A Seat at the Table

Bestselling author Marc Miller delivers a new, critical tool for connecting with decision makers to make more and bigger sales. He offers a new sales approach designed to help you earn A Seat at the Table — the place reserved for those select people who set the direction and the budget of an enterprise.

In today’s commoditized business world, customers only care about one thing: value. To offer new value, you must stop being a salesperson and become a businessperson who sells. Only then can you help your customers increase productivity and profitability, which are the key factors of growth-and your continued success.

In A Seat at the Table, Miller explains how to connect with executives and decision makers from the very first point of contact — psychologically, strategically, and financially — to prove your value. When you can do this, you will be able to create demand for your products and services, protect your core business, and close more sales. Building on his experiences identifying best practices in thousands of salespeople, Miller offers all of the tools you need to make the transition:

• A simple, analytical matrix for illuminating customer strategies.
  
• A first-call methodology that will have every contact offering up the information that you need to make the sale.
  
• An adaptable template for generating recommendations that are perfectly aligned with customer strategic needs.

With these tools, you’ll be closing more and bigger deals — and helping your customers succeed, too.

1. Game Change
2. A New Role, A New Mind-Set
3. Velcro Value
4. Bridging the Divide
5. The Great Game of Strategy
6. Connection Mastery
7. Conversations That Connect
8. FOCAS on Customer Strategy
9. FOCAS on Building a Case for Change
10. On the Same Side of the Table
11. Difference Maker

This is not really a book about selling. Rather, it is a book about trying to get the sales person/executive to understand the MBA-mindset. Surprisingly, it fulfills this very successfully! I can warmly recommend this book, not only to salespersons, but to anyone that tries to understand why the MBA's are acting and thinking like they do.

Recommended reading.