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Reading Notes: Exceptional Selling

Author: Jeffrey Thull

Format: Audible / Kindle

Subject:  Sales

Rating: 7/10

I recently told my boss that if I had to do it again, I would have focused my early career in sales.  Great sales people are immensely valuable and incredibly hard to find.   A few weeks later, a member of our board of directors recommended I read Exceptional Selling.  In fact, he was even kind enough to send an electronic copy of the book directly to my Kindle.  But as usual, I opted for an Audible copy as well.

Thull’s research is based on some of the most successful salespeople in the world.  And one key point that stuck out to me is that the most successful salespeople in the world are comfortable talking about pricing.  Their comfort is driven by the understanding of the value they bring into collaborating with the customer in an effort to solve the customer’s problems.  Thull also spends a lot of time covering his four-step sales sequence: “Discover, diagnose, design and deliver.”

Side Note: Hat Tip to Mickey Miller for recommending this book.

Qualities of a good Diagnostic Sales Proposal:

  1. Contain no surprises (good or bad.)
  2. Will have the customer’s fingerprints all over it (uses language and terminology used by the customer.)
  3. Will Solicit feedback (which allows for fine-tuning before the final proposal.)
  4. Will be formally presented, in part by the customers own people.

Quotes:

  • We need to be professionally involved and emotionally detached from our customers.
  • The customer is the judge and the jury in the sell, but you are the expert, the guide.
  • Silence is a sign of wisdom.  It is okay to think.

The Value Triad:

  • Sources of Value
  • Uses of Value
  • Absence of Value

Key Thoughts:

  • When you’re feeling pressure, you’re doing something wrong.
  • Do not answer unasked question.
  • The initial contact with a prospective customer is the most critical.
  • Salespeople are guilty until proven innocent.
  • When in doubt, do the opposite of what a salesperson would do!
  • In absence of quality decision process, the decision will degenerate to the lowest common denominator: price.
  • Diagnosis is something you do with your customer, selling is something you do to your customer.
  • You can’t lose something you don’t have.
  • You are either part of your system or someone else’s.
  • Do Not allow the customer to self diagnose.
  • One opinion does not make a consensus.
  • People never say what they really mean at first.
  • You must always protect the customers self esteem.
  • Needs do not equal expectations.
  • You have competitors;  your customers have alternatives.
  • The purpose of a proposal is to reinforce decisions that have already been made.
  • When you are presenting on a piece of a larger solution, don’t confuse selling with installing.
  • Professionally involved, emotionally detached.
  • If you don’t have a cost of the problem, you don’t have a problem.
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Reading Notes: The Willpower Instinct

Author:  Kelly McGonigal

Format: Audible

Subject:  Willpower

Rating: 7/10

Summary:

McGonigal points outs that there are three distinct types of willpower:  I Want Power, I Will Power, and I Won’t Power.  When most of us think of willpower, we are actually thinking of “I Won’t Power.”  We are exercising “I Won’t Power” when we try to resist instant gratification such as eating a cookie, or binge-watching a favorite show.  “I Will Power” comes into play when we sacrifice comfort in the present moment, in order to achieve a larger payoff in the future.  We exercise this power when we save for retirement, or invest 4 years in college in order to have our dream career.  Lastly, we have “I Want Power.”

McGonigal gives several tips for developing and maintaining self control, and cites multiple studies that support the sometimes counter intuitive findings.  I plan to add a kindle electronic copy of this book to my library, and I may have a few future post about my experience with the willpower exercises in the book.

Side Note:

I can’t quite remember how this book wound up on my reading list.  I do know that the I find the topic of willpower to be interesting.  But I’d expect the key selling point was actually a TED Talk that I watched a few years ago;  The speaker was none-other, but the authors twin sister Jane McGonigal.

 

What I liked Most About the Book:

Key Takeaways:

  • Willpower is like a muscle, it becomes exhausted over time.
  • Willpower is like a muscle, it can be trained.
  • The simplest way to improve willpower is to meditate which increases the blood flow to the pre-frontal cortex.
  • Start Meditating with 10 minutes a day and work toward 20 minutes.
  • “Pause and Plan Response” when dealing with internal conflict.  This redirects energy from your body (Fight or Flight) to the brain.
  • The excitement of anticipating a reward is almost always greater than the excitement from actually receiving the award
  • Dopamine’s primary function is to drive us to seek happiness, not to actually make us happy.
  • Self-Criticism drains the willpower, leads to low motivation and loss of self-control.
  • We overestimate our future selves ability to address the willpower issues we face today.
  • We don’t control our impulses, we only control our reactions.
  • Do most important task first.
  • Avoid decision-making fatigue; try to make decisions as quickly as possible.
  • Sleep is critical to recharging your willpower.

Best Methods for Dealing with Stress:

  • exercising/playing a sport
  • praying/religious service
  • reading/listening to music
  • spending time with family and friends
  • Meditation/Yoga
  • Spending time on a creative hobby
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Reading Notes: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Author: Stephen R Covey

Format: Audible

Narrated By: Stephen R Covey

Subject: Self-Help

Rating: 6/10

Favorite Quote:  “Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.”  I have consistently seen some of the best businessmen I know readily admit they didn’t understand something and ask for it to be explained, and I have seen them consistently use that behavior regardless of who else was in the audience.

