The New Rules of Sales and Service

The New Rules of Sales and Service

by David Meerman Scott
Released June 2016
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119272427

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Book description

The essential roadmap for the new realities of selling when buyers are in charge

Sales and service are being radically redefined by the biggest communications revolution in human history. Today buyers are in charge! There is no more 'selling'—there is only buying. When potential customers have near perfect information on the web, it means salespeople must transform from authority to consultant, product narratives must tell a story, and businesses must be agile enough to respond before opportunity is lost.

The New Rules of Sales and Service demystifies the new digital commercial landscape and shows you how to stay ahead of the pack. Companies large and small are revolutionizing the way business gets done, and this book takes you inside the new methods and strategies that are critical to success in the modern market. Real-world examples illustrate the new marketplace in action, and demonstrate the brilliant utility of taking a new look at your customer and your business. This new edition has been updated to reflect the current reality of this rapidly-evolving sphere, with fresh strategies, new tools, and new stories. Whether you're an independent contractor, a multi-national corporation, a start-up, or a nonprofit, this book is your essential guide to navigating the new digital marketplace.

 David Meerman Scott provides up-to-the-minute analysis of the current state of the digital commercial landscape, plus expert guidance toward the concepts, strategies, and tools that every business needs now.

Among the topics covered in detail:

  • Why the old rules of sales and service no longer work in an always-on world
  • The new sales cycle and how informative Web content drives the buying process
  • Providing agile, real-time sales and service 24/7 without letting it rule your life
  • The importance of defining and understanding the buyer personas
  • How agile customer service retains existing clients and expands new business
  • Why content-rich websites motivate interest, establish authority, and drive sales
  • How social media is transforming the role of salesperson into valued consultant

