I will (and believe can) summarise Insight Selling by Mike Schulz and John Doerr with a few quotes.
I managed to get halfway through the book. Concurring with Naval Ravikant who does not read business books as ‘they are very simple ideas wrapped up in a lot of pages’. I also agree to not read books that are not keeping your attention.
[Insight selling]
“Helps buyers make the best choices (connect: dots)
Strengthens your relationship (connect: people)
Builds trust (convince: minimum risk)
Helps the ROI and risk reduction cases-making process (convince: maximum return and minimum risk)
Differentiates you from the sellers who don’t do this (convince: best choice)It’s clear that sales winners sell radically differently than second-place finishers and that the value of the insight that sellers bring to the table is the key. However, the question remains, How—exactly—should a seller and an organization implement insight selling?”
And this goes on and on.
“Three legs of the Value Proposition Stool
– Buyers have to want and need what you’re selling. You as the seller have to resonate.
– Buyers have to see why a seller stands out from the other available options. You have to differentiate.
– Buyers have to believe that a seller can deliver on their promises. You have to substantiate.”
Quite a couple of sections further down the book.
Key Takeaways
- The collection of reasons why people buy typically fall into three major buckets that, in sum, forms the value proposition: resonate, differentiate, and substantiate.
I really gave up here (almost halfway through the books) at these common places:
Key Takeaways
- Connect with people: Sellers with personal connections already developed with buyers find the door is open to provide business value.
- If personal connections don’t already exist, then build them to lay the foundation for trust and open the door to providing maximum business value.
- The more trust you build, the more buyers are open to gaining insight from you.
Very simple ideas is one, but stretching them out over haf a book volume is a waste of space.