Selling To The Point: Because The Information Age Demands a New Way to Sell Paperback – February 27, 2016

Selling To The Point is an unparalleled and groundbreaking "new way to sell.” On a grander scale, Jeff Lipsius's techniques illuminate the readers’ intellect by living with awareness; emphatically, mentally and socially.Strictly from a sales perspective, Selling To The Point is incredibly innovative, yet concurrently simplistic. Essential, real-life sales tools are taught via an entertaining fictional masterpiece. The reader learns 10 bonafide laws of unprecedented selling techniques from concocted characters' credence. In opposition to salespeoples' antiquated intent of merely ‘closing the sale,’ Lipsius illustrates the significance of focusing on building authentic relationships with customers, and understanding their purchasing postulations. By developing a healthy rapport with clients, while paying close attention to their essence, ideology and needs, the salespersons' role is transformed into a dedicated trainer. Pragmatically comprehensible, the seller is guided on strategies which impart strength, knowledge and decisiveness to the buyer, positively changing their relationship. These fresh tactics revolutionize the formerly stressed out, overly persistent, annoying sales person into a prosperous, vitalized, engaging, and relied upon “decision coach.”Immediately after reading Selling To The Point, I strived to obliterate my 20 + years of archaic sales practices. Simultaneously, I had adopted and implemented Lipsius’s 10 Laws (my new 10 Commandments) into my profession. Frankly, it was much easier than I thought . . . probably because his principles are extremely sensible, intrinsic and pragmatic. That said, although I’m working for the same company and capacity, becoming a “decision coach" feels as though I have new responsibilities and aspirational objectives with an added advantage. In other words, my apprehension in meetings have been replaced with excitement. And, my current clients are thrilled with my proficiency, helping them to make buying decisions with clarity and conviction. Additionally, I’ve been breaking new business, turning prospects into clients. And most importantly, to my boss, my monthly sales numbers are consistently above quota, and escalating.From a personal perspective, I’ve started applying the Lipsius’s laws to my evenings and weekends. My only negative comment, regarding Selling To The Point, is that Jeff Lipsius didn’t write this book a couple of decades earlier.

This book is truly game changing and provides real gems of knowledge that if your in the sales world it can make real, positive results. Its written in a way that is captivating, insightful and gives realistic examples/situations that we all have experienced and can relate too.Highly recommend.

I am in sales for over 30 years and I have read a good number of books on the topic. They have always disappointed me in the the way they present a one sided narrative. The sales person has to move the customer toward buying your product. The “always be closing” sentiment is presented in getting the customer to say “yes”. Questions like, “you like a good deal, right?” and “you want to get the most value for your money, right?” are condescending but done with the mindset that if I get my customer to say yes to these silly questions, they will be conditioned to say yes to purchasing. If only it were that easy. Selling to the Point gives insight into how to focus your full awareness to understand why your customer is buying. The author focuses on how to help the customer make the beat buying decision. It is a mind shift that sales people find difficult to make. He explains that customers buy for their own reasons, not because a hot shot sales person convinces them to buy w their persuasive delivery of the features and benefits. The author draws on the principals of Tim Gallwey’s Inner Game methodology. I am a fan of the Inner Game Principles and the reason I decided to purchase this book. It is unlike any other sales book that you will read and will change the way you approach the sales profession. I highly recommend reading!

