This article is based on my 17 years of direct sales experience working in SME, Corporate and Public Sector.

Selling is not so much about the features of our products or services--or even the benefits the customer receives.  Rather, it is about our relationship with the customer.  People do business with people they trust. 

That doesn’t mean people won’t make an occasional purchase of a specific item or service from someone they don’t trust, because most people will.  However, those purchases tend to be exactly that—one-time purchases. 

Many companies spend time and money trying to understand what methods they can employ to encourage personnel to work hard and to meet high sales or other targets. 

It could be argued that a company’s sales force is its most valuable asset; they need to feel appreciated and well remunerated and, in return, should be more loyal to the company. 

Call centre staff often tune out when they’re introduced to a new piece of customer relationship management (CRM) kit, with reluctant staff tending to add the minimum data they can get away with, or simply ignoring it and continuing to use their existing personal systems. However, as John Paterson reveals, if bosses follow eight simple dos and don’ts, it’s actually quite easy to get agents on board at implementation time.

Does a salesperson sell a product, service or idea or does the customer buy what the salesperson has?

This book gives sales people techniques to develop sustainable relationships with their clients who will buy from them again and again.

The old-fashioned hard sell doesn't cut it any more.  People want to buy, not to be sold to and this demands new skills and techniques of the 21st century salesperson.  In Smarter Selling learn what works and what doesn't in today's competitive sales environment.

- Over half (51 per cent) of UK buyers would not be proud to call themselves salespeople
- Less than half of UK buyers (42 per cent) view sales people as business partners
- Buyers have increasingly high expectations of sales people and these are not being met