Building Trust, Growing Sales : How to Master Complex, High-End Sales Using the Principles of Trust Triangle Selling

Great plan : template for aligning the sales cycle to the buying cycle.

Dan Adams' book, Building Trust Growing Sales, and the live workshop on which the book is based, is a very good and comprehensive system for selling complex, high-end products and services.Having been through numerous sales training programs over the years, I believe the methods Dan teaches are more complete and more useful than any other sales training course on the market, specifically for high-end, complex sales. That said, Dan's approach is not perfect.Is there anything new and different in this book? Yes, quite a bit. First, Dan teaches his philosophy that you must stop thinking of yourself as a sales person who tries to talk people into doing things they do not want to do, and instead think of yourself as a consultant who assesses needs and then recommends a specific solution. Dan goes beyond the "don't sell, consult" mantra to providing specific tools to provide the reader with the "how to" of being a truly consultative salesperson.Having studied this book (after going through Dan's live workshop) and applying many of the methods he teaches, I can tell you the methods are powerful and very appropriate to selling big ticket capital equipment. Reading the book won't change your sales. Putting the concepts into action will.One of the truly unique aspects of this book are the dozens of document examples provided, including score cards, strategic plan, prospecting letter, win letter, loss letter, and many other tools you can put into action. Many authors only "tease" you with their book, glossing over concepts, wanting you to come to the live (and much more expensive) training to get the real material. Not so with this book. All of the tools taught in the live training are in this book, which makes it a real bargain.If you sell any expensive product or service in a complex environment (more than one decision maker) I strongly believe you will gain a great deal by studying and applying this material. There is nothing tricky or manipulative here. The concepts and methods are above-board, contemporary and up to date (as of 2008 when this review is being written).I would be remiss if I did did not point out what I believe are (2) serious flaws in Dan's approach:1. The notion that "the product doesn't matter, YOU matter." Is a dangerous over-simplification. Those of us selling in the field on a daily basis know that the product matters enormously. True, the sales person and the way they conduct themselves are an opportunity to differentiate the total solution. But that doesn't mean the product is unimportant. The competitiveness of the product is critically important. And Dan's contention that "the product doesn't matter, YOU matter" is one I absolutely disagree with. It becomes a very convenient tag line for sales management (and any C-level company execs who are participating in the sales meeting) to use during round table discussions about the competition.The fact is entire divisions of companies - and entire companies - go out of business because their products become outdated and uncompetitive. Sorry, Dan, you are really off the mark on this point. The product matters very much. In my opinion you lose credibility by hanging on to this dangerous over-simplification.A good example: Over the past 3 years, the GE Centricity product has steadily lost share in the PACS market to competitors such as McKesson (Horizon Radiology Medical Imaging System) and Philips (iSite System). If the "product doesn't matter", why is GE losing marketshare? Especially after having many of their sales reps trained by Dan Adams?2. The ridiculous assertion that "there is only one reason you lose a sale: you got outsold." Yes, getting "outsold" is one reason a sale may be lost. However, there are MANY reasons sales are lost, and to suggest that the ONLY reason a sale is lost is because the sales person "got outsold" conveniently removes any responsibility from company management who has allowed their product line to become outdated and increasingly irrelevant. Again, this tag line becomes a convenient way for sales management (or any C-level company execs participating in the sales meeting) to shift the blame for any and all lost sales to the sale rep...and release themselves of all responsibility.In his book, Dan shares that he worked for many years at GE Healthcare, and was one of GE's consistent top producers, winning many sales performance awards and even setting the record for the most President's Club nominations. Interestingly, Dan states after he left GE he went on to work for Cisco Systems and Ariba, Inc. Yet there is no mention of Dan winning any sales awards at these companies, or setting any sales records. It does make me wonder why. After all, the product doesn't matter, right?Perhaps he got outsold.

Dan Adams helps sales leader humble themselvea and use tactics and data to bring a sales to closure. I saw his methods in action. I was lucky to participate in one of his sales executive trainings. The most experiences sales leaders got challenged amd humbled by the experience. With Daniel Adams we redefined the value proposition, sales approaches, tools, salea process to be focused on building trust first then converting that trust into revenue and profits. The book is a great reminder of some of the tools recommended and I would recommend the book as a companion with the training. My experience with Dan changed my definition of sales. Not cheesy sales folks trying to pump their chest up saying my product is great but instead a tactical approach to help the customers understand that and say it in place of the customer. Finally, the philosophy shared in the book also helps more bold selling where sometimes you say no to customers. Its not about closing all customers but the customers that get and will get the highest value proposition. Good job Daniel.

The premise of this book is that a sales person can develop a relationship with a client where the client perceives the sales person as a consultant. This is accomplished, according to the author, by using the secret weapons contained in the book. As as sales professional who has been successful for many years, and has had the benefit of going thought many different sales training courses over the years, I must say Dan Adams presents a number of interesting and valuable concepts in his book. Unfortunately, too much time is spent on sales techniques and not enough time is devoted to the skills used by actual consultants to help clients determine their requirements, consultatively recommend options, and engage in behaviors that build trust. The techniques presented lack depth and authenticity and are not actual methods real consultants would use, but rather cheesy sales techniques. I agree with the reviewer who wrote that this author's claim there is only one reason you lost a sale, you got outsold, is preposterous. Especially when the author supposedly has an M.B.A. A good M.B.A. knows how to analyze markets, knows that markets evolve and mature over time and knows some companies have better competitive advantages than others. Maybe the author of this book has not read Michael Porter's (Harvard Business School) books on competitive analysis and strategy. He should. When a company that's been at or near the top of it's market gets knocked down to third, fourth (or a worse) place due to a disruptive innovator (see Clayton Christensen's books) should the sales team shoulder all of the blame for declining revenues? No they should not. For complex, high-end sales I would strongly recommend Miller and Heimann's Consultative Selling and Strategic Selling and for anyone in the sales profession The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes is outstanding.