INSIGHT-LED SELLING

Advice for salespeople, particularly those who sell to businesses.

In this debut book, Timme and Astley, executives at sales strategy company FinListics Solutions, advise business-to-business salespeople on how to approach stakeholders, persuade potential purchasers, and go from being one vendor among many to a strategic partner. The work guides readers through understanding the mindsets of corporate executives, learning how a product for sale meets a company’s financial goals, adapting a sales pitch for different parts of an organization, and building a cohesive case that will win the sale. The authors’ overarching message is that salespeople need to focus less on the features of their product and more on how it delivers quantifiable benefits to another company, which is “really buying to implement their initiatives in support of the strategies and goals.” Interspersed throughout are opinions and anecdotes from executives at large companies, such as Steve Clancey of Georgia Pacific, describing successful and unsuccessful sales pitches they’ve received and explaining what they expect from a well-prepared salesperson. Timme and Astley are clearly knowledgeable about sales, and their research into what executives want to hear is particularly informative. However, readers without much sales experience may find the book frustratingly vague, as it does a good job of explaining why salespeople should demonstrate how their products meet business needs but provides rather general examples of how that can be done. The book’s advice will also be most applicable to readers selling to publicly traded companies, as Timme and Astley note; people who are selling to small and privately held businesses won’t have access to the concrete financial information they need. At times, the book comes across as an extended brochure for Timme and Astley’s company, with its frequent invitations to visit the book’s companion website. However, for its target audience of experienced salespeople, the book will provide a useful outline.

An informative, if sometimes-nonspecific, guide to sales strategy.