The Lost Art of Closing: Winning the Ten Commitments That Drive Sales

Iannarino (The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need) devotes this energetic guide to mapping a softer, gentler path to effective selling for B2B salespeople. As he reminds readers, salespeople have traditionally focused on the aggressive “final ask” as the hardest part of selling and the technique most worth honing. However, over the last 20 years, sales techniques have shifted—online shopping has empowered consumers and they have become much less receptive to aggressive closing tactics. Iannarino believes that salespeople have gone too far in the opposite direction, passively waiting for customers to make a decision. Seeking to help sales professionals avoid this pitfall, he breaks down the selling process into its component parts, and rather than depending on a single ask, suggests working to gain a series of 10 commitments which guide the process through to a sale: “commit to change,” “commit to building consensus,” “commit to decide,” etc. The breakdown of tactics—“use natural language,” “stop treating concerns as objections,” and so on—is helpful, as is the author’s focus on the customer’s needs, rather than on earning a commission. Iannarino is very much a character in his own book, and readers who can get past the cocky tone will find solid advice within. (Aug.)