Mike Schultz - Virtual Selling: How to Build Relationships, Differentiate, and Win Sales Remotely

VIRTUAL SELLING

PREVIOUS BOOKS BY THE AUTHORS

INSIGHT SELLING (Wiley, 2014)

What do winners of major sales do differently than sellers who almost win, but who ultimately come in second place?

Mike Schultz and John Doerr, bestselling authors and world-renowned sales experts, share the answer in Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently. Their findings are based on the study of more than 700 business-to-business purchases made by buyers who represented a total of $3.1 billion in purchasing power.

In Insight Selling, Schultz and Doerr outline exactly what you need to do to transform yourself and your team into insight sellers.

RAINMAKING CONVERSATIONS Wall Street Journal Bestseller (Wiley, 2011)

Conversations make or break everything in sales. Every conversation presents an opportunity to find new opportunities, win new customers, and increase sales.

In the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade, and Sell in Any Situation, Mike Schultz and John Doerr provide a proven system for leading masterful sales conversations that fill the pipeline, secure new deals, and maximize the potential of your accounts.

Based on research, decades of experience, and in-depth interviews with leaders of the most successful sales organizations, Rainmaking Conversations presents a guide to help sellers build rapport and trust from the first contact, uncover the full set of buyer needs, make a strong impact case, craft the best solutions, and close the deal.

VIRTUAL
SELLING

HOW TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS,
DIFFERENTIATE,
AND WIN SALES REMOTELY

MIKE SCHULTZ, DAVE SHABY, ANDY SPRINGER

FOREWORD BY JOHN DOERR

Virtual Selling:
How to Build Relationships, Differentiate, and Win Sales Remotely 2020, Mike Schultz, Dave Shaby, Andy Springer. All rights reserved. Published by 35 Group Press, Boston, MA

978-1-7348839-0-9 (paperback)
978-1-7348839-1-6 (ebook)
978-1-7348839-2-3 (audiobook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020907969

www.raingroup.com

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise whether now or hereafter known), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for insertion in a magazine, newspaper, broadcast, website, blog or other outlet in conformity with United States and International Fair Use or comparable guidelines to such copyright exceptions.

This book is intended to provide accurate information with regard to its subject matter and reflects the opinion and perspective of the authors. However, in times of rapid change, ensuring all information provided is entirely accurate and up-to-date at all times is not always possible. Therefore, the authors and publisher accept no responsibility for inaccuracies or omissions and specifically disclaim any liability, loss or risk, personal, professional or otherwise, which may be incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and/or application of any of the contents of this book.

Publishing consultant: David Wogahn, AuthorImprints.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

During my lifetime I have worked as an accountant (for only six months), copy writer, direct mailer extraordinaire (at least in volume), salesperson, senior sales executive, CEO, expatriate managing director, and entrepreneur. While all were important steps on my journey to eventually co-founding RAIN Group almost twenty years ago, perhaps the most enlightening chapter in my career history was that of publisher for a small business book press.

During that time, I had the opportunity to read hundreds of manuscripts from aspiring as well as established authors who were certain they had written the ultimate view of whatever sea change was at that time creating turbulence in the business world.

A few of those manuscripts were good, and I considered them briefly before finally passing on them. Many were superficial, and those ended in the bin. A very exceptional few brought clarity, insight, and value to the reader. I enthusiastically read those to the end and published them. In the process, I learned a great deal that helped me navigate those then present challenges and many future ones.

Today we are faced with another sea change of historical enormity: a pandemic crisis that has impacted every aspect of every life throughout the world. Of course, this, too, has resulted in a new surge of advice and guidance in the form of hastily thrown together articles, white papers and business books about how we should work in a virtual, remote, and geographically distanced economy. Most of these books, if I were still evaluating manuscripts, would join their brethren, from years ago, in the bin.

But not Virtual Selling: How to Build Relationships, Differentiate, and Win Sales Remotely. It was with great excitement and anticipation that I approached my first read of this dynamic book. I knew that Mike Schultz, my co-author of three earlier books, Dave Shaby, who I have had the privilege and pleasure to work with and whose career I followed closely for years, and Andy Springer, a brilliant student and practitioner of selling and the teaching of selling who I turn to whenever I need a creative and insightful view of the world of sales, did not throw this book haphazardly together overnight. I knew that their combined years of experience and their fresh insight into virtual selling would make this book a standout in a growing library of guides to virtual selling. What was going to happen anyway, had happened. But Mike, Dave, and Andy have already proven their track record and knowledge in virtual sales. That experience and acumen is what makes up Virtual Selling: How to Build Relationships, Differentiate, and Win Sales Remotely. For that reason, this is the book that sellers need the most right now as the pandemic raises many questions about the future of the art of selling.

Schultz, Shaby, and Springer use the RAIN Group Sales Competency WheelSM as a foundation to describe how the transition to virtual selling affects all aspects of sales from how best to sell value through the entire sales cycle, how to build relationships, how to understand the process of selling virtually, and how to provide leadership to a developing sales culture.

Throughout the book, the authors artfully show what steps of traditional selling will remain the same, and how the implementation of those steps will be radically different from live, in-person selling. Most importantly, the trio provide step-by-step guidelines showing you exactly how to adapt to the new conditions brought on by the growing changes in work habits in the last decade, as well as the overnight switch to virtual sales that were swept in on the pandemic. Their book discusses how to implement, how to adjust, and how to make virtual selling work for every seller who is open to this change.

Schultz, Shaby, and Springer provide detailed approaches to the new selling skills required when selling remotely. And it is not just about selling on the phone, which many have been doing for years, but rather using technology the right way so informed sellers can stand out from those who will stumble their way along thinking that virtual sales will just be a passing adaptation to a passing global crisis.