The Art of the Sales Meeting receives a Kirkus Star

About 2 years ago, I made it a goal to write and publish three books to give back to a community that has impacted my life in countless positive ways.

But, in my wildest dreams, I never thought a book on sales meetings would get recognized like this. Earlier this week, I learned that my second book, The Art of the Sales Meeting, was awarded a Kirkus Star. The Kirkus Star is "one of the most prestigious and coveted designations in the book industry."

"Since 1933, Kirkus Reviews, the nation’s leading prepublication journal of book reviews has been known for holding books to the highest standards of excellence."

When I embarked on the journey to write my second book, The Art of the Sales Meeting, I dove deeper into an area of the sales process that is always used, but rarely inspected and almost never coached: communication.

Years ago as a consistent quota crushing rep, I would often be asked "What's your secret?" This same questioning phenomenon would happen every year as account teams would be named at a company wide awards dinner. Another SKO. Another city. The same question. Struggling reps and anxious sales engineers would corner me and wanted to know "What's your secret to getting to quota year after year?"

The question both irked and fascinated me, because I knew in my work that there wasn't a secret to becoming a Tech Sales Warrior. Every account team could do exactly what I and other Tech Sales Warriors do year after year. Dispelling the myth that only a few can attain quota is at the heart of my first book The Tech Sales Warrior and continues on with this second one. The work isn't easy and success is not guaranteed, but with practice and deliberate daily effort, the path to greatness is laid out for whoever chooses to accept.

Over a decade ago, when I left the world of acting and entered the world of tech sales, part of my initiation was to shadow more experienced tech sellers in their meetings. And what I discovered was a shock. Many sales meetings were boring and lacked purpose. I witnessed weak communication that ranged from timid to cheesy to verbose. How could sales reps and engineers consistently miss the mark so badly?

As my career progressed from cold caller to commercial sales to enterprise rep to manager and beyond, I discovered the answer. The bulk of sales training focuses on outbound prospecting or mastering some sort of sales process or framework.

And it's true. Focused daily prospecting is the foundation to your success. Without it, you have nothing. Following a sales process and sales framework are also vital to qualify, forecast accurately, and measure. Those are valuable skills, but the training is incomplete. It leaves out one of the most important things a seller faces: how to effectively communicate in a room. And this doesn't mean just speaking well. The lack of these skills is a huge problem that is too often overlooked.

Sales meetings are valuable opportunities that can change lives, but without skill or dedicated practice to tackle these critical moments, great opportunities can quickly become bad impressions, burned bridges, and missed quotas.

There is cure, however. I realized that the tools I had been trained in as an actor to craft a performance were the same skills that could create massive success in meetings. This does not mean you will be "acting" in front of your potential clients. But it does mean that mastering the same skills as a good actor will exponentially increase your ability to communicate effectively. And when you do that, your sales career can grow in ways that can be life-changing; both financially and in how you feel about your job.

I hope this book serves reps, engineers, and managers alike in the areas they need it. If it impacted you, your Amazon reviews are greatly appreciated and help spread the word!

Many thanks to my entire publishing team who helped transform this fun idea into a reality.

Check out the full Kirkus review for the Art of the Sales Meeting here.

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