Using a simple and direct approach supported by
equally simple diagrams, Ram Charan explained in
his first chapter the problem with sales. He
shared how the first salespersons were order
takers and in today's market education based
marketing where sales people educate is the right
approach. He suggests that by focusing on your
customers first (novel concept) instead of
yourself (think ego and pocketbook) you as a sales
professional will actually realize more dollars in
your piggybank and truly be The Red Jacket in a
sea of gray suits. Since the sales team needs to
change, the sales training must also follow suite.
Charan recommends using an apprenticeship approach
is one concept as well as communicating success
and measuring progress. This last two ideas are
not knew, but so few companies take these to heart
and practice. This book has taken a basic Sales
Class and provided new terminology to old
techniques with really nothing new at all. To go
out and find a few companies that were using the
wrong tactics and then turned it around using the
right tactics is not a new miracle cure for the
industry. Their main theme called "Value Creation
Selling" has been around for many decades. The
book is not wrong in what it is teaching but it is
stuff that I learned under a different title many
years ago. Not quite up to Dale Carnegie
standards. Your money would be better spent on a
book called "How to Win Friends and Influence
People". This is not a waste of time but is really
nothing new.
