Major Account Sales Strategy

by Neil Rackham

An Arsenal of Shrewd Tactics and Winning Strategies to Make You a Major Account Sales Success Knowing how to get to the decision maker, deal with the competition, understand buyer psychology, and service the client--these are the keys to success when you need to nail down major accounts. Now, for the first time, here's a book of practical, proven-effective strategies and tactics for the entire major account sales cycle. Based on Neil Rackham's exhaustive research, the strategies you'll find here will enable you to . . .

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Author of the Spin Selling. Find out more about Spin Selling at http://www.huthwaite.co.uk/training-s...

Reviews

[Bryon Brandt]

I'm still learning to be the Salesman I want to be, and this book helps that journey.

[Dave Harding]

One of the top 3 Sales Books Ever

The others are SPIN Selling and Miller Heimann Strategic Selling. I am certain that, like the other 2, I will be using this as a reference book throughout my career.

I guess that the only qualification is that the focus is high value B to B sales.

[Henry_guo1982]

Successful sales always start with good understanding of what customers need and what you can offer them. From my personal start-up experience, I recognize if your company can't get traction from customers and sell well no matter what you have tried and how many sales people you have churned, it probably means your product fundamentally doesn't address a strong enough pain-point of the customer. In author's word, the company failed in the recognition of needs phase.

In a highly competitive market with all similar products, the story is quite different. It's obviously fortunate to be at an industry leader with strong hard differentiators. What sales people need to do is really to work hard and call as many customers as possible. To them, with handy credentials, loss of any significant business means an unacceptable failure. For the 2nd/3rd tier underdogs, however, one focus and strategy in the evaluation of options phase and the resolution of concerns phase is to get involved as early as possible in the process so that they can have more time and leeway to influence customer's decision criteria from hard to soft differentiators where they have better chance to compete and win.

This is an excellent book about big account sales with clear and systematic approach.

[Al]

A very good book on understanding on how to sell. It goes into the phases a customer looks into when purchasing a good or a product and meticulously explains do and don't when approaching and talking to buyers.

Or as the book summarizes

'Effective strategy isn't about grand design, it isn't about grand tricks its about having a thorugh understanding of your customers and the concerns which they have at each
phase of a sale. You can use a logical understanding of customers behaviors to anticipate your customers concerns and to respond to them effectively then thats all the strategy. You need to be successful in major sales'

Rereads are recommended for those in sales.

[Sebastian]

There aren't many books that get into account selling at this depth, so this is pretty much reference material.
It gets a little technical, like a textbook at points. Parts of the framework might be dated now, as the world has vastly changed since it was published almost 30 years ago.
Nonetheless, a great sequel to SPIN selling that gets into more depth wit strategy into those major accounts successful B2B sales people have to focus on.

[Chris Conger]

Had to read this for work, it sucked.

There’s some good nuggets of information here and there, but a sale is not something you can quantify or describe perfectly every time. Each sale is different, and trust me he loves to bring up that fact any chance he can get.

There are so many “personal” stories in this that somehow magically relate to whatever he’s talking about, it makes me think he’s talking out of his ass.

Good sales theory, bad author, stick to the research buddy.

[Trent Langley]

If you’re moving from SMB into either the Mid-Market or Enterprise space, this is the book for you.

While some of the materials/examples may be dated, the strategies in here are still relevant today. It’s all about managing relationships and expectations within strategic organizations.

This and SPIN Selling should be required reading for any sales program out there.

[Brian Ambrosini]

Good strategy

Not too relevant for me right now but I can see myself going back to.this once I take an enterprise role

[Henrik Christensen]

Sound advices, easy to follow - but hard to implement in real life :-)

[Tanveer Afzal]

Thank You Neil Rackham

Can't wait to implement the lessons on my next prospects and customers follow-ups.
One of the most insightful readings to have come across so far.

[Toni Kokkonen]

Fantastic for people working in complex sales with long sales cycles. Definitely not an easy or particularity fun read, pretty close to a university class book covering tight facts without too much fillers other than examples of utilizing the covered topics.

The book mainly goes in detail about the sales cycle of selling big deals to major accounts: uncovering decision criteria, finding decision makers, searching for dissatisfaction and trouble followed by the major parts of recognition of needs, evaluation of options, resolution of concerns and implementation of the solution.

A great follow up to spin selling. Full of examples and lots to think about.

[Cristian]

Great reading to understand all the stages of the sales process. Really good insights, examples and cases to reflect upon different scenarios. Neil Rackham must be the best author on this subject and his has a vast experience in sales which makes him an authority to learn from.
100% recommended also because you can start applying this methods straight away.

[Kristen]

Great tool for Sales Strategy

[Stephen]

Read MAR 2002

[Michael Weening]

One more for my "Top 5". If you are in complex sales or in an outside sales role, this rather dry book is foundational to your success helping you understand the real buying cycle.

[Zakaria Nabil]

Bible for complex sales