Year-End Shout Outs, Part 2

Writing a book is much more difficult than you might imagine. Even the most optimistic, enthusiastic, seasoned authors struggle at times to bring all the pieces together. It takes time, commitment and resilience to make it happen.

This book, Stop Selling & Start Leading, presented all the usual challenges plus a few that were new to me. That's why I wanted to pause today and reflect on all that's gone into this work and to give a shout-out to the people involved in bringing it to life.

Extra Challenge #1 -- Conducting, compiling and analyzing the research studies that included 530 B2B buyers. They represented a variety of sectors and industries, a cross-section of demographics and buying experience levels, and a range of company sizes. It was an extensive panel study conducted through Qualtrics and Santa Clara University. Merely reading through the volume of comments was daunting at first.

Huge shout-out to every single one of the buyers who participated in our study and answered all those questions thoroughly. Your insights and explanations revealed fascinating finds for the sales profession.

Extra Challenge #2 -- Perhaps we're gluttons for punishment. We dove back in to do more research, this time with sellers. We invited sellers to share their own personal-best stories in narrative form. Our question was simple: Tell us about a time when you were at your personal best in selling. The response was phenomenal, and we had over 500 stories to read and analyze. Step one was to find out whether seller successes lined up with buyers' claims that they would buy more often from sellers who exhibited certain behaviors (they did!). Step two was to select 25 stories to represent these behaviors in our book -- that was really tough because there were so many great stories.

To every seller who contributed a story, major shout out! We read every word, evaluated every conclusion you drew, and considered all the implications of your actions when you were at your personal best.

Extra shout out to the sellers who contributed stories we selected for print. We greatly appreciate the time you spent going through the editing process with us and giving us permission to share your stories. They really help to bring the buyer research to life and illustrate this behavioral blueprint for sellers. Thank you to:

Amy Spellman, Adam Luckeroth, Audrey Morrison, Brian Snider, Cam Johnson, Dan Olexa, David Richman, Debby Camalo, Dennis Narciso, Dianna Geairn, Haley Katsman, Jane Gentry, Joey Nanai, Judith Cervone, Kyle Hullmann, Lemna Parker, Leon Toon, Morris Abell, Patrick Fariss, Phil Gerbyshak, Robert Lehrer, Steve Fortin, Steve Griffiths, Ted Heiman, Vernon Hills

Extra Challenge #3 -- Writing a book alone is really hard. Writing a book with two of the world's most highly-esteemed business authors... people you look up to, admire, and respect tremendously... that's all the more difficult even when they do everything imaginable to make it easy. Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, famous for their extensive work including The Leadership Challenge, were my co-authors. They were wonderful to work with -- patient, kind, ego-less, and supportive every step of the way. Their work in determining The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership? was the springboard for our research and led us to the behaviors that buyers respond to favorably to in sellers. "Shout out" doesn't fully capture the depths of my gratitude for this opportunity to work with and learn from them.

Extra Challenge #4 -- This is much more than a book. It's become a movement. Sellers at conferences clamor to come to my sessions about this (SRO at every event this year!) and have enthusiastically followed up to learn more. Why? Because knowing precisely what to do in the age of empowered buyers helps a lot more than theoretical content or rehash of yesteryear approaches. What's more, sellers appreciate being ennobled and seen as leaders. They find dignity in these findings and pride in stepping into the behaviors of exemplary leaders that buyers respond to.

The challenge is getting the word out. I run a rapidly-growing company, juggle an incredible client list, and have a lot of side gigs like The Sales Experts Channel... plus a special needs child and family commitments I wouldn't give up for anything... And life consumes a lot of time. Enter in the 218 power supporters who are helping promote Stop Selling & Start Leading. Sales authors and speakers and colleagues who read and reviewed the manuscript, are posting on social media and sending emails to their own followers, plus those who are selling bulk orders to their own clients. Podcasters and bloggers and sales tech companies who are also helping sellers in every corner of the world have taken an interest in the work we've done. It's incredibly humbling and, here again, a simple shout out only scratches the surface. My appreciation for their support surpasses my ability to find the words that would adequately convey it.

Extra Challenge #5 -- Our publisher, Wiley, is experiencing the same disruptive change that all publishers face. Authors today are expected to do a lot more of their own marketing and promotion. That's a challenge in and of itself. The supporters I mentioned above are helping tremendously. And so are you.

I posted this article a few weeks ago about how it helps authors when you place pre-orders for books that aren't even available yet on bookshelves. The questions, comments and orders received have been incredible. We have sales goals to reach before the official release date. Every single order counts. You're helping to ensure that this book will be available in larger quantities and in more places when it is released on March 5.

You also deserve a shout out for your curiosity and interest. I've had more deep dive discussions with strangers this month than ever before in my career. These findings really resonate with sellers, and I'm honored by your affirmations and your advance purchases. Please keep them coming, and please let me know what you want to know more about. It feels, to me, like we're all in this together, revolutionizing the world of selling and taking bold steps into the future.

If you would like more information about the book or the movement to Stop Selling & Start Leading, let's talk! Single copies are available for pre-order at deeply discounted prices on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-a-Million. Bulk orders placed by mid-February come with extended learning packages -- speaking, webinars, coaching, training -- to meet your teams' needs. You can find more about those on our web page or by emailing me directly at [email protected]