The Art of Influencing and Selling

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Whether you're new to sales or have at least one year's experience in selling, this book will leapfrog your selling skills and understanding of sales techniques to a more sophisticated, satisfying and more genuinely customer and client-oriented level. If you're more experienced, then this book provides a comprehensive refresher which uses fresh insights, the latest ideas and practical useable tools like checklists to help you sell more and sell better. Fully reference and researched, The Art of Influencing and Selling covers: The psychology of selling a product or service; the sales pipeline and how to ensure it's realistic; making an effective sales presentation; up-selling, cross-selling, cold-calling and warm calling; effective approaches to prospective customers and clients; how to interrogate a database of contacts to get more sales; how to write effective sales materials; the power of business networking; how to get senior level appointments in your diary and closing a sale and follow up.If you want to improve your sales performance by learning how to listen to your customer and client and collaborate with them profitably, The Art of Influencing and Selling is the book for you.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• About the author (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• About this book (p. 2)
• 1 Psychology of selling a product or service or yourself (p. 5)
• The art of persuasion (p. 5)
• The big issue (p. 6)
• Trust builder (p. 7)
• Redefinition of selling (p. 9)
• Seeing things differently (p. 10)
• Collaboration is the future of selling (p. 11)
• Hypnotizing the audience to fall under your spell! (p. 13)
• 2 The sales pipeline and how to ensure it's realistic (p. 17)
• Introduction (p. 17)
• Doing business on customers' terms (p. 19)
• The lead conversion process (p. 28)
• Real and virtual worlds of prospecting for customers or clients (p. 42)
• Monitoring the performance of your prospecting efforts (p. 49)
• 3 Up-selling, cross-selling, cold calling and warm calling (p. 63)
• Introduction (p. 63)
• The myths about selling (p. 64)
• Asking the right questions (p. 65)
• How to build rapport (p. 66)
• How to apply outcome thinking (p. 68)
• The art of up-selling (p. 69)
• How to cross-sell successfully (p. 77)
• How to cold-call without someone hanging up (p. 79)
• How to turn a warm call into a sale (p. 85)
• 4 Effective approaches to prospective customers and clients (p. 89)
• Introduction (p. 89)
• Six ways to make a lasting impression (p. 90)
• Understanding the short cuts to getting what we want (p. 95)
• The art of sales negotiation (p. 96)
• The future is about collaborating for profit (p. 99)
• 5 How to interrogate a database of contacts to get more sales (p. 103)
• Introduction (p. 103)
• Developing a customer, client and supporter database (p. 105)
• Basic principles of data mining (p. 106)
• Customer, client and supporter acquisition strategies (p. 109)
• Using survival analysis to understand customers, clients and supporters (p. 118)
• 6 Making an effective sales presentation (p. 123)
• Introduction (p. 123)
• It's about them, not about you (p. 126)
• Overcoming your fears (p. 130)
• Prior preparation prevents poor performance (p. 137)
• Body talk (p. 141)
• Delivering an effective sales pitch (p. 146)
• How to avoid 'death by bullet points' (p. 157)
• How to make a great close (p. 160)
• 7 How to write effective sales materials (p. 167)
• Introduction (p. 167)
• Outside in, not inside out (p. 169)
• Content is king (p. 170)
• Sales copy tips (p. 174)
• E-mail (p. 178)
• Web page (p. 182)
• Online newsletters (p. 187)
• Google Ad Words (p. 189)
• Sales letter (p. 196)
• Product sales brochure (p. 198)
• International Chamber of Commerce Code (2011) (p. 199)
• 8 The power of business networking (p. 207)
• Introduction (p. 207)
• Face to face (p. 209)
• Word of mouth (p. 214)
• Power of social media (p. 218)
• Brand advocacy (p. 219)
• Customer and client feedback (p. 221)
• LinkedIn (p. 225)
• Twitter (p. 230)
• Facebook (p. 233)
• 9 How to get senior-level appointments in your diary (p. 239)
• Introduction (p. 239)
• Doing your homework (p. 240)
• The basic etiquette of making an appointment (p. 241)
• Identifying the appropriate decision maker (p. 246)
• Getting past the gatekeeper (p. 249)
• Tools to get appointments - LinkedIn (p. 250)
• 10 Closing a sale and follow-up (p. 255)
• Introduction (p. 255)
• You've one chance to make a good first impression (p. 257)
• Asking for what you want (p. 258)
• Reading the signs (p. 259)
• Overcoming objections and concerns (p. 261)
• Remote closing (p. 265)
• Maintaining the customer or client through to the next sale (p. 275)
• Index (p. 281)
• Endorsements (p. 289)