Book Review: Selling Change

Most people who have any sales training or experience understand the concept of selling benefits, not features. However, have you ever considered going beyond both of those and instead focusing on selling change?

I recently read “Selling Change” by Brett Clay. This is a book on (as you might have guessed) sales. However, rather than following some of the traditional sales models, this book elevates selling to a process of helping other people make the changes that they need to improve their lives or businesses.

Full disclosure: I met Brett Clay at a conference last year, and we have been friendly since. He’s a really great guy, and I’ll be honest: if I hated his book, I wouldn’t post a negative review. Fortunately, I don’t have that problem, because I really enjoyed his book and think there is a lot that anyone involved in selling anything can benefit from.

(For more information, you can listen to an audio of Brett interviewing me on the concept of applying improv comedy to business and life)

The Idea

The book’s primary message is that salespeople must look beyond talking about features, espousing benefits, and solving problems, and start helping customers “change.” It is a great way of re-framing the sales process in a way that leads to a consultive selling approach.

There’s quite a bit of information in the book. Brett covers, among other things,:

• The Change Leadership Framework, which explains what makes people change, how do they decide to change, and how they make those changes
• How to conduct a Force Field Analysis, where you understand all the forces affecting the customer.
• The Change Response Analysis, which is all about how the customer responds to the forces acting on them.
• Six personality types that respond to change differently
• The Power Analysis, where you figure out the effort involved in change (a critical understanding if you are going to expect someone else to make a change you want)
• Value Creation, which is the process of demonstrating the value of change to the client or prospect
• Change Actuation, where you actually put the change in motion.

There’s a lot more in there, and it’s all good stuff.

The Book Itself

The book is extremely well written and laid out. It Is made up of 107 “secrets for growing sales and leading change.”

Each secret is presented in exactly two pages, and is broken into three segments:

• What I need to know
• What I need to do
• Action summary

Two pages is not a lot of room, but somehow Brett manages to pack a lot of info in there. Many of the secrets cover deep topics, reference studies and research, or tell complete real life stories. That’s definitely a strong point: the balance between in-depth information and ease of reading.

Relation to Improv Comedy

What struck me is how many concepts in Brett’s book are similar to my approach of applying improv comedy ideas to business and life LINK.

Yes, this is a shameless plug for my own book too...

We both address change. The difference is, my work focuses on how you deal with unexpected change quickly and effectively. Brett addresses how you can be a leader of change. Actually, his point is that if you want to succeed in today’s world, you must be a change leader. Then he explains in detail how to do it.

In my presentations, I talk about how change is inevitable, and how, to be successful, you can’t whine about it, you have to learn how to react to and flow with it. Brett takes it even a step further by saying, “opportunity only comes with change.”

Makes sense when you think about it. If you are sitting there doing the same thing day after day, waiting for opportunities to come along, you’re in for a long, struggling life. If you want to move ahead, you need to create change, both for yourself and others.

I believe if you read Brett’s book in light of some of the improv ideas I talk about in my book, blog, and presentations, you will get even more out of it.

Yes And

The greatest similarity between Selling Change and improv comedy comes in the form of improv’s idea of saying, “Yes, And.”

(If you are unfamiliar with the idea of “yes, and,” in improv comedy there is a simple rule: “say ‘yes, and’ instead of ‘yes, but.’” For more information on “yes, and,” as well as 4 other improv principles, check out my blog post, The Step by Step Process to Improvising With Anything)

At its core, “yes, and” is about making change. “Yes, but” is about resisting change. If you want to find the opportunity that only comes with change, you have to be willing to say “yes and.” If you want other people to invest in your services and products, you must move them to change by getting them to adopt a “yes, and” mindset.

In Conclusion

There really is a wealth of knowledge here, and it may seem overwhelming, especially for someone who is looking for a simple, “1-2-3 system” to sales success. Personally, I prefer a lot of information that explains both the “how and “why.” In fact, to be able to implement the “Selling Change” method, I believe you have to have a deep understanding of the ideas along with a willingness to work the process.

But that’s the point; transactional selling is being taken over by websites. To be able to offer real value to a client, we must help them change, and in order to do that we need a deep understanding of both the client and the change process. “Selling Change” gives plenty of information on how understand both of those things, and then gives action steps for what do with that knowledge.

If you are looking for a smart, in depth, and effective book on sales (or, frankly, a good book that analyzes what makes people change and how you can leverage that information), then I heartily recommend you pick up, “Selling Change.” You won’t be disappointed.

Buy it on Amazon:

Selling Change by Brett Clay

(Disclaimer: yes, that’s my Amazon affiliate link, so if you buy it from there I make something like $1.32…)

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Learn the 16 simple but powerful principles that will lead to personal and professional success! In this 200 page book, Avish explains how the ideas from improv comedy can make your life easier and more successful. Check it out Improvise to Success! now!
 

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By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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