A major shift was going on in the business world. Starting in the 1960's and continuing through the 1980's, manufacturers with their proprietary technology solutions were in a very strong selling position. Customers looked to the manufacturers as the technology experts and would rely on their recommendations for the best solutions. During the early days of the computer industry, computer and data processing knowledge was limited to a small number of manufacturers who had originally created the computer industry. This was also true for the telecommunications industry. Telephony and telecommunications was considered a black art known only to the major telecommunications service providers, such as AT&T and the regional Bell operating companies. But the customer and the market have changed.

Today, customers possess a strong technical knowledge and expertise in computing, networking, telecommunications and software. With the gradual adoption of standards-based product solutions and a movement away from proprietary technology solutions, customers were able to have a greater choice of product solutions. With greater choice came more competition and an erosion of the strong market position held by proprietary solution vendors. Manufacturers that did not make the move to provide standards-based products gradually found it more difficult to compete in the marketplace. Customers gradually moved away from dependence on single vendor solutions and insisted on multiple vendor solutions that could be integrated with one another.

The development of the Internet and the World Wide Web, also increased the availability of technical knowledge and information about basic technology and standards-based product solutions. The availability of this information about technology and standards-based solutions has given the customer tremendous leverage. Customers today are very sophisticated. They have a strong awareness of what technology is available, what it can do, how it works and even what it costs. Price and competition became more of an issue as patented technology patents expired or were invented around by new competitors. One only has to look at what happened to the photo copying market once dominated by one company who had invented the technology. Today, dozens of companies compete in the office products market with copier, printer, fax and scanning products. Because much of the mystery about technology no longer exists, customers are less interested in the technology for technology's sake. Customers are more interested in the total application solution and in choosing a solution that will help them achieve their business objectives. The good news for the customer is that there are an increased number of product solutions available today. The bad news is that it is more confusing than ever to sort out which solution will really address their needs. The opportunity for professional sales person remains to help customers understand what are the real differences between similar looking product solutions and which solutions will help their customers solve their unique business problems.

Professional salespeople selling in today's business environment need to understand that these changes in the business environment has affected the customer expectations in the marketplace. Like it or not, it has become more of a buyer's market. Customers have more options to choose from and therefore feel that they have more control over vendors in the marketplace and in the sales process.

Consider the following:

• Pricing- Every customer today expects or demands some kind of discount or special pricing incentive. How are you going to deal with this expectation?
• Customer Service- All vendors talk about providing good customer service. Today that's a given with customers. How will you truly differentiate yourself and deliver the kind of extraordinary support your customers expect?
• Evaluation and trials - Customers today do not want to buy anything unless they have had a chance to do a free trial of your equipment or services in their environment. How do you address this customer requirement?
• Competition- In today's business environment, every deal is going to be heavily contested by several competitive vendors. Some competitors will do anything to win, including buying the customers business. How are you going to position yourself to fight for every deal in this environment and win?
• Solution Delivery- Today's customers expect solution providers to be able to offer just-in-time product delivery. They want their solutions delivered and installed on their timetable, not yours. Are you and your organization ready to deal with this reality?
• Control of the Sale- In today's sophisticated business climate, it appears that the customer is in control of the sales process. What process do you have in place in order to take back control of the sale?

To be successful today, a sales person has to think differently and act differently. Sales people also need to use a different sales approach with their prospects that reflects the changes in today's business world. The process I use is called the Planned Sales Process. This process uses a defined set of tactical sales steps that enables you to quickly identify which prospects are your real prospects and which prospects are faux prospects (false, not real). By identifying and filtering out the real prospects from the faux prospects, you will eliminate wasting time on opportunities that are not going to lead to a sale and instead focus on higher quality opportunities. The Planned Sales Process also gives you a way to continually qualify your prospects throughout the sale and take control of the sales process. The end result is that your sales efforts are more efficient and your sales revenues are maximized.

Much of the principles of the Planned Sales Process were developed while I was the manager of sales training for the ROLM Corporation. The selling process we developed at ROLM was refined by our sales training staff and taught to several thousand new hire sales reps. After leaving ROLM, I continued to refine this sales process and modified it for use with sales reps on my sales teams when I entered into sales management. When I became a sales manager, I discovered that most of my reps had not received the same kind of formal sales training that I had received at I.B.M. I found that my sales training experience came in handy as I needed to formally train my sales reps about how to sell using a formal sales process.

During the late 1990's due to economic pressures it seemed that companies stopped investing time and money into the extensive training and the development of their salespeople. Rather than providing basic sales skill training, companies expected their newly hired sales people to have the necessary experience and to have been trained by someone else. What I encountered was that very few sales people were getting the training and support from their companies on how to sell effectively.

This book was written to address the needs of those individuals new to professional selling and for those sales professionals looking for new ideas to improve their selling skills. The process described in this book can be adapted to any kind of sales situation. The process can be compressed and used on a single sales call or can be stretched to meet a sales situation with a longer sales cycle. It is not a replacement for a formal sales training program. However, it does contain much of the sales experiences and ideas that I have found to be successful during my professional sales career. This book contains practical, step-by-step instructions on how to implement the sales process and includes forms to use as a guide during each part of the Planned Sales Process. If this book provides just one good idea for someone to use, then this book will have met its goal.