Cian McLoughlin - Rebirth of the Salesman: The World of Sales is Evolving. Are You?

Rebirth

of the

Salesman

The World of Sales is Evolving. Are You?

Cian McLoughlin

First published by OMNE Publishing in 2015

Cian McLoughlin 2015 All rights reserved. The moral right of the author has been asserted. No part of this book may be reproduced by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Creator: McLoughlin, Cian; author.

Title: Rebirth of the Salesman: The World of Sales is Evolving. Are You? / Cian McLoughlin.

ISBN: 978-0-9943116-9-6 (ebk.)

Subjects: Selling. Marketing. Sales promotion. Sales personnel.

Dewey Number: 658.85

Editing by OMNE Author Solutions

Layout by OMNE Creative

ebook by OMNE Publishing www.omne.com.au

R EBIRTH OF THE S ALESMAN

Cian has written a timely masterpiece for professional salespeople as they navigate unprecedented change and disruption. The battle for relevance and the imperative to deliver value makes this book a must read for anyone committed to both protecting and transforming their sales career.

Tony Hughes Business author, keynote speaker and #1 ranked influencer for professional selling in Asia Pacific by Top Sales World Magazine

In Rebirth of the Salesman, Cian is doing what all great salespeople do: He is looking at selling from the customers perspective. The truth is, we dont sell. They buy. The more we do to help them buy; the more we sell. This is an insightful and uplifting book filled with the kind of courage and common sense that characterizes all great salespeople.

Kristin Zhivago Author, business technologist and President of the Cloud Era Institute

The commodisation and accessibility of information in recent years has shifted the balance of power from sellers to buyers. The customer of today is more knowledgeable, sophisticated, and educated than ever before. What does that mean for you if youre a sales professional? Cian lays out the answers in this step-by-step guide for safeguarding and growing your sales career. A must read for anyone wanting to take their rightful place in the brave new world of B2B sales.

Matthew Michalewicz Entrepreneurship, innovation and success psychology expert, author of Life in Half a Second

A book that will help you to meet your customers where they are, which in a changing world is exactly where you need to be.

Bernadette Jiwa Brand strategist, TEDx speaker, author of four Amazon #1 bestsellers, voted Best Australian Business Blog 2012

We have witnessed more advances in the world of professional selling in the past five years than in the previous 50. As buyers become increasingly self-educated, the sales role in many industries will undoubtedly diminish. How can organizations survive, let alone thrive in this new environment? In his excellent new book Rebirth of the Salesman, Cian McLoughlin provides a blueprint to guide us.

Jonathan Farrington Founder and CEO of Top Sales World Magazine

Besides being an experienced sales leader and consultant in his own right, Cian has been a business partner of Miller Heiman Global on the front lines doing exactly as he represents in his book...focusing on how the customer buys to inform how to sell. His insights here are grounded in facts and reality, not theory and mind-mush.

Rich Blakeman Managing Director,
MHI Global Channel Sales Centre of Excellence

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to you, the reader of this book, for your willingness to come on this journey with me. I hope we make good travelling companions.

Thank you to the colleagues, customers and co-conspirators I have worked with over the years, for helping to shape the salesman I became and the one I aspire to be.

Thank you to the Key Person of Influence community, especially Andrew Griffiths, for helping me to find my intersection, plot my course and set sail.

Thank you to Andrew Akratos and the team from Omne Publishing for their guidance and support in helping to bring this book to life.

Thank you to my friends and family in Australia, Ireland and elsewhere around the world, for the unwavering support and belief they have shown me.

A special thanks to my Mum and Dad for instilling in me a love of the written word and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Im proud to dedicate this book to my wife Shelley and my son Conor, who make it all worthwhile.

Why am I trying to become what I dont want to be when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.

Biff Loman, Death of a Salesman

F OREWORD

The world has changed, how we conduct business has changed and how we sell has changed. Seems pretty obvious doesnt it? But in reality, most individuals and organisations still use selling techniques from a bygone era and wonder why they arent working.

Then along comes Cian McLoughlin. Cian is a master sales trainer, specialising in business-to-business. He is leading the way in a world where most industries need to completely rethink their sales strategy and their overall approach to sales.

Every industry needs a person like Cian to challenge conventional thinking and be bold enough to ask the tough questions. Even more importantly, this person needs to provide an alternative future and that is what I took from his book, Rebirth of the Salesman .

In Rebirth of the Salesman , Cian starts by showing how important it is to rethink our approach to sales and explains the reasons why. His argument is extremely compelling and sets the scene for what lies ahead in this extraordinarily inspirational and practical book.

Cian achieves this by showcasing the character traits that are not normally talked about in sales conversations. Things like humility, imagination, curiosity and optimism. These are the topics we need to be talking about in all business conversations, not just in sales conversations. The fact that Cian has identified this, in a world where he is a leader, shows just how much the world has changed.

Another aspect of Rebirth of the Salesman that I find inspirational is the interviews with some of the most impressive sales thought leaders on the planet. An interview is only as good as the questions being asked and, once again, Cian shows how attuned he is to the evolving needs of the modern salesperson by the depth and intelligence of his questions.

This is a great book and Cian is one of the most impressive people I have met. I have been selling for over 30 years; I have sold everything from retail to corporate-to-corporate in over 20 countries. Ive long felt that the sales world was struggling to adapt and it has been well and truly disrupted, but with little response. A book like Rebirth of the Salesman has the potential to change individuals, which is exactly where the revolution needs to start.

Andrew Griffiths
International bestselling author/media commentator

I NTRODUCTION

Start with Why

People dont buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Simon Sinek Author, speaker, and thought leader

Im sorry, weve decided to go with Company X instead of you.
But thanks for all of your hard work.