Helping Clients Succeed

Mahan Khalsa in his book Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play helps readers see what helping clients should look like. His advice is practical but not easy to practice.

I remember when I first started selling to businesses. All I could think of how great my products were. It didn’t work well convincing people to buy and I wasted much effort.

The software industry (my background) does not have a reputable selling model as do many other industries. We love our solutions and think wonders of how it will solve problems for our prospects. We are so interested in selling our solutions that we forget to find out what the problems our clients are having to begin with. Sales and selling carries a lot of negative baggage in our industry.

Second, a great selling model requires work and effort. There is no such thing as ‘come up with a great selling model’ and on we go. It is hard work but at the same time very rewarding!

I will quote from Mahan’s book here....I can’t say it any better:

“Helping clients succeed is not a euphemism for sales or selling. It is a paradigm, a mental model, a frame of reference, a methodology for two or more companies to work together for mutual success and satisfaction”

"Individuals and organizations changing their paradigm from selling to succeeding—from dysfunctional practices to mutual success and satisfaction—bring new skill sets to the business development dialogue. Those with a high emotional quotient will be rewarded with superior information about true needs, resources, and decision criteria. With an applied intelligence quotient, they will build better business cases for proposed interventions, make astute systemic connections, and push innovation and creative thinking to new levels. Conversely those wed to twentieth-century selling models will be penalized with inferior communication, wasted efforts, and less probability of finding meaningful, relevant solutions." Mahan Khalsa

“Business development dialogue” is practical. A good way to start!

I highly recommend the book but he is not presenting an easy "quick fix" solution to selling. If that is what you are looking for don't read it.