Dealstorming

Book excerpt: "The bestselling author of Love Is the Killer App unveils a methodology that sales managers and account executives can use to solve their team's toughest problems by combining the wisdom and creativity of everyone who has a stake in the sale. B2B sales reps often find that their deals get stuck at a crucial point in the decision-making process. This book is Tim Sanders's guide to breaking through the resistance and getting the deal unstuck using a scalable, repeatable process that he calls "Dealstorming." By including a diverse group of individuals in the organization who has a stake in the sale, questioning existing assumptions, and channeling the collective experience of the group, sales teams can uncover creative solutions to closing otherwise impossible deals. In Sanders's experience as a sales executive and consultant, utilizing this process has led to a stunning 70 percent close ratio. Take, for example, the way Alyssa Wichman of CareerBuilder used dealstorming to break a deadlock with staffing firm Allegis. When she found out that Allegis was sponsoring a golf tournament to raise money for their favorite nonprofit, she and her team sat down to come up with ways to meet the Allegis executives there, going so far as to take over manning a beer cart on the course to speak with the execs on the ninth hole. They were impressed she'd gone to such lengths to have a few minutes with them, so they agreed to a meeting the following week. "--