Second Favorite Quote:  “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success;  leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”  This might be the best way I have ever heard the difference between management and leadership summarized.

Summary:  I certainly consider this book to be one of the “classics” of my non-fiction reading list.  There are definitely some  nuggets of knowledge in this book even if I don’t consider it to be in my top 10.  The title of the book does an apt job of describing its contents, which for the most part I agree with.  Having said that, I would be surprised if I ever gave this book a second read.

 Habit 1 :  Be Proactive

I cannot think of anything that has a had a bigger impact on my life then simply being proactive, so I certainly believe in this habit.  Throughout life, we will all find ourselves in a variety of challenging circumstances, and when we do we have a choice to “Wait & See” or to “Take Action!”  I have a strong bias toward taking action and actively encourage the people in my circle to do the same.

 Habit 2:  Begin with the End in Mind

Dr Covey’s take on this is rooted in a visionary and long term view of what is important in our lives as well as where we want to end up.  While that is certainly wonderful advice, I tend to find myself using this habit more when reminding myself the” importance of achieving a specific result,” and that sometimes the result can only be achieved if I am willing to sacrifice my original vision of what is required to bring the result to reality.

 Habit 3:  Put First Things First

This is all about prioritization, and making sure that we are getting the most value out of our time.  At Staley, we use the term “High Payoff Activity” or “HPA” to describe the most important activities we should be focusing our time on.  It is easy to get distracted.  It makes complete sense to apply the same logic to our personal lives.  However, it is tough to do this if we haven’t embraced Habit 2.

 Habit 4:  Think Win-Win

 I am not a big fan of this phrase, but to Covey’s defense, I don’t think it was quite the buzzword in 1989.  Having said that I am a big believer in the concept.  “Win-Win,” means that life isn’t a zero sum game.  We can each have larger pieces of the proverbial pie if we figure out how to grow the pie.  Having said that, it is easy to get trapped in the “Win-Lose” mindset, and I have to sometimes remind myself that the success of someone else is doesn’t equal a failure for me.

 Habit 5:  Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

This habit really stuck out with me.  Nobody would ever accuse me of being a great listener, however, I am committed to becoming one.  Making a point of truly trying to understand what somebody is trying to communicate to me before I try to figure out how to respond is pure gold in my mind.

 Habit 6:  Synergize

Speaking of buzzwords, this one is a dandy.  I probably got the least out of this section of the book.  I am a big believer in the value of a strong team and of teamwork.  I also think it is very important to keep an open mind.  But, I also don’t immediately favor the notion that “two heads are better than one.”

 Habit 7:  Sharpen the Saw

Here is a habit that I absolutely agree with.  It is absolutely crucial to nurture and grow ourselves throughout our lifetimes.  It is equally important not to neglect any one area of oneself ( physical, social, mental, or spiritual.)  The habit of Sharpening the Saw fits right in with my goal of being an Renaissance Man.

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Reading Notes: Getting Things Done

Author: David Allen

Format: Audible / Kindle

Narrated By: David Allen

Subject: Productivity

Rating: 8/10

Summary:

Getting Things Done has transformed the way I conduct my life, which really says a lot.  The book itself describes a system for dealing with the immense variety of activities, commitments, and projects we each struggle to juggle in our daily lives.  The system is built around 5 key steps: Capturing, Clarifying, Organizing, Reflecting, and Engaging.  The purpose of the system is to get all of your obligations out of your mind and into a known centralized location in the form of lists, which should allow you to have a “mind like water,” and more capable of being in the moment.  It should also allow you to have the ability to spend your time working on the activities that you can possibly complete in any given situation.  This system is a lot like Chess in the fact that it takes a moment to learn, and a lifetime to master.

In the three or so weeks since I started reading the book I have made the following progress:

  • My Physical In Box at work is habitually empty (this doesn’t mean I have completed all of the work and don’t have any pending action items.)
  • My Email In-Box is also habitually empty (see above.)
  • I have adopted contextual list-taking as a way of life.
  • Actively adopting checklist for repetitive activities in my life.
  • I have noticed an uptick in my productivity and less loose-ends across the full spectrum that is my life.
  • My mind wanders less when I am in meetings and having conversations.

That last bullet point is a substantial benefit.  Having said that, I found my mind constantly wandering to projects, ideas, and activities as I worked my way through the book because I found it very difficult to digest the information without trying to apply it to my life.  So that was a bit of a viscous cycle.  I will definitely keep a copy of this book for reference.

What I liked Most About the Book:  Seeing my empty In-Box, and the focus on defining the “Next Action.”

What I liked Least About the Book:  The information tends to become more and more repetitive as you read through the book.  All in all, Getting Things Done book reads much like a textbook which to be fair, it pretty much is.

Illustrates the Getting Things Done process.