This book is written to serve the grossly underserved training and
development needs of those engaged in selling during their developmental
years. Much more than just another book about sales or selling, it
teaches the reader how sales professionals think and the methods they
utilize to succeed. It's chocked full of insight that only the most
well-informed and well-intended counselor can provide.
A soup-to-nuts offering, this book is Professional Sales Development
101 and 102. Written to mentor the reader through his/her developmental
years in the profession, it's a hands-on, experience-based document that
draws from the Author's expertise based on his more than 20 years of
success as a sales, sales management and executive sales management
professional.
This book is applicable to all sales disciplines. As such, anyone
interested in either building or honing their professional sales skills
will benefit from reading this book.
The premise behind the author's writing the book is that it provides
comprehensive mentoring support to the reader as he or she progress
through his or her developmental years. Therefore, the author is lending
his experiences and wisdom to the reader with the expectations that he
or she will come to fully appreciate, sooner rather than later: what it
will take to become a consummate sales professional; how and why he/she
must prepare and execute to achieve premier success in the profession;
what it will ultimately mean to the reader, his or her organization and
customers for he or she to become a consummate sales professional.
Reviews
''I recommend Bobby Butler's The Sales
Mentor to anyone interested in either becoming a sales
professional or to those of us already in sales who would like to
sharpen our skills and refresh our approach to oru profession. Bobby has
outlined a process that explores both the art and science of sales. His
book helps the salesperson plan, prepare, present, develop strategies,
build relationships and above all bring in the business. This book is
one of the most comprehensive books on the subject that I have read.''
Mr. Stephen R. Prout
Regional Vice President
Sprint
Communications
''I applaud you on writing your book! I found the contents
informative and encouraging. It is obvious that you love the subject of
selling and have had much success in this profession. You have so many
nuggets of wisdom to share with your readers. The conversational tone
used in The Sales Mentor reflects your role of coach and mentor
to the reader. Your willingness to share your insights and experience
comes through every chapter. The Sales Mentor could easily be
adapted to audio book format as well as a script for corporate training
purposes. Most importantly, it looks like you had fun writing the
book.''
Ms. Grace H. Staples
Vice President, Management
Consulting and Outsourcing
Hurshell Associates''Thank you for sending me your superb book...You can be very proud
of the end result of your book. It is easy to read and extremely
pragmatic, replete with sound suggestions and ideas with attendant
examples. Moreover, the box inserts enhance the presentation.
Additionally, the layout of the material has been done very well by the
publisher. Overall, the outcome is excellent. It should prove useful to
many professors who teach sales courses--either introductory or advanced
courses.''
Professor Alan J. Dubinsky
Visiting Research
Professor of Sales and Sales Management
Purdue University
''An excellent primer for all those individuals considering a sales
career or for the many who have suddenly found that a key component of
their job involves sales. This book will provide these novice
salespeople with a thorough understanding of how to manage the sales
process so that greater sales performance is achieved.''
Dr. Judy
A. Siguaw
J.Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship & Personal
Enterprise
Cornell University
School of Hotel
Administration
''As a professor in a Professional Sales program, I am constantly
reading sales oriented publications in an attempt to keep my classes
up-to-date and fresh. I have found that I tend to carry something
positive away from any sales book that I read. Of course, some are
better than others. The Sales Mentor by Bobby Butler is one of
the best books on selling that I have read. In fact, it is one of the
few that I have come across that is strong from start to finish. If you
are new to sales (or an experienced sales professional) and you are
looking for something to help you hone your selling skills, I recommend
that you read The Sales Mentor.''
