Selling Above and Below the Line

William (Skip) Miller learned the hard way that being unprepared for cold-calling is a surefire way to lose your job when he started his career in sales, quitting after only one day on his first job. He learned from his mistakes and is now President of M3 Learning, a ProActive Sales Management and Sales Training Company and is the sales training leader in Silicon Valley.  Skip has provided training to tens of thousands of sales people and hundreds of companies in over 35 countries. This is his seventh book.

• Contents Foreword ix Author's Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii 1 You Are Selling More Than Just Features and Benefits 1 The Neuroscience of Selling: It's All About Us 2 The Deceptive Lure of Features and Benefits 3 Buyers Buy Outcomes 6 2 The Line That Splits the Two Parts of a Sale 11 Business Acumen: Knowing What Makes a Company Tick 12 Understand a Company's Network of Concerns 14 Target Two Outcomes for a Sales Process That Works 15 The Split: Selling Above and Below the Line 18 Uncover the Buyer's Multiple Personalities 20 Focus on Two Value Propositions 22 3 Selling Below the Line 23 The Rationale for Features and Benefits 24 Two Sales Processes, Two Results 28 WIIFM: The Five Ps 31 The BTL Buyer's Mantra: I Need It and I Like It 33 The Three Levels of a Purchase 34 Company Win and Personal Win 35 4 Know Your ATL Buyer 36 Change: We All Face It, and We All Fear It 37 The Fear Factor 39 Promote the Positive Motivators 41 Time Zones: Great Salespeople Are Time-Travelers 44 5 Understanding ATL Energy 49 Capturing the Energy of a Sale 49 Harness the Energy in ATL Events 54 Other ATL Oddities 58 Change Is King 60 6 Controlling the Inbound Sale 61 Inbound Qualifying Made Easy 62 Lead Scoring 62 Find the Need with the Three Levels of Why 63 Qualify and Disqualify 67 Getting Control, Starting with the Welcome 68 7 Controlling the Outbound Sale 73 Make Outbound Qualifying Work for You 73 Your Homework 75 Getting Past the Screen 77 Get to the Point--The One That's All About Them 78 The Prospect's Homework 79 Gives/Gets 80 8 Stage 1: Being ProActive 82 Prospecting to the ATL Level: Strategy and Tactics 82 Mastering the Art of the Short Email 85 How to Leave a Phone Message 89 Trumpeting 93 9 Basics Never Go Out of Style 95 Start the ATL Phone Call with a 30-Second Speech 95 The Art of Asking Questions 100 Paraphrasing and Summarizing Skills 104 Time-Traveling 105 Next Step 106 10 Sharpen Your Executive Business Acumen 108 Top Down and Bottom Up 108 Think Across the Entire Organization 111 ATL and BTL Solution Boxes 114 Talking About Trains 115 Become the Champion of Solution Box B 117 I-Date for Box B 118 11 Stage 2: Don't Forget The Split 120 It's Not a Race 123 The Quantified Problem 124 The Quantified Cause 129 The Quantified Solution 130 Printer Story: The Value of the Three Qs 130 12 Discussions with an ATL Executive 136 The ValueStar: Learning ATL Vocabulary 136 ROI: Selling Money 137 Making the Most of Time 140 Risk: The Million-Dollar Question 142 Leverage: Building Value Across Trains 146 Brand/Image: The Emotional Value 148 13 Creating and Controlling ATL Energy 150 The Golden Rule 152 The Salesperson's Energy 152 14 The "How" of Controlling the ATL Sale 161 ATL Energy: Finding Additional Trains 161 BTL Energy 170 15 Stage 3: Value vs. Value 175 Two Value Conditions 176 A Day in the Life 180 BTL and ATL "I Get It" to "I Get It" 183 Validation vs. Education 184 16 Balancing Between the Lines to Accelerate the Deal 188 Energy Sources 188 Moving the Chains ATL 191 Learn to Quantify Energy 192 Getting to Quantification with Impact Analysis 195 Solution Boxes and I-Dates 198 17 Stages 4 and 5: Getting a Decision 200 The Goal Is a Decision 200 The Power of Options 204 Getting a Decision--Now 205 18 How to Implement ATL/BTL Selling in Your Current Process 210 Map Your Stages 210 Visual Collaboration with the Customer 212 Next-Step Selling 214 19 Overall Strategizing for an Above the Line Sale 220 Managing Risk by Relying on Numbers 221 Know Your Options 223 Wine Ages Well. Problems Don't 226 Look at All the Options 226 Final Thoughts 227 Index 229