Christian Maurer

We know that successful sellers are able to provide value to each interaction they have with prospects and clients. If you want to provide value in conversations with economic buyers, you need to have Business Acumen. “Bottom Line Selling” by Jack Malcolm describes the observable behavior you need to display if you want others to be convinced that you have Business Acumen.

The first part of the book introduces you to the fundamental business concept of productivity including the velocity aspect and provides lots of actionable advice about what needs to be done to understand the customer as an organization, but as the saying goes: It is people not organizations who buy.

The second part of the book discusses how you can apply the situational knowledge gained by following the advice of the first part of the book. You will be introduced to different formal roles within a prospective or client’s organization and how to adopt your conversations accordingly so that your...

Why should you care?

Businesses are under constant pressure for productivity improvements. Sales organizations are not excluded from this demand. Yet for most salespeople and sales organizations, working harder than they already are is probably no longer an option to increase productivity. The way out of this dilemma is thus to try to work smarter. Working smarter means doing the right things, and that's the meaning of effectiveness.

How can you measure sales effectiveness?

In their new book «Rainmaking Conversations», Mike Schultz and John E. Doerr explain that rainmakers – sales superstars raking in considerably more sales than the average salesperson – follow 10 core principles. Taking these principles to heart is a prerequisite to the successful application of the Rainmaking Conversation Roadmap.

RAIN is the acronym to describe this roadmap. R (Rapport) is the starting point of the Rainmaking Conversation Roadmap.

This leads to the next discussion regarding the ‘A’ which stands for Aspiration and Affliction. Many selling concepts focus only on problems (afflictions) that create an initial value gap, indicating that the prospect is not achieving the success that could be possible. But according to the authors, buyers operate with two mindsets: “problem solving” and “future seeking”. Sellers focusing on problems alone will thus miss all opportunities related to the “...

As a person who believed that the velocity with which a lead converts to a deal is not considered enough, I was skeptical whether the book Slow Down, Sell Faster! by Kevin Davis would work for me. This skepticism did not last long. Once I understood that the title of the book recommends that the rhythm of selling should fit to how customers want to buy, I felt comfortable. I am of the belief that sales velocity should be measured by how fast milestones in the buyer’s journey are reached, not how fast sales activities are carried out. My comfort with the contents of the book continued to increase the further I read it.

In the first part of the book, Davis suggest an eight step circular buying process model providing guidance for sellers, what to do and whom to access within the customer organization to help the customer navigate through his/her journey of buying. I appreciate that he does not promote this model as a one-size-fits-all approach to success. To the...