Rebirth of the Salesman [Book Review]

“Rebirth of the Salesman” (Get it on Amazon) by Cian McLoughlin effectively discusses the premise that… “The world of sales is evolving. Are you?” If you think for one minute that selling today is as simple as SOSDD, you had better think again. It’s more like “Evolve or die”.

Cian intermixes these topics with interviews with top-level buyers and sellers with the ultimate goal of helping salespeople to better understand why they win and lose and what can they do about that. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to go inside the mind of the customer in order to learn how they go about making their buying decisions. [Tweet “The world of sales is evolving. Are you?”]

Character traits

Great salespeople possess critical character traits. These traits are:

Humility
Imagination
Consistency
Essence
Emotional Quotient (EQ)
Curiosity
Self-reflection
Social awareness
Re-invention
Longevity
Preparation and self-belief
Optimism

Cian addresses each of these in a storytelling fashion that highlights how they relate to the modern salesperson. An interesting approach.

A few of the highlights

Selling can be stressful but, what causes this stress may not be what you think. It is often the fear that can be associated with failure but, even more so, it comes from the fear of the unknown. This is a pretty easy concept to grasp as there are so many unknowns in sales. We have a need to understand the why.

One of the best ways to do this is to conduct win, and even loss, deal reviews with customers as well as those that should be done internally within our organization. This is just as important, perhaps more important, than any discussions of what as in “what strategies and tactics did we, will we, use?”

Becoming a great story-teller is one thing that the best salespeople are able to master. As one of my friends puts it … “stories sell while facts tell.” If you really want to stand apart from the rest of your competitors, and you should, stories are a great way to do this and they lend themselves well to our new social tool-set of blogs, updates, and tweets. In order to become a great story-teller, watch how others do it. To quote Cian .. “So long as the story that you tell is relevant, authentic, and told in an entertaining, educational, or inspiring way, it should serve its purpose well”.

Are you the “Big Game Hunter of the Fertile Farmer?” While I have always been very partial to meat, I also like my veggies and your existing account base is where this garden is located. Despite the advantages of working with your existing customers to help them to buy more, many salespeople neglect this and instead embark on constant safaris in search of new game. I might suggest that you need to be able to work the farm and bring home the bacon with equal effectiveness.

With the advent of social selling, you have a tremendous opportunity to build your personal brand. As one of Cian’s interviewees pointed out, B2B (business-to-business) has become P2P (person-to-person). You have, as previously discussed, the opportunity to separate yourself by being different and by adding value. Cian also points out that, if you wonder who you are, you are what the internet says that you are and customers are using the internet to determine that. This is a two-edged sword so be careful to not cut yourself open.

There is IQ and then there is EQ (Emotional Quotient) and you need a high EQ to go with a high IQ. Wikipedia defines EQ as … “the capacity of individuals to recognize their own, and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior”. You customers have a long memory and they will remember how you made them feel.

If you are wondering why a customer would be willing to sit down with you for a loss-review (they purchased from someone else) … there is the “Law of Reciprocity”. This law of human behavior states that we feel obligated to repay in kind what another person as provided us. Therefore, if you have been a true professional during the sales process, your customer should be happy to assist you by sharing with you why they chose to work with someone else, at least at this time.

Great salespeople know who to leverage networking and now there is the new social networking to accompany traditional face-to-face networking. Cian provides some excellent tips for both and particularly for those of us who might consider ourselves to be introverts. He also suggests a variety of pitches including elevator, evaluation, and pre-purchase.

Cian’s chapter of the rise of the machines discusses how advances in technology are affecting selling and how these same advances are changing buyer behaviors. Do you like your job? You had better pay attention to these critical shifts or you could be terminated with extreme prejudice.

Reverse mentoring – You might wonder, as I did, “What could I possibly learn from a Millennial?!”. How about … how they think. What makes them tick? How do they go about their buying decisions? We Boomers are a dying breed. Literally. It might be wise to learn a little bit about those who now have buying power and who are anxious to use it. Since we might be mentoring them, there is nothing wrong with requesting a little pay-back.

I liked this book. It is an easy read that stresses real-life selling fundamentals as opposed to a lot of fluff and theory. It is quite obvious that Cian’s writing comes from personal experience. I also appreciated the resources that he suggested and shared for further personal development pertaining to each and every topic as well as his pointers of things that you can do to put that chapter’s suggestions into action. Kudos!

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!