What do you do if you decide you need a new computer, a new car or a new phone? Chances are good you get on the Internet and do some research. We rarely make a decision about anything based on just the product knowledge, the personality or the pressure of someone in sales. It follows then that perhaps those who are in sales could use a few new techniques to keep up with the buying public.How many times have you sent salespeople packing because they persisted in telling you what you needed without ever bothering to find out what your needs were? I really didn’t want to read another book on sales right now, but this sales system has been successful for Jeffrey Lipsius. Besides, I also knew he’d teamed up with Tim Gallwey, author of “The Inner Game of Tennis”, one of my all-time favourite business books. I was curious as to what this “new way to sell” could be.It turns out that this new way to sell has nothing to do with selling, and everything to do with buying--helping the buyer make the best decision for him or her. I liked that idea. I also liked the author’s decision to turn the learning into a novel, rather than a point by point sales training manual. I wasn’t sure if he could do it or not, but within minutes I was settled into the plot of a good story.This story revolved around one company’s attempt to reduce overhead, and their first thought was to get rid of the in-house sales trainer. That rang true. Statistics tell us that whenever a company faces a financial crunch, training is often the first thing to go. Only a few pages into the story and already I was rooting for the sales trainer.The sales trainer, Rick, has a rather unorthodox approach to training. He doesn’t want his sales team to push clients into buying. He wants them to pay close attention to their clients, to observe and listen closely to what they do and say, in order to learn how to HELP them make their own decisions. Now that takes some getting used to. Not surprisingly, both his company’s CFO and new members of the sales team were skeptical about whether this would work. After all, doesn’t all sales training stress how important it is to know the benefits and features of the company’s products and services, to stay in control the sales conversation and to be ready to answer all objections with still more reasons for the client to be sold on whatever the seller has on offer? Instead, Rick coached his team to ask buying point questions rather than selling point questions to help clients get in touch with their own needs and thus make better decisions. The best sales people stop thinking of themselves, and how they can make the sale and start thinking more about their clients and how to help them make the best buying decisions for them. This makes the sales process a win-win for everyone.I didn’t like the title, Selling to the Point. It still doesn’t make sense to me. But it was truly an easy read. I enjoyed the different scenarios and sales professionals that demonstrated how Rick’s sales process worked, and as the CFO played devil’s advocate, I found myself caught up in the tale and the less stressful sales process.Rick’s process evolved into 10 Laws of the Selling to the Point. These laws just got in the way while I was reading, so I ignored them. Perhaps the author knew readers would do this, because after the story had arrived at a satisfactory conclusion, there was an afterword that further explained the key principles of Selling to the Point. This included a summary of the ten laws, an explanation of three roadblocks to good client decisions: self-doubt, self-limiting beliefs and lack of clarity. Lipsius has also elaborated on the differences between the traditional “selling points” and the idea of “buying points”.If I were a sales manager, I’d ask my whole team to read this book and then discuss it together. If I were in sales, I’d read it not once but several times until I truly know how to “Sell to the Point.”Reviewed by Kaye Parker, [...]

Selling as a profession that has been characterised by building on product knowledge and then for the sales professionals to be in charge of the conversations. Jeff’s immense experience in sales, which clearly shows in the nuanced examples is counter intuitive to the norm. Using various protagonists like Martin, Joan, Sally, Carlos and many other customers, Jeff uses the main character Rick and his excellent approach to evangelise the 10 laws and 3 Cs.I’m looking forward to apply these in my internal and external interactions. A great read and a must invest in book for work and in life!

The printing job was not well done and half of the pages were almost 0.5 cm longer than the other ones.

Perfeito!! Super recomendo!!! Esse livro vai mudar todo o seu entendimento de vendas!!! Vc não vai se arrepender!!! Eu garanto!!!

A través de una historia, el autor presenta en este libro un nuevo método a tener en cuenta en la venta: Selling to the point. La esencia: lo importante no es la venta sino que el cliente te compre. Y para que eso suceda el vendedor debe entender perfectamente qué es lo que pasa en la cabeza del comprador (esa "caja negra") y cómo toma las decisiones.

I'm glad I found this book. I'm a shy person. The book’s subtitle is: 'because the information age demands a new way to sell'. It’s easy to see the logic of this. In the old days, the salesperson had the knowledge; now, the buyer has access to that with a couple of clicks of the mouse – and then they can buy pretty much anything.However, how do they decide to buy one product, or service, over another? It’s the human touch, that helps them reach the best decisions for themselves or their organisations.I’m one of those people who really doesn’t enjoy those ‘warm-hearted fables’ about ‘who moved my parachute?’ or how some cute rabbit discovered a new way to manage their people based on a one-minute step. So you can see that I was sceptical when I learned that this is a sales book written as a novella.Imagine my delight when I realised that Lipsius uses the story-telling form to create a ‘devil’s advocate’ position to his own method. Critically appraising this approach and taking on board professionals’ concerns. And I was also delighted that the book was genuinely an easy read – with the added bonus of all the learning points neatly summarised at the end.His main argument is that "the goal of teaching is learning, and learning is internal"; that buying is an "internal decision-making process", and that the goal of 'selling' is actually 'buying'.He also makes a key point about building rapport between sales-person and buyer, which is also quite radical. These points are set out in a clear, step by step, exposition of the author’s sales method.When you realise that you don’t have to ‘sell’ anything to anyone, you just need to support them to make a decision (by giving them the relevant information), and support their inner clarity, choice and internal confidence, life becomes a lot easier.Not so great, maybe, for the sales-person who likes to be centre of attention. Lipsius doesn’t skate over the necessary preparation every salesperson needs to go through, he simply switches the focus of attention from seller to buyer.This is where the overlap with ‘Inner Game’ techniques come in. Supporting the buyer, the team or the people you need to influence, is a game of supporting the other to focus on their inner confidence, clarity and choices. Gallwey graciously writes a rather profound foreword to this book, to explain the links between the ideas Lipsius sets out and his own methods. They both share a strong value of 'peace' - rather a zen concept for a sales book - and for Lipsius this means the "internal state of the customer, as they make peace with their decisions".