James M. Kouzes - Stop Selling and Start Leading: How to Make Extraordinary Sales Happen

Separately, I've admired Deb Calvert's outstanding sales book and blog and the legendary leadership writings of Kouzes and Posner. Together, they have found a chocolate meets peanut butter combination that is so needed for the sales profession in our current buyer's market and VUCA business environment. They havethrough researchvalidated an approach that has the potential to elevate the sales profession. Stop Selling & Start Leading is truly a roadmap for evolving seller behavior to radically transform your organization's sales results.

Mike Kunkle, VP of Sales Transformation Services for
Digital Transformation, Inc., a division of Fast Lane

The chasm between how buyers want to buy and how salespeople sell is a mile wide and seemingly impossible to cross. Until now. This book sheds much-needed light on how to ditch ineffective old-school selling tactics and adopt the leadership behaviors that buyers crave from today's sellers. Based on eye-popping buyer research and a proven leadership model, the authors present a clear roadmap for navigating the B2B sales process with integrity, credibility, and dignity for a true win-win experience.

Julie Hansen, author of Sales Presentations for Dummies and ACT Like
a Sales Pro!, speaker, founder, Performance Sales and Training

I'm a long-time fan of Kouzes and Posner's leadership expertise and Calvert's perspective on what it takes to succeed in sales. What a thrill to see them apply these proven leadership principles to professional selling! Stop Selling & Start Leading offers a powerful perspective on why sellers who lead well will thrive and then provides clear, practical guidance on how to gain credibility and respect that will move buyers to act. Read. This. Now. to set yourself apart from the typical, ineffective salesperson who is perceived as nothing more than a vendor/supplier.

Mike Weinberg, author of New Sales. Simplified and Sales Management. Simplified

Stop Selling & Start Leading is not the normal sales book, which is what makes it so powerful. Too many salespeople think sales is about techniques. High performance selling has little to do with technique; it's all about leadership. It's helping customers solve their problems, aligning the buying group, and helping them mobilize to take action. Great sellers are great leaderswith their customers and within their own organizations. Stop Selling & Start Leading is a thoughtful discussion about how salespeople provide this leadership. It focuses on the five practices critical for leadership, providing great case studies and lessons in each practice. Make these practices the core of your approach in providing great sales leadership.

Dave Brock, author, Sales Manager Survival Guide; CEO, Partners In EXCELLENCE

Stop Selling & Start Leading shows sellers precisely how to differentiate themselves from the pack and turn customers into clients for life. If you're looking for a way to break out of the traditional sales mode and become a valued member of your client's team, this book gives you the five steps to do exactly that.

Kendra Lee, author of the award-winning books The Sales Magnet and Selling Against the Goal; president of the KLA Group

Every leader, sales leader, and individual who wants a successful career in selling should read this book. What you'll discover is the liberating truth, backed by brand-new research that proves leading is the new selling. Stop Selling & Start Leading not only reveals new science behind how customers want to be sold, it tells you exactly how to do it. It contains insights that ascend sales process, and it supersedes old-school selling behaviors. For those who truly want the highest levels of success for themselves and their clients, I offer my highest recommendation.

James Muir, CEO, Best Practice International

In Stop Selling & Start Leading, the authors have delivered a beautiful masterpiece that is guaranteed to make you a more effective and respected sales professional.

Jeb Blount, CEO of Sales Gravy and author of SalesEQ

The authors start with a chapter on credibility, which in their view creates the foundation for leadership and selling. That's why their book simply rings true. You won't find an ounce of counterfeit data or advice. Exemplary research illustrated by wise practitioner stories makes for great reading and solid guidance. An instant classic for every B2B seller.

Barbara Weaver Smith, founder and CEO, The Whale Hunters

In today's world so much about sales focuses on processes, CRMs, and systems, when in reality the most important thing in sales is PEOPLEalways has been and always will. In professional selling PEOPLE buy from PEOPLE. Stop Selling & Start Leading's research with both buyers and sellers provides a treasure trove of information to help salespeople lead and sell more effectively and buyers to once again enjoy the experiencewhile their companies benefit with improved behaviors and better bottom-line results on both sides.

Debbie Mrazek, founder and president, The Sales Company

My favorite line in this book is super simple: The seller becomes a trusted advisor. The principles and steps required to achieve that level of buyer confidence are outlined in Stop Selling & Start Leading. Read it to make extraordinary sales happen.

Tom Hopkins, author of How to Master the Art of Selling and When Buyers Say No

If your customers don't see you as a leader, then they don't need you. The game of selling has changed, and the customer is rewriting the rulebook. Be seen as a leader or you won't be seen at all!

Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter, author of High-Profit Prospecting

The research supporting The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership is powerful. Buyers have spoken. They want sellers to stop using old-school sales tactics that make them feel unimportant. The authors clearly outline the behaviors buyers not only want, but so desperately need. Sellers who exhibit them and create value with every conversation will win.

Nancy Bleeke, author of Conversations That Sell

If you are in sales and not happy with your results or simply trying to achieve more, what behaviors are you willing to change? Stop Selling & Start Leading is a great read on how sales execs can make simple tweaks in their behaviors that will generate significant results. But it all starts with you taking the first step and reading this book, which I highly recommend.

Ron Karr, author, Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way

Copyright 2018 by James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner, and Deb Calvert. All rights reserved.

Published by The Leadership Challenge, a Wiley Brand

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.