For almost two decades, tens of thousands of sales people have learned the lessons presented here by Xerox trainer Robert L. Jolles. The secret, Jolles reveals, is reversing the conventional selling practice. You must focus first on your customer''s needs and decision-making process, instead of on the selling practice. Jolles provides a systematic approach that teaches you to anticipate, and influence, customer behaviour as the customer moves through an eight-stage ''decision cycle''. Only after you understand the steps of this decision cycle, Jolles cautions, are you prepared to match it to your ''selling cycle''.

At the heart of these lessons is the simple but brilliant role-reversing concept of taking an idea and planting it in the mind of your customer, making the customer believe he or she thought of it first. Jolles teaches a repeatable, predictable selling process that can be adapted or modified to fit any experience that requires the skills of persuasion. The book includes a series of case studies, activities, and exercises that enable you to better understand the principles being taught, so you can immediately apply them to your own unique scenarios.