Dr. C. David Shepard
Professor of Marketing & Director
Center for Professional
Selling
Kennesaw State University
The Sales Mentor: Professional Sales 101 & 102 for the
Development Years (Trafford Publishing), by Bobby Butler, is an
inspiring tutorial that opens the concept that ''selling is instinctive
to every human being.'' A thorough handbook for individuals in all
arenas of sales, it explains the do's and dont's of the entire sales
process: from mastering approaches and introductions, to the development
and completion of a sale, to every step in between. Discover the traits
and requirements indispensable to top-notch salespeople, how to
efficiently accomplish the ''three-way win,'' and how to create an ideal
time-management blueprint. CRM Magazine
Marketing Books - The Sales Mentor (Trafford
Publishing), by Bobby L. Butler: Thorough sales book with loads of
examples. This book is so comprehensive it should have been 2 books. If
you're in sales this book will give you more than one good idea.
Hispanic Marketing 101
From the Preface
My most basic philosophy regarding selling is that selling (or, the ability to sell) is instinctive to every
human being. I say this because I believe that selling goes deep into our innermost being as the need to
survive and the will to thrive. Therefore, the ability to sell is, in fact, at the core of human nature for each of
us.
To understand this philosophy one needs to fully comprehend that selling is nothing more than
persuading. As such, it is fundamentally the ability to 1) draw attention and 2) incite to action. In other
words, at its very essence selling is the ability to persuade others to get what you need.
To make my point here, let’s consider how each human being begins life persuading others. We do so
by examining how a newborn baby persuades to get what it needs. Consider the following statement:
“As you know and perhaps have experienced directly, every newborn baby has needs, and the
most fundamental of these are love, nourishment and comfort. However, with one exception
the newborn is virtually a helpless human being when it comes to meeting its own needs.
This exception is that all babies have a built-in mechanism—and in fact for the first few
months of life the only mechanism—to let a parent, guardian or caretaker know that it needs
to be loved, nourished and comforted. Therefore, it instinctively knows how to 1) draw
attention to itself and 2) incite its parent, guardian or caretaker to give it what it needs.”
From Chapter 3: Position Selection
Many of us who are tenured sales professionals today, and most that have previously pursued a
profession in sales, can attest to the fact that the position selection process is ultimately critical to our
success in sales. We also understand that for most the insight and skills necessary for working through this
process are generally not present either before the start of our careers or during the early stages. Here my
friend is the rub and a true paradox, because to possess the capabilities necessary for thorough sales
position selection, the professional must have knowledge of the profession generally and some
understanding of the specific sales position(s) that he will pursue. But because of inherent limitations
within the profession, he can only acquire such knowledge, experience and expertise through direct
exposure in conventional sales environments.
Why is this? The answers are simple.
First unlike other professionals, sales professionals are not generally prepared for their professions
with formal education, apprenticeship or vocational training. Rather, regardless of institutional venue or
format (high school, trade school, college/university), there are no curricula and few, if any, classes
dedicated to the sales profession. Generally, any sales or salesmanship training offered by these institutions
is offered at the college/university level, done on a limited scale, and usually offered only as part of a
marketing or general business curriculum. Therefore, little or no attention is given the sales profession in
pre-employment educational environments. Thus, unlike most other professionals (accountants, attorneys,
doctors, engineers or carpenters, plumbers), sales professionals are not educationally or functionally
prepared for their chosen field.
Second, in addition to the lack of pre-employment training, most sales professionals receive little or no
professional training and development support during employment. For those who do receive training in the
work environment, it is estimated that 90% of the training is only product-based and most of this training,
perhaps 60%, is rather simplistic. Therefore, most new or novice sales professionals are left to their own
devices when it comes to career development and have only two choices: 1) if they remain in the field long
enough, they learn their profession purely through trial and error, or 2) if they are wise, they seek training
and development support from external resources—usually at their own expense—while also learning,
perhaps to a lesser degree, from their mistakes.
I call this “the school of hard knocks” for sales professionals. This situation requires them to learn
basic survival skills in addition to gaining the experience and expertise necessary for career development
principally on their own.
