I Rest My Case: A Practical Guide to Sales Situations

By Benjamin Tan

You found this book because you're looking for something—something to help you or your sales team to stand out.

Benjamin Tan, aka Cherry B, will give it to you in this guidebook for boosting results that includes eight common sales scenarios. The scenarios cover a range of industries, and each case includes background information and illustrations.

By revealing common mistakes (ones you make consciously and unconsciously), realizing the solutions behind those mistakes, and learning from real-life situations, the author helps you add value and stand out from the crowd.

Benjamin also emphasizes why it's so critical to have the right mindset, which involves solving a prospect's problem (even if that means bringing in another solutions provider). To do this, you must listen, react, and ask the right questions without following a mechanical process.

Other topics include determining if a lead is a real opportunity, building trust with prospects, owning mistakes, and making the most of follow-up opportunities.

Get the tools and insights you need to stand out from the crowd and become a trusted advisor to clients with the lessons in I Rest My Case.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Jan 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543749052

Benjamin Tan

When human beings experience waves of changes, it is not uncommon for their lives to unravel. Benjamin Tan's passion thrives on standing out from a pack of crowd by doing things uniquely different. Heavily involved in keynote speeches, sales workshops and sales boot camps, this very passion often surface itself in these events. Because he has been in the sales industry for more than twenty years, his exposure to various aspects of business has been vast—from being an end user to product management, direct sales engagements and vendor channel management. Now his next chapter expands to authorship. In all sales specialties, soft skills and product knowledge are important. It is also of vital importance that a sales professional be exposed to situational selling. The more exposure a salesperson gains, the better the salesperson will be. That is the belief that underlies this book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 Benjamin Tan, a.k.a. Cherry B. All rights reserved.

ISBN

978-1-5437-4904-5 (sc)

978-1-5437-4905-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018966717

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

01/26/2019

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Contents

Preface

How to Use this Book

Case 1: Information Gatherer

Case 2: It Slipped Somewhere

Case 3: The Trade Show Incident

Case 4: A Familiar Story

Case 5: Caught Off Guard

Case 6: If You Can’t Convince, Confuse

Case 7: A Retail Experience

Case 8: Forecast or Hopecast?

References

About the Author

Want a free Sales Readiness Assessment with full report sent to your email address?

By purchasing this book, you are entitled to a free Sales Readiness Assessment prepared by Benjamin Tan himself at absolutely no extra cost. In this assessment, you will be quizzed on areas relevant to today’s sales environment. Then you will receive an in-depth report with a breakdown analyzing your core foundational skills as a sales professional.

Get your free assessment at:

http://bit.ly/SalesReadinessQuiz

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Preface

To be a good salesperson, one must have multiple skills in today’s context: listening, questioning, presenting, overcoming objections, prospecting, relationship building, social selling skills, marketing know-how, time management, business acumen, and so on.

But to separate the good from the great, one must have the right mindset and the ability to react according to the varied circumstances that present themselves. The mindset must be to solve a prospect’s problem, even if that means bringing in another solutions provider. The skills must be flexible—listening, reacting, and asking the right questions without following a mechanical process.

I Rest My Case is written with two goals in mind for the reader:

1. to cultivate an open mindset to solve a prospect’s problem by genuinely listening and asking appropriate questions

2. to expose readers to various sales situations so that they get a different perspective while learning the logic behind mitigation of these scenarios

I endeavoured to make this book a practical, fun, relevant, and easy read. It offers eight sales scenarios that demonstrate our perspective on why certain things happen, as well as alternative ways of responding in those situations. The scenarios discussed cover a range of industries. The book is thus a suitable read for all sales roles.

Each case includes background information and illustrations that build the scenario, possible issues, and ways to mitigate those issues.

How to Use this Book

We urge you to read this book with an open mind, regardless of your years and level of sales experience. You should neither judge nor jump to conclusions while going through each of the case studies. The book serves to offer a different perspective, not to determine what is right or wrong.

After each background elaboration, we encourage you to derive your own perspective before continuing on to the next page. This allows for the development of logic and analysis in each scenario.

Each case study is divided into sections: a detailed description of the situation, the potential cause or causes that led to that particular situation, and possible remedies to mitigate the situation.

Consider reading this book from two different angles. The first is that of the salesperson who is at the center of all the case studies. The second is that of a coach, manager, or critique partner, so that you can model the ideas, approaches, and mindset needed to be a better sales professional.

This book can be used beyond a self-help level. It offers a very effective way to train sales teams on a company or team level. Organizations may use it during their team meetings to brainstorm best ways to handle certain situations, or it may be used in a kickoff or a training workshop.

Best wishes for every application you find for this book of practical case studies. We strongly believe it will bring you great knowledge and many self-revelations. It is our hope that I Rest My Case will continue to provide you with specific guidance as you reference the text throughout your career, whether you work as a manager, business owner, indoor sales representative, or field sales representative in any industry.

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Case 1: Information Gatherer