Rethinking the Sales Cycle: How Superior Sellers Embrace the Buying Cycle to Achieve a Sustainable and Competitive Advantage

Align your selling methods with their buying habits for a win-win relationship

"The digital age has dramatically changed the selling profession. John Holland and Tim Young will bring you up to date on their new rules for a customer-centric approach."
--Al Ries, bestselling coauthor, War in the Boardroom

Since its founding in 2002, CustomerCentric Selling, one of the world's leading sales training firms, has dramatically changed how selling is viewed--from simply promoting a product to empowering customers to achieve goals or solve problems through the use of offerings.

Today, buyers don't want salespeople telling them what they want or need; they've already gone online and informed themselves--which makes the job of selling more difficult than ever.

So how do you reestablish the relevance you previously took for granted? How, in the world of Web 2.0, can you develop long-term relationships with customers and maintain your competitive advantage? You must stop focusing squarely on the selling cycle--and pay closer attention to the buying cycle. In other words, learn how customers want to buy and align your selling techniques accordingly.

In Rethinking the Sales Cycle, two leaders from CustomerCentric Selling provide the latest research into the buying cycle. They present a step-by-step model that helps you seize market share and hold it by understanding the five stages of the buying cycle. Learn how to:

• Interpret buying behavior at different stages
• Assess your competitive position based upon buyer behavior
• Read the impetus behind a buyer objection
• Merge your selling process with a buyer's buying process
• Take a committee through a buying cycle to maximize the chance of consensus at the end

When it comes to the buying cycle, today's customers want control. You can give it to them when you have a selling strategy aligned with their behavior. It's the best and perhaps only way to succeed in today's ultra-competitive world.

Rethinking the Sales Cycle gives you unprecedented insight into the mindset, emotions, and behaviors of buyers. Armed with this information, you will find the solutions you need to lead your organization to new heights of success.

John R. Holland is cofounder and principal of CustomerCentric Selling(R). His articles have been published in Sales and Marketing Executive Report, Selling Power, and American Salesman.