book

Beyond the Sales Process

by Dave Stein, Steve Andersen

April 2016

Intermediate to advanced

288 pages

7h 8m

English

AMACOM

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Before, During, and After the SaleHow This Book Is OrganizedWhat Matters Most to Customers
What You Need to Know About Your CustomerWhere You Can Acquire and Capture Customer KnowledgeHow You Can Leverage Customer KnowledgeTesting the Effectiveness of Your Research
Initiating the Customer DialogueThe Essence of Exploration: Curiosity and the Inquiring MindWhat Does Your Customer Care Most About?Are You Willing to Make the Required Investments?Taking Inventory of Your AssetsTesting the Effectiveness of Your Exploration
A Vision of Customer Success and of Future Potential ValueHow Today’s Customers Define Supplier ValueUnderstanding Your Customer’s Expectations of YouDeveloping a Collaborative Vision of Customer SuccessTesting the Effectiveness of Your Visioning
A Word of Caution About Your Customer ConversationsFocusing on the Customer Value TargetElevating the ConversationDefining Your Customer Value TargetsEvolving from Before to During the SaleTesting the Effectiveness of Your ElevationCase StudiesZurich Insurance GroupMerck/MSDBNY Mellon

What Is Discovery?The “Value” of the Value-Focused QuestionThe Quest for Actionable AwarenessThe Focus of Your Discovery EffortsTesting the Effectiveness of Your Discovery
Many Are Connected; Few Are Truly AlignedThe Dimensions of AlignmentAlignment Is As Valuable to Your Customer As It Is to YouTesting the Effectiveness of Your Alignment
Positioning Is All About the FitTo Position or Be Positioned? That Is the QuestionStart with Your Customer, Not with Your ProductWhat Is Being Positioned?Planning to Win: The Intersection of Alignment and PositioningTesting the Effectiveness of Your Positioning
Making Your Plan to Win a RealityDeveloping the Ideal Environment for Value DifferentiationActivities for Effective DifferentiationProving Your Value: Building Customer-Specific Value MessagesTesting the Effectiveness of Your Value DifferentiationCase StudiesAdeccoHoneywellPanasonic
What Happens After the Sale?Delivering on Promises and ExpectationsYesterday’s Future Potential Value Is Tomorrow’s Past Proven ValueValue Realization, Consolidation, and ArticulationTesting Your Effectiveness: Realize the Value
Measuring Success with Performance Impact ZonesBenchmarking Performance from the Customer’s PerspectiveTesting Your Effectiveness: Validate the Impact
Understanding How Your Customer Defines Success After the SaleAdapting Your Approach to Meet Your Customer’s Changing NeedsEmbracing Change and Making Needed AdjustmentsValidating the Impact on Your Business to Ensure Both Parties Are SuccessfulBenchmarking Performance from the Seller’s PerspectiveAdapting Your Approach and Planning to GrowTesting Your Effectiveness: Adapt the Approach
You and Your Momentum: In Motion and Growing StrongerBuilding Your Plan to Grow with Your CustomerEnding with the Beginning in MindWill Your Engage/Win/Grow Circle Be Unbroken?Testing Your Effectiveness: Expand the RelationshipCase StudiesSiemens AGHilton WorldwideSecurian Financial Group—Group Insurance

Content preview from Beyond the Sales Process

Introduction: Why Read Beyond the Sales Process?

Ask a CEO to name his or her organization’s most important asset and you’re sure to hear “our people,” followed closely by “our customers.” Everything else takes a backseat, and yet few books are written about how these two most valuable assets interact, engage, align, collaborate, innovate, and create value together.

Much has been written about sales, much has been written about marketing, and much has been written about customer service. But we see remarkably little about how the world’s top companies are going beyond the sales process and leveraging proven strategies before, during, and after the sale—not just when the customer is buying, which is where the majority of sales books tend to ...