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Proactive Selling: Control the Process-Win the Sale
Provides selling tactics that help keep the buyer in mind when closing any deal.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2003
74 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
William "Skip" Miller
7 books11 followersWILLIAM "SKIP" MILLER is president of M3 Learning, a sales development company. He is the author of ProActive Selling and ProActive Sales Management.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 1, 2020
Lots of great takeaways, and for an educational book, I definitely learned a lot. Some of the tactics and best practices are a bit outdated. Overall glad I read it and an important read for sales roles.
December 10, 2018
Skip revisits the concepts of looking at buyers in two categories - business buyers and technic buyers. By no means does he say that one is more important than the other, but the idea is to not just focus on one. He focuses on the ATL buyers and ways to put some learnings in your approach.
October 5, 2020
Good action based approaches.
Great read, concise and timeless advice.
Will be a book that I will re read and study.
If you are starting out in sales, this book will give you plenty of kick starts. If you are a seasoned pro, the book will be a refresher.
Great read, concise and timeless advice.
Will be a book that I will re read and study.
If you are starting out in sales, this book will give you plenty of kick starts. If you are a seasoned pro, the book will be a refresher.
December 15, 2023
Definitely a good read to get some clarity and tools for your sales process.
It helped me understand better how to structure my process, and where does the meddpicc training I got at work fits well within the process.
It helped me understand better how to structure my process, and where does the meddpicc training I got at work fits well within the process.
November 16, 2017
Very practical book.
July 17, 2019
One of my favorite sales books
December 21, 2019
The fist sales book I read, and one of the best. The key in this book was “proactive” sales, and this mentality has helped me so much ever since in my carrier
January 4, 2020
Best book for SDRs and AEs. The most practical sales book of all.
January 13, 2020
Very practical
January 2, 2021
Helpful but not the best
September 21, 2014
Proactive Selling; Control the Process – Win the Sale by William Miller
Not all buyers behave the same way is the main idea behind this book. Miller wants the sales force to understand that there is no cookie cutter pattern to achieving great sales results because buyers are individuals and need to be treated like individual buyers.
Divided into eleven chapters covering topics like having the right tools at the right time, beginning and ending every sales call, educating customers, closing the sales deal, applying proactive selling techniques, and managing the proactive selling process.
All of this information seems common sense to me but I understand why books like this exist. Selling products to people requires a great understanding of what motivates people to buy stuff. If somebody who does not know the product line well serves me, why would I buy that product from that sales person? If I want to buy some product and the salesperson could not be bothered in assisting me, then why would I continue to shop there? If a seller who is trying to push a particular line of products and not listening to my wants approaches me, then why would I buy anything? If I have a sales person who is concerned about what I want and the best product that will fulfill my needs and wants, then I will probably do business with them because they have proved themselves good sales staff.
Miller coaches the reader through the intricacies of making the sale from the sales staff point-of-view. There are numerous examples of how the sales staff can fall down and lose the sale and how the sales staff can correct those mistakes to ensure the successful sale.
Reading sales book is not my idea of fun but I did find the information contained within to be useful.
Happy Reading,
Not all buyers behave the same way is the main idea behind this book. Miller wants the sales force to understand that there is no cookie cutter pattern to achieving great sales results because buyers are individuals and need to be treated like individual buyers.
Divided into eleven chapters covering topics like having the right tools at the right time, beginning and ending every sales call, educating customers, closing the sales deal, applying proactive selling techniques, and managing the proactive selling process.
All of this information seems common sense to me but I understand why books like this exist. Selling products to people requires a great understanding of what motivates people to buy stuff. If somebody who does not know the product line well serves me, why would I buy that product from that sales person? If I want to buy some product and the salesperson could not be bothered in assisting me, then why would I continue to shop there? If a seller who is trying to push a particular line of products and not listening to my wants approaches me, then why would I buy anything? If I have a sales person who is concerned about what I want and the best product that will fulfill my needs and wants, then I will probably do business with them because they have proved themselves good sales staff.
Miller coaches the reader through the intricacies of making the sale from the sales staff point-of-view. There are numerous examples of how the sales staff can fall down and lose the sale and how the sales staff can correct those mistakes to ensure the successful sale.
Reading sales book is not my idea of fun but I did find the information contained within to be useful.
Happy Reading,
October 13, 2014
Some context: I read this book when I was brand new to B2B sales coming from a B2C sales background.
Skip Miller does a great job in this book by breaking down different ways (trains) people can find problems organizations are having with respect to your products' offering. His unique approach gives a lot of insight into problems salespeople face every day when speaking to different executives in an organization. There are lots of practical and actionable take aways from the book which have helped me in my career and I highly recommend this book to improve your sales efficiency (even if you're a seasoned exec you can learn lots).
Skip Miller does a great job in this book by breaking down different ways (trains) people can find problems organizations are having with respect to your products' offering. His unique approach gives a lot of insight into problems salespeople face every day when speaking to different executives in an organization. There are lots of practical and actionable take aways from the book which have helped me in my career and I highly recommend this book to improve your sales efficiency (even if you're a seasoned exec you can learn lots).
April 19, 2014
Surprisingly relevant information for me despite my intention to never be a sales person. Some good stories in here, too.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews