Candid, compassionate, and brimming with pertinent, practical sales advice.
This debut guide encourages business-to-business tech salespeople to practice human-to-human selling.
Sales performance consultant Nielsen sees her clients struggle on a daily basis with the commoditization of IT products and services. Acknowledging the rise of robots, artificial intelligence, and sophisticated online purchasing, she issues a warning of sorts in this book: “Long-term success in a B2B tech sales career depends on your ability to focus on the exact opposite of technology’s value; you have to master human value.” It’s a point well taken, expressed with verve and passion by an author with relevant experience on the B2B battlefield. Nielsen’s premise—human-to-human, or “H2H,” selling creates value that can’t be duplicated by “bots”—is timely, relevant, and, for some sales professionals, sobering. She finely hones her argument by demonstrating, through examples of right and wrong techniques, the importance of truly understanding each customer’s needs and customizing the sales approach to meet them. Mastery of H2H involves making a commitment to delivering “personalized value,” which, Nielsen writes, is “the main reason why high performers consistently outperform everyone else.” Not surprisingly, this is no easy task, so the author offers authoritative counsel on the psychology behind H2H selling. Perhaps the most striking metaphor in the manual, borrowed from a social psychologist, is “the rider, elephant, and path,” in which the rider signifies the rational mind, the elephant represents emotion, and the path denotes the customer’s road to value (or, for the salesperson, a signed contract). Nielsen does a superb job relating this recurring metaphor, which anchors her own training approach to the complex nature of B2B selling. But the inspirational book goes beyond the metaphor, exploring how to ask effective, “high impact,” open-ended questions; discussing ways to engender the customer’s trust; reinforcing the concept of authenticity; and suggesting strategies for becoming indispensable. While some of the material in the guide is unduly repetitive, the core message of becoming “a purveyor of value” probably can’t be stated often enough. If getting B2B salespeople to think differently is her goal, Nielsen brilliantly succeeds.
Candid, compassionate, and brimming with pertinent, practical sales advice.Pub Date: June 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0345-5
Page Count: 212
Publisher: LDK Advisory Services
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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