Scientific Selling: Creating High-Performance Sales Teams Through Applied Psychology and Testing

Scientific Selling: Creating High-Performance Sales Teams Through Applied Psychology and Testing

Released April 2012
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118167977

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Book description

A truly scientific approach to measuring and improving sales performance

Scientific Selling shows how statistically valid measurement can improve every element of the sales environment—from management to coaching to training to creating long-term sustainable sales results. Sales organizations that embrace applied psychology and testing become more competitive because they don't waste resources on irrelevant or counterproductive activities. Managers can better assess the reasons behind individual and group performance and predictably improve sales results, while fostering a sales culture that attracts and retains personnel who have the drive and motivation to be successful.

Scientific Selling includes more than a dozen specific stories demonstrating how scientific measurement improved overall sales performance through easily understood graphics, charts, and descriptions. It details how those teams were measured and how those metrics changed as the result of better hiring practices and better targeted coaching and sales training. Through these detailed case studies, Scientific Selling illustrates the importance of measurement for steering the success of your company. The book:

Describes how the Clark-Mortenson Agency used scientifically proven data-based assessment tools to provide individual sales professionals with a very specific overview to determine their current strengths and areas of growth

Examines Meadowbrook Golf's program to "manage for individual success" by using scientific testing and measurement to help its top managers understand what motivated their employees

Details how Yankee Candle used scientific measurement to identify the right people to hire, and then used customer case studies and role-playing to focus on leveraging each individual's natural behavior to sell, thereby creating increases of 40 percent in sales revenue for trained individuals

Scientific testing and measurement can leverage current strengths, identify areas for growth, and increase revenue. Chart your company's course through the power of Scientific Selling.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Foreword
  7. Preface
  8. Chapter 1: The Science of Selling
    1. The Changing Nature of Selling
    2. The Crisis in Sales Management
    3. The Advent of Scientific Selling
  9. Chapter 2: The Science of Behavioral Assessment
    1. Behavioral Assessment
    2. Behavioral Surveys
    3. Business Applications of Behavioral Science
    4. The Effectiveness of Behavioral Assessment
    5. How to Choose a Behavioral Assessment Method
  10. Chapter 3: The Science of Sales Skills Assessment
    1. The History of Sales Skill Assessment
    2. The Advent of Sales Process
    3. The Limitations of Sales Process
    4. Evolution of Sales Skills
    5. Limitations of Solution Selling
    6. The Selling Skills Assessment Tool (SSAT)
  11. Chapter 4: The Science of Hiring Sales Talent
    1. How Most Companies Hire (and Why It Fails)
    2. The Scientific Approach to Hiring
    3. How to Implement Scientific Hiring
  12. Chapter 5: The Science of Sales Training
    1. Why Sales Training Fails
    2. Why Sales Training Doesn't Get Measured
    3. Scientific Measurement versus Conventional Wisdom
    4. Applying Science to Sales Training
    5. Customizing Sales Training
  13. Chapter 6: The Science of Sales Coaching
    1. Sales Coaching and Behavioral Assessment
    2. Sales Coaching and Skills Assessment
    3. Cross-Cultural Aspects of Sales Coaching
  14. Chapter 7: The Science of Sales Management
    1. Reducing Sales Personnel Turnover
    2. The Right Job for the Right Person
    3. The Importance of an Upward Career Path
    4. Effective Use of Sales Technology
    5. Building a Culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
    6. What Is Creative Leadership?
    7. How to Implement Creative Leadership
    8. Fostering Entrepreneurship
    9. The Importance of Nonentrepreneurial Creativity
    10. Using Science to Manage Change
  15. Chapter 8: The Science of Sales Process
    1. Customer-Focused Selling
  16. Chapter 9: How Scientific Is It?
    1. What Makes Assessments Scientific
    2. The Predictive Index (PI)
    3. The Selling Skills Assessment Tool (SSAT)
    4. Studies of Behavioral Assessments
  17. Chapter 10: The Future of Scientific Selling
    1. Cognitive Science
    2. Human Analytics
    3. Predictive Analytics
    4. Neuroscience
    5. A Final Word
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: Scientific Selling: Creating High-Performance Sales Teams Through Applied Psychology and Testing
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: April 2012
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118167977