The Mind of the Customer How the World's Leading Sales Forces Accelerate Their Customers' Success

Reinvent the Sales Process in Your Own Organization "Today's sales professionals have to find a way to contribute to their customers' ability to satisfy their own customers and achieve their critical business goals." --Dale Hayes, Vice President of Sales, UPS"The old world of buying them a scotch and having a great dinner is not enough.... The speed of change, the availability of information to your customers, and aggressive global competition has produced a new playing field." --Rick Cheatham, Sales Director, Information Processing & Systems Division, Avery DennisonLet the world's best sales forces show you a new way of selling that redefines success. Today's competitive edge belongs to the salespeople who deeply understand their customers' businesses and who accelerate the rate at which their customers realize tangible business results.The Mind of the Customerexplores the ways leading companies like UPS, Toyota, Nokia, and others achieve exceptional performance. The book builds on the proven performance-improvement training techniques of The Real Learning Company to supply sales and marketing professionals with a dynamic, straightforward plan to: Improve profitability Raise productivity Increase customer satisfactionRich graphical models illustrate key concepts, while contributions from industry leaders provide eye-opening perspectives on how sales in changing--and how you can create competitive advantage amidst that change.

Richard Hodge founded the Real Learning Company in 1994 after holding both sales leadership and other executive roles in global companies, where he worked with customers who included half of the Fortune 500. He helped to develop new technology categories and worked with Lexus, UPS, Genentech, American Express, and others to implement new breakthrough strategies.

Lou Schachter is senior vice president for design and development at the Real Learning Company. Before joining the Real Learning team, he wrote learning programs for salespeople at a variety of companies, including Cisco and Merck. Previously, Lou helped lead the fast growth of a specialized communications firm.