I must admit that I never thought I would read a business book that I couldn’t put down. My reading style is very traditional in that I love to write notes in the margins and underline important points. Well, I knew after reading and highlighting the first few pages of Donal Daly’s latest book, Digital Sales Transformation | In a Customer First World, I had found my new go-to book!
In his new business thriller, Donal states that “Customers need help. As the world increases in complexity, customers struggle to prioritize their growing list of business pressures. The imperative to make decisions and act quickly creates tremendous anxiety. There is extra-ordinary opportunity for the Customer First salesperson who seeks above all to solve the customer’s problem, understanding that the impact on a customer of a poor buying decision is usually greater than the impact on a salesperson of a lost deal.” This concept resonates with me as I am constantly reflecting on the ever-changing paradigm of the customer-salesperson relationship.
Historically, we have seen a more transactional buy-sell relationship, but over time the salesperson has morphed from a “means to an end” to a valued, trusted advisor and partner. Through extensive research, Donal describes in detail the kind of practical advice that we all need to delight our customers and create long lasting, loyal relationships. He goes beyond just giving advice, and he provides us with hands-on processes and metrics that we can modify to our own business situations.
In Chapter 6: Relationships: The Buyer’s Perspective, Donal describes the importance of “mutual authentic engagement between buyer and sellers, founded on trust and respect, guided by shared values in pursuit of shared goals.”This engagement is what our customers deserve and what the modern salesperson must embrace. Collaboration, innovation, and inspiration are no longer “nice-to-haves” in building rapport with our customers. They are MUST haves.”
If you want to stay relevant and compete in the ever-changing Digital economy where we are served infinite amounts of data on a daily basis, then I highly recommend this book… and dare I say, it is a thriller of a read as well! The good news is you can find it on Amazon http://a.co/4QdHJq2 and download it now, or if you are a traditionalist like me, you can order your hard copy, too!
