Twenty six page corners turned over! Without checking, that might be an all-time high, for my frequent readers you know that is how I judge the quality of the book I am reading—(how many page corners I turn over while reading any new book). Keeping it simple: if you want to “up your sales game”, buy this book today.
Jeb Blount’s latest book Sales EQ: How Ultra High Performers Leverage Sales-Specific Emotional Intelligence to Close the Complex Deal is a MUST READ book if you are in sales, especially if you have a desire to succeed at higher levels. The author explores how the UHP or Ultra High Performers live, execute the sales process and what makes them tick differently than the average salesperson. In reading this book I found Jeb’s maturity as a writer shows off as he brilliantly blending in stories, research and insights to make his points.
Right away in Chapter One: The Mysterious Brown Bag he captures the reader by telling a story that every salesperson can relate to and how the UHP can use the concept of “disruption” to improve the sales process and more importantly increase the buyer’s emotional connection to the sellers offering. This focus on EQ is the basis for altering a salesperson from being an average performer to one of high achievement. The author moves quickly from chapter to chapter adding to his case but taking the reader on a fascinating journey towards both understanding his concepts and providing a pathway to practicing his recommendations.
In Chapter Five he begins to set the basis to ensure the reader understands the power of EQ by explaining the Four Levels of Sales Intelligence:
- Innate Intelligence
- Acquired Intelligence
- Technological Intelligence
- Emotional Intelligence
Understanding each of these topics and how they relate to the UHP salesperson’s activity will absolutely help the average salesperson that is focused on becoming the best they can be improve their capacity to win.
With 29 chapters it is impossible to cover all the golden nuggets Jeb has put into this powerful book, just a few winners: Shaping Win Probability, Empathy, Self-Awareness, and Sales Drive.
The balance of the book covers specific concepts used by Ultra High Performers:
- A nine-frame qualification matrix
- How to measure prospects against the ideal qualified prospect profile
- Testing an engagement by tuning into emotions and micro-commitments
- 3-actions to move a stalled deal
- Knowing the 5-stakeholders in every deal and how to deal with them
Ultra-High Performers also understand the power of knowing these three questions that Jeb explores in Sales EQ:
- Do you like me?
- Do you listen to me?
- Do you make me feel important
I could go on and on but his Chapter on Discovery, (one of my most favorite sales topics) is outstanding and should be a topic of a major sales training program for any firm. In the book Jeb explores the questions to ask, not to ask and the power of beginning with easy, broad-open-ended, moving to probing, clarifying and moving the sales to the next step. As Jeb states: “UHP’s seem to know exactly what to ask at exactly the right moment while remaining engaged with the stakeholder. They never appear to be working very hard to come up with the next question or to keep the conversation moving and the stakeholder engaged.”
In his final Chapter 29, AMACHE, Jeb closes this book with a powerful story that any salesperson that is or wants to be more successful can take away to improve their performance by learning to “listen”. And then he lays it on you, the real secret sauce of UHP’s; I will let you in on it: Gratitude! “Gratitude is the cornerstone of a winning mind-set and the spark that ignites self-motivation.”
This absolutely must be a book that every salesperson should read, if you are a Sales Manager buy this book for everyone on your team and discuss two-three chapters a week in your weekly sales meeting, creating your own book club. You will see the acceleration and motivation build in your organization.
For more training check out Jeb Blount’s Online Sales Gravy University https://www.salesgravy.com/online-sales-training/
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