Because buyers are better informed, and come armed with more choices and opportunities than ever before, everything about sales has changed. Salespeople must adapt because the digital economy has turned the old model on its head, and those who don't keep up will be left behind. The New Rules of Sales and Service is required reading for anyone wanting to stay ahead of the game and grow business now.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Also by David Meerman Scott
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Introduction
    1. The Time Is NOW
    2. Living in the Past: The Old School of Sales and Service
    3. First Marketing and PR, Now Sales and Service
    4. The New Rules of Marketing and PR Are Now Widely Adopted
    5. Living Real Time and Mobile Has Changed Everything We Do
    6. Why Sales and Service Are Experiencing a Revolutionary Transformation
    7. Restoring the Human Touch: The Compelling Power of Authenticity
    8. The Importance of Story
    9. Social Media Is All about Connecting and Sharing
    10. Content Drives Sales and Service
    11. We're All in Sales and Service Now
    12. Online Content That Informs, Entertains…and Sells Insurance
    13. Updates to This Revised Edition
    14. Learning from Examples: How the Successes of Others Can Provide Ideas and Options for Your Own Organization
  7. Chapter 1: The Old World of Sales and Service
    1. The Old Sales Model: “Dialing for Dollars”
    2. The Voice of Authority: When the Salesperson Was the Expert
    3. The Salesperson Expert versus the Web-Educated Buyer
    4. “These Sales Leads Stink!”
    5. Tell the Truth: The Power of Authenticity
    6. Customer Disservice: The Little Things That Drive Us Crazy
    7. “Please Take a Moment to Complete Our Survey”: All Take and No Give
    8. “There's a Robocall on Line One. It Says It's Urgent.”
    9. Receiving an Email Address Is Not an Invitation to Spam
    10. Adding Social Media to Old School Sales and Support Is Still Old School
    11. The Old Rules of Sales and Service
  8. Chapter 2: The New Rules of Sales and Service
    1. Setting Down the Rules
    2. Living Up to Their Name: OPEN Communications to Customers
    3. The Communications Revolution That Wasn't Televised
    4. Time to Join the Revolution
    5. An Invaluable Sales and Service Asset: Your Employees
    6. Big Data. Rich Data.
    7. An Underground Business Cooks Up Innovative Sales and Service to Discover a Menu for Success
    8. Navigating Your Sales and Service Plan
  9. Chapter 3: Your Story
    1. Storytelling
    2. “Let Me Tell You a Little Bit about Me”: The Story Customers Tell Themselves
    3. Call Larry: How One Entrepreneur's Story Defines a Company
    4. The New Model: The Salesperson as Consultant
    5. Mastering the Art of Effective Storytelling for Any Organization
    6. The Health Club That Tells Its Story by Exercising an Attitude
    7. “What Happens Next?”: How a Compelling Narrative Builds a Following
    8. A Story That Sells
  10. Chapter 4: Integrating Marketing and Sales with Buyer Personas
    1. Creating Magic by Adding Context to Content
    2. The Power of Content That Provides Exactly What You Need
    3. The Nobis Hotel Sells to David Meerman Scott
    4. Making Stuff Up
    5. Annoying Three out of Four Customers
    6. Egocentric Nonsense
    7. Buyer Personas
    8. No Red Alfa Romeo?
    9. Multiple Personality Order
    10. The Buyer Persona Interview
    11. Uncover New and Valuable Information with Buyer Persona Research
    12. GoPro Keeps Its Buyer Personas in Focus and Sells Millions of Cameras
    13. Close the Gap between Sales and Marketing
    14. Becoming the Buyer Expert in Your Company
    15. The Buyer Persona Profile
    16. How Buyer Personas and Journey Mapping Integrate Marketing and Sales
    17. Midnight Oil
    18. Sales and Marketing Working Together
    19. People Reaching People
  11. Chapter 5: The Sales Cycle Is Now the Buying Cycle
    1. We're Buying. So Stop Selling.
    2. The End of the High Pressure Zone
    3. Mingling with Buyers at the Learning Party
    4. Educate and Inform
    5. The Buyers' Journey
    6. Driving People into the Buying Process
    7. The Collective Intelligence of a Million Mechanical Engineers Creates a Unique Marketplace…and More
    8. Now Raise Your Hand (Please)
    9. Got Square Footage?
    10. The Merging of Sales and Content to Facilitate the Close
    11. A Customer for Life
    12. How the New Rules of Selling Contributed to a Math Education Program's Success
    13. Lead Generation Calculus
    14. Growing Business in a Shrinking Industry…without Leads
    15. Please Don't Squeeze the Buyers
    16. Can I Have Your Phone Number?
    17. Lessons from the Grateful Dead
    18. The Hybrid Lead Generation Model
    19. Defining Your Business in the Marketplace
    20. Are You Watching Your Direct Competition or Your Customers?
    21. Learning from Outside Your Comfort Zone
    22. Do You Even Need Salespeople?
    23. The Product That Virtually Sells Itself
    24. Good for You, but What about the Rest of Us?
  12. Chapter 6: Agile, Real-Time Social Sales
    1. The Quickest Wins My Business
    2. The Ideal: Agile Sales
    3. The Decisive Advantage: Speed
    4. Context: The Key to Unlock Every Buyer
    5. Newsjacking to Find Buyers
    6. Ronnie Dunn's Real-Time Disruption
    7. The Art and Science of Newsjacking to Reach Buyers and Create Real-Time Sales Opportunities
    8. Newsjacking: One Lawyer Considers the Legal Implications
    9. Live Stream Your Take on the News with Periscope
    10. Automation Runs Amok
    11. When Real-Time Sales Put You at the Front of the Line
    12. Who Is Selling Whom?
    13. Agile Sales Require a Real-Time Mind-Set
    14. Agile Sales Mean Going Off Script
    15. Big Data Plus Real-Time Technology Drives Sales
    16. Predictive Analytics
    17. Social Selling and Your Customer Relationship Management
    18. Obsessing over Sales Forecasts Does Nothing for Your Buyers
    19. Brawn or Brains?
    20. Buying Signals!
  13. Chapter 7: The New Service Imperative
    1. Busted Dishwasher. Great Service
    2. What Is Customer Service Anyway?
    3. The Elements of Customer Service
    4. Customer Service and Corporate Culture
    5. Content Creation
    6. Great Customer Service Drives Sales
    7. Getting Sales and Service into Alignment
    8. Poor Customer Service Is the Norm
    9. Teaching Customers to Wait for a Sale
    10. A Clear Picture of How Great Service Generates Additional Leads
    11. A Nonprofit Changes the Rules of Charitable Reporting While Also Changing the World
    12. “I Hope Everyone Who Works for Your Company Burns in Hell”
    13. Great Customer Service Starts in Person
    14. Customer Service “Wow!”
    15. First, Educate and Inform Your Customers
    16. Surveys: Your Opportunity to Gather Real Data
    17. Using Customer Feedback to Grow Revenue
    18. How to Conduct a Survey That Helps Grow Revenue
  14. Chapter 8: Agile, Real-Time Social Service
    1. Embracing Change
    2. The Real-Time Customer Engagement Mind-Set
    3. How Boeing Used Real-Time Communications during the 787 Dreamliner Crisis
    4. Putting Your Customers First
    5. Customer Service Using Social Media
    6. Vodafone Egypt Proves Social Customer Service Works Worldwide
    7. People Want to Do Business with Other People
    8. The Value of Personal Communications
    9. Lost in Clinical Gobbledygook
    10. Terrible Healthcare Customer Service
    11. Healthier Patients through Video Customer Service in Healthcare
    12. Making Clients Feel More Connected
    13. Making Healthcare Personal
    14. Customers and Business Growth
    15. Implementing Agile Customer Service
  15. Chapter 9: The Social You
    1. When the World's Attention Turns to Your Expertise
    2. Getting Social
    3. Why Social Networking Is Like Exercise
    4. People You Know
    5. You're Already Online
    6. The Sharing More Than Selling Rule
    7. Building a Fan Base One Download at a Time
    8. Don't Hide in the Shadows
    9. You Are Not a Cat
    10. Building a Following
    11. Tweeting Yourself into a Job
    12. Inbound Job Search
    13. Achieving Your Dreams
    14. Manage Your Fear
    15. What a World We Live In!
  16. Chapter 10: Your Social Company
    1. Building the Social Selling Process into a Large Organization
    2. Hiring for Social Success
    3. Sales Managers Must Adapt, Too
    4. Training for Social Success
    5. A New Kind of Company
    6. Your Sales and Service Ecosystem
    7. Your Turn
  17. Acknowledgments
  18. About the Author
  19. Index
  20. Master Newsjacking: The Online Course
  21. Have David Meerman Scott Speak at Your Next Event!
  22. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: The New Rules of Sales and Service
  • Author(s): David Meerman Scott
  • Release date: June 2016
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119272427