"Up Your Income! Solution Selling for Profitability"
By Paul Shearstone

Whenever I am interviewed about my new book, "Up Your Income! Solution Selling for Profitability" I am often asked, "What is it about?' and "What motivated you to write it?"

At the risk of sounding a little long in the tooth, I started in sales in the mid 1970's. Logic then would suggest, if I have been selling in three decades, I must have witnessed many changes in the business landscape as well as the selling profession as a whole. I have. I have witnessed also, first hand, what it's like to be the number one salesman in my company Nationally on at least four - arguably five - occasions. I mention this only to point out that if you're number one once, you've had a good year. If you repeat the process again and again, you must: a) possess some kind of proven winning formula that separates you from your peers, and b) have an informed opinion of some kind.

From my vantage point, I make the following observations regarding the challenges faced today by most companies and sales professionals - especially in the high-tech reseller channels.

The 1980's not only ushered in the new "Technical Era", it transformed nearly all existing business models with the introduction of the compact computer to mainstream business. The computer marked a not so subtle modification to the conventional selling paradigm from the "Single-Box-Sell" to the "Multi-Box-Sell". Few will argue that selling immediately became more complex.

Unfortunately, the traditional "Salesman/person" became the first casualty. Up until then, companies sought out young 'diamonds-in-the-tough' with strong natural aptitudes for people-skills and salesmanship to fill the ranks of frontline successful sellers. It wasn't long, however, until the new technical age exposed the major weaknesses in the traditional seller. They were good with people but when it came to "Technology" and the new need for "Detail", they were unarmed.

Companies quickly refocused their hiring criteria on a new seller-model, the "Technical Specialist" or more affectionately known today as the "Techy". The fact that they [Techies] possessed a natural aptitude for technology and were endowed with high-detail strengths appeared to rectify the void. To my way of thinking, that solution was only half right.

It has only been over the last few years that companies have discovered - unfortunately for some, too late - the new Technical-Seller had some flaws of their own. The problem wasn't their ability to keep up with technology. They clearly understood it and could provide ideal solutions for complex customer problems. So how then were they challenged? The Majority did not have a natural aptitude for sales nor did they enjoy natural and needed people-skills. They were challenged when it came to sales!

When companies finally took a closer look at their frontline sales force, they found they had legions of frontline "Tellers" not "Sellers". What convinced them? One major indicator was the global dwindling of profitability! What they discovered was their salespeople were providing customers with solutions that in the end, were shopped to other competitors for a better price. The net result? Without proven selling skills, customers viewed most high-tech providers, products and services as nothing more than commodities and were left unencumberedly free to focus buying decisions on one thing, PRICE - which takes us to the next challenge.

The technical age is over and we are now firmly entrenched in the "Information Era". There is no argument most products and solutions are the same or similar, which means the biggest obstacle sellers face today is the "Pursuit of Differentiation". Whether I sell you a back-office server or someone else does, the fact is, the product and what it does is the same. So why should you buy it from me especially if my solution is more expensive? Studies indicate you will buy from me and pay more, if - and only if - I can demonstrate a 'Unique Value-Add Proposition' that separates my product, services and me from the competition.

"The degree to which we cannot demonstrate a Unique Value-Add Proposition is in direct proportion to the degree we hurt ourselves, our company and our industry!"

Over the last couple of decades, time-tested and proven selling techniques or the "Art of Selling" have taken a backseat to the focus on keeping up with technology. That combined with so-called omniscient plutocrats, who in an effort to appear forward thinking, have done real harm to the selling profession as a whole by denigrating the need for learned selling techniques. They challenge the validity of established selling formulas from the past and their integral importance to today's sales challenge.

One of the benefits of having enjoyed above average success on the selling frontline in three decades is that you can point out with clarity the folly of the above line of logic. To cast aspersions on the validity of the Art of Selling would be to cast a similar dim light on another reputable profession - the psychiatric industry. Armed primarily with words and 4-6 years of training in the fundamentals of human behavior, psychology and motivation, psychologists ask questions to determine problems, needs and/or lacks. Armed primarily with words they then get agreement from patients regarding the problems, needs and lacks. Finally, armed primarily with words, they work with their patients to overcome the problems, needs and lacks. At this level, they are nothing more than "Well Trained Salespeople!"

"Up Your Income! Solution Selling for Profitability" validates the time tested human behavioral selling techniques from the past that still work today albeit respecting a more sophisticated delivery to address better educated buyers in a more complex marketplace. Yes! The selling STYLE has evolved. Human behavior and motivation have not!

Nevertheless, something else has changed - the need for industry proven specialists who work with frontline sellers providing success-driven formulas that focus on value-add - not PRICE!

As a professional keynote speaker, sales trainer, consultant and coach, I now travel across North America helping corporations build top producers by giving sellers the tools and motivation to MAKE MORE SALES AT ATTRACTIVE MARGINS! I have a reputation for improving company closing ratios by 20-30% by helping sales teams reengineer their sales approach.

The Solution Selling process I promote in the book and on stage are the sum culmination of the best parts [only the best parts] of all the better-known sales courses I've taken and/or taught over the last twenty years. Those, in tandem with my own unique interpretation of the selling process is the stuff that took me to the top of my industry as well as the individuals and companies I mentor/coach today.

Merisel, Hewlett Packard, Rogers Cablesystems, Ge Capital, Lucent Technologies and IKON are just some of the companies that have recently benefited from and now recommend the Solution Selling for Profitability formula for sales success!