In the heat of battle, when times get really tough in business, when a doctor doesn't know what to do next, when the rope breaks on the way down the mountain, most of resort to hope. Hope is not a bad thing. It is defined by most dictionaries as, “The feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.” It is akin to wishing, but with more weight to it. However, before things get out of hand and while still in the planning process in business, hope should not be considered. It is an end thing and not a tool to utilize as part of a business strategy. That is one of the points that Rick Page is trying to convey in his timeless sales strategy book, Hope Is Not a Strategy: The 6 Keys to Winning the Complex Sale. We all know that business begins with selling. If we can’t turn people into prospects, we can’t convert them to customers, and we can’t do any of this without first being good at sales. I found Hope Is Not a Strategy to be more a book about what could actually kill all hope of closing a sale than of one that gives hope to salespeople. In other words, it is a down-to-earth book of classic mistakes that are made that is sure to leave salespeople with nothing left but hope except that Page tells you the right way to handle particular situations. Though written for selling high-tech, complex products and services, the information is applicable to any business.

I. Use Your Radar

Page uses acronyms throughout the book and one that sticks out is RADAR which stands for Reading Accounts and Deploying Appropriate Resources. It is not enough for us to simply call on a client, show them our signage products or services and have them sign on the dotted line. We must first uncover where the client is feeling pain (Reading Accounts), striving to understand what we can provide for solutions and remedies. It is the customer who decides what we sell them. Our job is to present possible options (Appropriate Resources) and follow up making sure they are satisfied. Key Point: Keep your sales strategy simple: Listen for what the customer needs; link solutions to those needs; and present back to the customer the suggested solution.

II. Get Repeat Sales

In the second chapter of Hope Is Not a Strategy, Page discusses the issue of account management and repetitive selling. He stresses that the gateway to repeat business and account management is performance. Without a strong performance record with the customer, that customer will look elsewhere. Unless you exceed the expectations of most clients and delight and excite more than a few, you will not build a foundation of customer loyalty. The goal is to continually deepen your client’s dependence on you. Key Point: The work is only just beginning after the sale is made. It is now time to roll up our sleeves and work like a dog to keep the client.

III. Have More Arrows in Your Quiver

In one point of the book, within chapter four, Page offers an interesting perspective. It is so obvious, but many of us in sales tend to miss it. Page says, “There is no single vendor who has everything the client needs. At this point, the power of your capability is only as good as the political power of the client sponsor who wants it – or the magnitude of the business problem that it solves.” In other words, our biggest competitor is often “no action.” Page says that different levels of selling require different methodologies and talent. Depending on your size and solution, you may have people in all roles on a sales team or you may be a one-person sales force. In any case, take every opportunity to learn new selling techniques and customer service strategies. Key Point: Of course you can’t provide everything for the customer, but you can team up with other sources and vendors and offer them to your client. The point is to keep the customer for life and being able to offer what the client needs is one way to do that. Hope Is Not a Strategy is a good sales book that provides a unique way at looking at the selling process. It offers great insights into developing a sales strategy that relies more on your selling with confidence rather than relying simply on hope.

Johnny Duncan, President of Duncan Consulting, Inc., is a business writer and consultant partnering with business leaders to provide workforce management solutions including leadership coaching, customer service training, people-to-job matches, copywriting, and conflict resolution. He can be reached at johnny@duncanconsult.com or by calling 407-739-0718.