From Chapter 19: A Winning Time Management Plan
If I were to sum up my concept of time management and how it relates and is important to each of us
as sales professionals, I’d do so by emphatically stating to you that when it comes to time
management, if you are not in control of your time, then, simply put, someone or something else is in
control of you.
While I am not sure if this statement means anything to you or not, at this point I want you to key on
the word “control” for when it comes to time management, control is essential. Let me explain this by
taking you through a series of questions.
Question 1: As a sales professional, looking back over the past few days, weeks, months, even years,
who or what would you say has been in control of you, your time, your effort, your sales day?
Provided you already have a winning time management plan, it is highly likely that your answer to this
question is that you were in control. And if that is the case, I applaud you because you will no
doubt already understand most if not all of what I will explain in this chapter. However, if you do not
already have a winning time management plan (and my assumption is that you don’t), it is likely that your
answer to this question is that someone or something else was in control, or perhaps he/she/it were in
control most of the time.
Question 2: Okay, then, assuming you are of the second camp, tell me how the lack of control has
affected or will affect your level of success.
If you are already in sales, my guess is that the effect has been negative. However, if you have not yet
begun your sales career, my guess is that you can only guess just how negative this can be to you. And if
this is the case, I recommend that you take this scenario outside of the sales environment and apply it to
what you are most familiar with—school, other work, sports, or parenting. You see, the principle applies
regardless of environment. You are either in control or you are not, and you are either
productive/successful or you are not. Get my point? I hope so.
From Chapter 20: The Three Way Win
Throughout my tenure in the profession I have found that most of the sales people that I
have worked with had little or no understanding of the principles behind the three-way winning philosophy.
Also, it has been my observation that this proved to be a great hindrance to those individuals’ successes in
the profession and their development as sales professionals.
In selling you must understand that, generally speaking, there are three principal parties
involved in every sales interaction which, in their own right, have vested interest in the outcome of the
interactions. Also, you must understand that it is incumbent upon you, as a sales professional, to ensure that
each of the principal parties engaged in your sales interactions win. Consequently, the three-way winning
philosophy is a sales philosophy that is predicated on the premise that in sales interactions, the sales
professional not only wins, but as importantly, so must his clients and employer.
Although this may appear to be a no-brainer for you, more often than not, the best of us truly must
learn the significance of this philosophy before we can effectively make it a key part of our success as sales
professionals.
Early in the sales profession Bobby L. Butler recognized a widespread
need. True, most salespeople learn their product well. But something
more important was missing: their development as consummate sales
professionals. Having sold tens of millions of dollars in goods and
services as a top-performer, he learned to draw from his own success to
create an indispensable set of professional sales development tools.
An insightful visionary, leader and developer, Bobby view instruction, coaching and mentoring as core managerial roles; an approach that he found most effective as he built and managed exceptionally successful organizations that, in total, produced hundreds of million of dollars in sales. He brings to every client relationship the wisdom and knowledge gained from more than two decades as sales professional, manager, executive, and entrepreneur.
Bobby is the author of The Sales Mentor, the definitive book
on professional sales development. He wrote the book to teach those who
are in their development years in selling how sales professionals think
and the methods they utilize to succeed in the profession. He also
authored Sales Producer, a time and territory management
workbook.
Bobby is President and Founder of Sales Mentoring Solutions, LLC. His firm provides answers to the problems that impact sales organizations and impede sales operations' productivity. It offers clients consulting, diagnostics, training, coaching and mentoring, and on-line automation solutions through its internal resources and strategic alliances and partnerships. It focuses on the functional components most critical to driving both revenue generation and business growth in your organization: sales, sales management, and leadership and customer service.
Web Site:
www.
salesmentoringsolutions.com
General Inquiries:
info@
salesmentoringsolutions.com
Contact Bobby:
blb@salesmentoring
solutions.com
Or Write:
47628 Loweland Terrace
Sterling, VA 20165
Ph:
(703) 406-2295
Fax: (703) 406-2695