Top Sales Book of 2010

UPDATE: December 16, 2010 – SHiFT! Wins the Bronze Medal behind industry heavyweights Art Sobczak – Art discusses my Trigger Event Selling™ expertise and the Won Sales Analysis™ worksheet starting on page 40 of his book Smart Calling – and Jill Konrath – Jill has 8 pages about Trigger Events that starts on page 76 of her book SNAP Selling.

My Trigger Event Selling book SHiFT! is a finalist for the Top Sales Book of 2010.

The winner is selected based upon 50% popularity and 50% merit.

I think I have a strong case for winning the merit portion (originality & quality) and because I am up against two of the industry’s heavyweights (Art Sobczak and Jill Konrath), I am asking for assistance with the popularity portion.

Please vote here. If you are so inclined you can vote every day until Wednesday December 13th.

If you would like to read the book before you vote, you can access the preview chapters at http://www.shiftselling.com/book/

If you have an extra 30 seconds can you also vote for:

• iSell by OneSource for what I think is by far the top sales 2.0 solution
• Gerhard Gschwandtner for top sales personality
• Active Conversion for top sales tool

Dreamforce

Since I am at Dreamforce all week I have not had time to construct the scheduled post on the #5 Sales 2.0 tool.

Today I will be at looking for and tweeting on what I think are worthwhile Sales 2.0 tools. Follow the hashtag #infoshift to see what I find.

Next week I will resume the countdown of the top seven sales 2.0 tools with sales 2.0 tool #5.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

Tibor Shanto and I will be revealing the secrets of Trigger Event Selling^â„¢ during a three part no-charge webinar series. Why three webinars you ask?

We are doing three webinars so:

• You can consume more content without feeling like you are drinking from a fire hose
• You can learn to crawl, before we ask you to walk, and then challenge you to run
• We can give more examples so you can see that no matter what you sell, who you sell it to, or where you sell, Trigger Events are highly relevant to becoming and staying a top sales performer

During the series we’ll show you how to:

- Exploit Untapped Opportunities: 3 Strategies for Using Executive Sales Triggers
- Land Your Target: 4 Ways to Win More Deals Using Company-Based Sales Triggers
- Shorten Your Sales Cycles: 5 Keys to Accelerating Sales with Industry Sales Triggers

Each webinar will share the secrets of Trigger Event Sellingâ„¢ and show you tools you can use to get started right away.

The webinars are held from 10-11AM Pacific (1-2PM Eastern) on the 2nd Tuesday of July, August, and September (July 13, August 10, September 14)

The link to learn about and register for all three webinars is http://TriggerEventWebinars.com

The link to register for just the first one is http://TriggerWebinar.com

Contact me by phone (+1.403.874.2998), Skype (Craig.Elias) or email (Craig.Elias@ShiftSelling.com) if you have ANY questions.

P.S. For those of you who don’t know Tibor Shanto he is the co-author of my Trigger Event Selling™ book called SHiFT! Harness The Trigger Events That TURN PREOSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS that will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble,and  Chapters by early August.

Update: The link to the recording and the handout for this webinar “Timing: The Silver Bullet in Sales” will be emailed to you when you download the ‘Won Sales Analysis” template and instructions.

Join 1,000+ entrepreneurs, business leaders, and sales & marketing professionals at 10:00AM (Pacific) on September 17^th for a no-charge webinar being hosted by JigSaw. During this 30 minute webinar I will prove that there is a Silver Bullet in sales.

Webinar Details -There is a Silver Bullet in Sales

For years you’ve been told that there is no such thing as a silver bullet in sales.

But there is. It’s called timing – getting in front of the right person at EXACTLY the right time.

When you have the right timing the sale almost happens by itself – No challenges getting to the decision maker, understanding their dissatisfaction, presenting a solution, or closing the sale.

In this 30 minute webinar Craig Elias will show you how events that trigger the buying process – Trigger Events – convert someone who never would have bought from you yesterday, into someone highly likely to become your customer today.

When you leverage Trigger Events to get in front of highly motivated, buyers before your competition you dramatically:

• Increase your close ratios
• Shorten your sales cycles
• Sell at higher prices

This no-charge webinar will show you the secrets of getting to decision makers at EXACTLY the right time by:

1. Identifying what the right timing is
2. Learning how to get the right timing
3. Understanding what to do when you do have the right timing

You’ll also learn:

• The three types of Trigger Events that create highly motivated buyers
• The specific Trigger Events that create highly motivated buyers for what you sell

Register even if you can’t make the live webinar so you receive the recording of the webinar and a chance to win $1,500 worth of my time.

P.S. On September 2^nd the winners of the four tickets for the Art of Sales happening in Calgary on September 25^th – Terry Tudor (1 ticket), Tammy Dowd (1 ticket), and Kae Shoommugum (2 tickets) – were notified by email as were the rest of the over 120 who entered their name in the draw.

In previous posts – Back on Track … Finally! & What’s The Big Deal About Trigger Events – I described how to increase close ratios, shorten sales cycles, and increase margins by getting to buyers when they are in the ‘Window of Dissatisfaction’ and the three types of Trigger Event’s that put buyers into the Window of Dissatisfaction.

In this post I will describe how to identify specific Trigger Events for the products/services that you sell. This can be done by doing a specific form of sales analysis.

Use Google to search for the term sales analysis – by using quotes around the words “sales analysis” when you search – and you’ll find around 3,000,000 pages on sales analysis. If you believe that when you lose the business you don’t want to lose the lesson and you use Google to search for the term “lost sales analysis” you will find around 1,750 pages on lost sales analysis.

I am looking to replicate my successes, therefore I want to better understand what it is that makes me win business. To do this I conduct a Won Sales Analysis. Here is what I find amazing, if you use Google to search for the term “won sales analysis” you’ll find, on last check, only around 50 pages that talk about how to capture more customers by analyzing the business that you have already won.

The Trigger Event method of Won Sales Analysis identifies the Trigger Events that resulted in getting new customers, when these Trigger Events happened, what made the customer choose you over your competition, and how you can close more sales in the future.

If you want to use the Trigger Event method of Won Sales Analysis you’ll find the Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) version of this tool at http://www.wonsalesanalysis.com.

Contact me if you want an explanation any of the aspects of the tool so you can use it to enhance your selling efforts.

Other Trigger Event Resources to Consider

I scour the Internet searching for ideas, resources, articles, and success stories about leveraging Trigger Events to outsell the competition. This time I want to share with you a blog post by Don Dodge called “Is your product a vitamin or painkiller?“. In this post Don shares his thoughts on what catalyst or event causes your prospects to actively seek your product or solution”

I encourage you to get together with others and brainstorm on ways to capitalize on Trigger Events to outsell your competition. Contact me when you have ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging Trigger Events that you want to share with the over 1,500 entrepreneurs, business leaders, and sales and marketing professionals who subscribe to this blog.

Have an eventful week!

Craig