supplementto, but not a replacement for, one of our most potent sales weapons--the outbound proactivetelephone call." This chapter provides step-by-step directions on how to use the telephone foroutbound prospecting that I have to say is spot on!

Other chapters you might be interested in are: "Structuring Winning Sales Calls," "I Thought I WasSupposed to Make a Presentation (spoiler alert: Mike hates presentations), and "New BusinessDevelopment Selling is Not Complicated."

There's a plethora of account managers and customer-service people filling sales roles, but "truesales hunters," as Mike refers to them, are few and far between. Sure, this book is about practicalsteps to become better at prospecting for new business. That, in and of itself, makes it a valuableread. But what sets this book apart from all other books on sales is the passion imbedded in itspages. Mike is genuinely passionate about sales and reviving the art of prospecting for newbusiness. You'll not only walk away fully equipped--I guarantee you will also be fully inspired.

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