Rating: 
Summary: Neil Rackham's Comments
Review: Sales forces are caught in the middle. On one side, their customers have changed dramatically in terms of how they purchase and what they expect. On the other side, their own corporations have shifted, going through downsizing, restructuring, and cost cutting. Traditional boundaries such as those between sales and marketing have crumbled. Sales people have to cope with more products, introduced faster with shorter life cycles, and less competitive differentiation. In this book I'll explore how successful sales forces are redefining themselves by creating customer value.
Rating: 
Summary: A Framework for Selling in the New Century
Review: Some of the books addressing the Internet's effect on business are so buried in futurist fantasy, that it's appliaction for selling today is limited. Rackham and De Vincentis do an excellent job of building a framework for viewing today's selling in an atmosphere of radical change including, but not limited to the Internet's effect on business. Filled with relevant examples, and clear advice about what works and what doesn't; I found the book very valuable in thinking how to apply new age selling to old work products. The premise of the book is that Sales must be about creating value for the customer and not just communicating it. How this is done is dependent on the nature of the sale: transactional, consultive, or enterprise and the structure of the sales channel. They warn against the ctitcal mistakes of applying the wrong solution for the wrong type of sale: If you are in a transactional situation (cost and price driven) it would be disastrous to apply a consultive or enterprise solution. They also warn that while our egos may want us to think that we want a consultive or enterprise relationship, that these types of sales are much tougher that we think, and that enterprise sales specifically are rarely successful for both parties. This is solid usable information. It should be a part of your thinking on sales strategy.
Rating:
Summary: Great book full of wisdom
Review: This book is for people who are serious about sales force transformation (be it strategy, automation or process ...)Before you adopt any decision about your salespeole, this book will provide you with a great roadmap and various models (the 3 selling types, process analysis, management and training type, ...) with respect to your current situation and to the direction you should go : beware, there is no free lunch ... It is a "general" sales book but it's very rich in detail about all the main area of focus of sales management It's clear, well written and well documented : bravo !
Rating:
Summary: A Technologist's Reaction
Review: This book is not just for salesmen or sales managers. As the head of a small software company, you would not be surprised that I am an analytical with a technical background faced with the problem of creating an effective sales force. If you also suffer from this malady, you will find this book rational, well organized and objective. You will learn about the three kinds of selling, which ones are appropriate for your business, and how NOT to do a lot of things that are conventional wisdom. You will learn a lot about the selling process that is pure leading edge. In our company we use the SPIN selling books by the same author and in my opinion they should be part of a multi-volume set that includes this book. We are just beginning to implement these ideas so we can't tell you how effective they are yet. But the logic is truly compelling!
Rating:
Summary: A Technologist's Reaction
Review: This book is not just for salesmen or sales managers. As the head of a small software company, you would not be surprised that I am an analytical with a technical background faced with the problem of creating an effective sales force. If you also suffer from this malady, you will find this book rational, well organized and objective. You will learn about the three kinds of selling, which ones are appropriate for your business, and how NOT to do a lot of things that are conventional wisdom. You will learn a lot about the selling process that is pure leading edge. In our company we use the SPIN selling books by the same author and in my opinion they should be part of a multi-volume set that includes this book. We are just beginning to implement these ideas so we can't tell you how effective they are yet. But the logic is truly compelling!
Rating: 
Summary: Important Book with 21st Century Insights
Review: This book is on target (no pun) discussing how to design and advance a value selling methodology within a corporate selling organization. The book will not help an individual sales rep with his/her daily job. It will however alert them to the requirements for success going into the future. The hunter/farmer discussion is worth the price of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Important Book with 21st Century Insights
Review: This book is on target (no pun) discussing how to design and advance a value selling methodology within a corporate selling organization. The book will not help an individual sales rep with his/her daily job. It will however alert them to the requirements for success going into the future. The hunter/farmer discussion is worth the price of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Updating Sales
Review: Today's world no longer rests upon the product. Rather, it rests on the customer's perceived value of said product. Due to this fundamental shift, it is necessary that the sales department also shift. But, like any bureaucracy, it is slow to change. Rackham and Devincentis make a powerful case, strongly supported, with lots of suggestions on how to work with this new type of consumer. The two of them, along with Michael Levine in his Guerrilla PR: Wired, recognize and realize that to prosper in the new economic environment, the relationship between the customer and the business can not be one of a simple trade of product for monetary equivalence and compensation. To that end, Rethinking the Sales Force strives to move sales into the 21st century, where the customer's perception of the product's value is king, and the actual product itself is the pawn.
Rating:
Summary: "Value-Driven" Thinking
Review: When an organization's sales are flat or declining, it is understandable for those responsible to ask "What to do about sales?" Here is a book which addresses a much more important question: "How to think about sales?" In a previous book, Rackham correctly stressed the importance of asking questions according to an acronym, SPIN: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Fulfillment. In this book, he and Devincentis differentiate among three different categories of customer (Intrinsic Value, Extrinsic Value, and Strategic Value), explaining why (and how) the cultivation and solicitation process for each must be "customized" (pun intended) in direct response to their respective needs and interests. The common element (as always) is value. What is it? How can it be verified? How can it be increased? And perhaps one of the most important but least understood questions: So what? What Rackham and Devincentis correctly assert is that when sales are flat, declining or even increasing, it is imperative to "re-think" whatever sales strategies and tactics are now used. (Here's a situation in which the SPIN framework can be especially helpful.), And do so in terms of HOW value is pereceived by each customer. Those perceptions are the most urgent sales realities. It is also important to remember that today's Intrinsic Value Customer may soon be motivated primarily by extrinsic or strategic considerations. The authors offer an intellectual infrastructure within which to ask the most important questions about sales. Although the same questions must continue to be asked, many (most?) answers which are correct today may soon be inadequate, if not flat-out wrong. How well you think and then re-think will determine how well you do.
Rating:
Summary: "Value-Driven" Thinking
Review: When an organization's sales are flat or declining, it is understandable for those responsible to ask "What to do about sales?" Here is a book which addresses a much more important question: "How to think about sales?" In a previous book, Rackham correctly stressed the importance of asking questions according to an acronym, SPIN: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Fulfillment. In this book, he and Devincentis differentiate among three different categories of customer (Intrinsic Value, Extrinsic Value, and Strategic Value), explaining why (and how) the cultivation and solicitation process for each must be "customized" (pun intended) in direct response to their respective needs and interests. The common element (as always) is value. What is it? How can it be verified? How can it be increased? And perhaps one of the most important but least understood questions: So what? What Rackham and Devincentis correctly assert is that when sales are flat, declining or even increasing, it is imperative to "re-think" whatever sales strategies and tactics are now used. (Here's a situation in which the SPIN framework can be especially helpful.), And do so in terms of HOW value is pereceived by each customer. Those perceptions are the most urgent sales realities. It is also important to remember that today's Intrinsic Value Customer may soon be motivated primarily by extrinsic or strategic considerations. The authors offer an intellectual infrastructure within which to ask the most important questions about sales. Although the same questions must continue to be asked, many (most?) answers which are correct today may soon be inadequate, if not flat-out wrong. How well you think and then re-think will determine how well you do.
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