Espresso Insight

If you want to learn as much about sales as quickly as possible, I would tell you to do 4 things:

4 things to do if you want to get into sales

1. Watch the Jordan Belfort video “sell me this pen”. He shows that its not about the pen – it’s about the person buying the pen. Ask the person questions about themselves to uncover whether or not there is a sales opportunity. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbQPxhIcFaQ
2. Read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The book teaches you how to speak in terms of the other person’s interests and see things from their angle. This is a critical skill for sales. You can see my notes from the book here.
3. Read the book SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham. Again, it teaches you how to ask great questions as a sales rep. I found the part on Implication Questions to be extremely useful for B2B sales.
4. Understand B.A.N.T. to qualify a sales opportunity. The acronym stands for budget, authority, need, timeline.

The above resources will give you an excellent head-start to begin a career in sales and work towards becoming a great sales rep. There is always room for improvement, so never stop learning.

Bonus stuff to become a great sales rep

Below are a few other things that I’ve found valuable.

Particularly for B2B sales, lookup MEDDPPICCC —Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Paper process, Identify pain, Champion, and Competition.

Top 6 Books that made me a better salesperson

• SPIN Selling
• How to win friends and influence people
• Sandler Selling
• The charisma myth by Olivia Fox Cabane
• The quick and easy way to effective public speaking by Dale Carnegie
• Never split the difference