Stop Telling, Start Selling: How to Use Customer-Focused Dialogue to Close Sales by Linda Richardson, Linda Richardson

Synopsis

In just a few short years since its publication, Stop Telling, Start Selling has become a leading textbook for sales training, used by more than 150 of the world's leading corporations. Why? Because it shows how to differentiate yourself, your product, and your organization in a hypercompetitive world of look-alike products.

The secret weapon is "dialogue selling" and this book shows you how to do it. "Much of what appears to be 'consultative selling' today is a masquerade for product selling," explains Linda Richardson, sales training consultant to many of the Fortune 500 and author of Selling by Phone and Sales Coaching. If you want to earn your customer's interest, trust­­and busines­­STOP telling the customer about your product or service. Go beyond "customer focus." START a true customer dialogue.

In this newly revised and updated edition of Stop Telling, Start Selling Richardson teaches you the critical skills you need to revitalize your sales process, including how to:

• Understand your customer's political, personal, and business needs
• Position your message so it is important to your customer
• Unlearn manipulative tactics that can kill a sale early on
• Gather customer feedback to adjust your message as you go
• Maintain selling momentum and shorten the sales cycle

Stop Telling, Start Selling will help you truly listen to customers and put them first, that's what it takes to win the trust­­and the business­­of today's sophisticated customers.

Biography

Linda Richardson is president of The Richardson Company in Philadelphia, a sales training firm with more than 160 clients, including Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, Aetna U.S. Healthcare, Citibank, Andersen Consulting, Tiffany & Co., Dell Computers, and Lucent Technologies. A member of the faculty of the prestigious Wharton Business School, she is the author of six books, including Selling by Phone and Sales Coaching­­Making the Great Leap from Manager to Coach.