The New Conceptual Selling – book review

The New Conceptual Selling: The Consultative Communication Process for Solution-led Selling by Stephen Heiman

We’ve just sacked our lead gen company. They are one of the best in the business. And I’ve worked with them for years. But for us, phone-led lead generation just isn’t working.

The effectiveness of this approach has been declining over the years. Even with the most engaging, most experienced, most informed callers, clients just aren’t responding. Why? Because their jobs have changed. They used to have to know who the best potential suppliers were and they needed to have an informed point of view. They would meet with agencies (I work in Adland) every now and again in order to benchmark their current providers, find out what is happening in the industry and sometimes because they liked a good lunch. But not anymore. They don’t have the time and they don’t feel the need. If they want a list of potential partners (or God forbid, ‘suppliers’) they can go online. If they want to keep up to date with latest thinking – guess what – they go online. Obviously they still need to eat – but Pret is more convenient than an afternoon at Rules).

If I’d really looked deep into my marketing soul, I’d have known that it wasn’t going to work. I’d already been applying the learnings from “The New Conceptual Selling” for some time. And this book makes it very clear that cold calling and product pitching – no matter how refined – is a busted flush.

The funny thing about this book is that you already know everything that is in it. You already probably do some of the things that it recommends. But you probably don’t organise your approach and then rigorously and systematically follow that approach.

If you are involved directly, or indirectly, in sales, then you need to have read this book.

I’m not going to review the whole book – but I will try to illustrate why I like it. In places it can be obvious (the “win-win” matrix) and leans towards buzz phrases such as “people buy for their own reasons, not for yours” and “beyond the Jell-O fling” – but I kind of like that. What it does really well is remind you of some core principles and then marshals them into an easy to apply approach.

It starts by reflecting on why we buy and elaborates on finding a win-win sale. The chapter called “Life Beyond The Pitch” talks about connecting a customer’s motivation with your product benefits before the book moves on to the specifics of making a sales call.

It rattles through a well proven process (What do I want the customer to do, why should the customer see me, do I have credibility and learning to listen) but most usefully illustrates these with a worksheet format to press home the ideas. The most interesting chapter is where the authors develop the idea of Joint Venture selling. It’s an approach that I have often referred to as making “simple stories, easy to buy”.

The book is an effective cross between theory and practice. At one level you might look at this and think it’s beneath you. But I’d urge you to give it a read. If it hones your approach – of those of you who work for you – by just 2%, then surely it has been worthwhile?

I’d be glad to hear your thoughts and also if you have read great books focusing on a similar area.

ISBN: 978-0-7494-6291-8