Book Review: Selling is an Away Game – Close Business and Compete in a Complex World

Title: Selling is an Away Game – Close Business and Compete in a Complex World

Author: Lance Tyson

Description: Lance Tysons' focus and attention on the customer’s needs have allowed him to understand the best practices that go into his own sales routines. Selling is an Away Game is a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough on how you can take what he learned over years of practice on the ground level and implement proven techniques to better understand your own sales approaches. This book covers the importance of being conscious with your prospects time, intentional with your question asking, strict follow and timing of those questions in the meeting, and how what you ask will better uncover how your products/services can be a fit to solve your clients’ issues. You’ll be able to start implementing his techniques on your next client meetings even before you have finished the book!

Recommended By: Initially this book was brought to my attention from my friend and previous Director here at the Orlando Magic – Randy Wills. Since the book has come out, we have been able to have Lance Tyson’s Sales Training – The Tyson Group - at our offices with his head trainers. Where much of the teaching are around the foundations discussed in this book.

Three Key Takeaways:

-??????A sale is about selling something that solves a buyer’s problem or creates an opportunity. Sales are complex because no one has figured out how to make it simpler

-??????Salespeople need to follow a consistent, predictable, proven sales process that works. Steps below :

o??Connect - Qualify & Evaluate - Generate interest from buyer by asking questions to see where your product will benefit them. Bring out the 'Gap' between current and desired situations.

o??Evaluate - This is what the buyer is doing as they start to have an interest.

o??Diagnose - Start to address their doubts by establishing your capabilities.

o??Prescribe - Tailor the solution to their specific needs.

o??Dialog - Make sure the buyer understands what you are suggesting. Clarify and show more evidence specific to them. Find out where they are in the decision-making process.... Trail close, continuously.

o??Close - Agreement to move forward.

-??????Sales is all about artificial momentum, YOU have to create next steps, close, and get decisions (cut off the ones who can’t make those).

• ?Sales Outcome Triangle: Understanding, Rapport, Credibility.

How I have implemented in my life:

What I have incorporated the most into my processes is the importance of having a dedicated and consistent routine that I follow in all the different aspects of my business efforts. After reading this book and going through the in-person The Tyson Group trainings, I appreciate the intentions behind creating a flow to your dialog and engagements that work best for you. Your order and processes of things do not have to be perfect, but they do have to have reasons behind why you are deciding in that direction as your next steps. For example, this book goes into depth about the important around having a structured routine when you are in front of a prospect and have a beginning, middle, and end to your ‘presentation’ or ‘sale pitch.’ While that might be the traditional names for the conversations with clients, really it is about getting a better understanding and uncovering the ‘gaps’ from where that person is now and really where they want to be in the future. Then in an ideal scenario, how we can work together to help get them there.

To take that a few steps further, this book helped me realize the importance of having that same intentions around the other aspects to my job. As in, following a flow and pattern in my prospecting efforts, my outreach and touchpoint processes to get a prospective member to engage in our opportunities, the purpose of the initial time we connect on a call and the importance to set the next step with an in-person meeting. Which leads nicely into the layout Lance provides in the pages of this book to keep anyone on track for consistent and repeated results from following proven techniques.

Through my near decade in the sales side of the sports industry, I have grown to understand that you are not going to make a sale in every conversation you have nor will everything go according to your own structured plan. But in businesses it is all about giving yourself the best percentage changes to increase your odds and creating the processes from best practices is absolutely a way that has proven results in my career.

Purchase: Selling is an Away Game

Share Comments: Please feel free to share any comments or if you have also read this book and any other Key Takeaways that you picked up, now implement, or practice every day in your own life.?