Selling with Integrity: Reinventing Sales through Collaboration, Respect, and Serving

by Sharon Drew Morgen

Introduces a fresh approach to the art of selling -- where the buyer's needs count for more than the seller's
-- Introduces the ""Buying-Facilitation"" technique, based on mutual respect, collaboration, trust, honor, and service
-- Shows sellers how to find appropriate buyers and weed out inappropriate ones quickly, vastly reducing the sales cycle
-- Schematic drawings, case studies, and ""skill sets"" help the reader master the author's sales approach
The traditional sales model involves convincing and coercing buyers into believing they can't live without what sellers have to offer. According to this view, the seller and the product are at the center of the process, and the buyer's interests are a successful seller is one who can create a ""need"" where none exists.

Selling with Integrity is based on the author's belief that closing the sale is less important than respecting the interests of the buyer. Morgen argues that the seller's primary responsibility is to the buyer. Both are well served by the author's ""Buying-Facilitation"" technique, where service is the goal, discovery is the outcome, and the solution may or may not be a sale.

Buyers "win" by having their needs met. Sellers "win" by getting to work within their value systems and by expediting the decision-making process with appropriate prospective buyers. This frank assessment of the potential buyer's needs involves cooperation rather than confrontation, creating a better overall experience.

Morgen's approach restores to the job of selling the honesty, integrity, and humanity that are missing from traditional sales techniques.

Genres: Business

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Morgen is the author of the New York Times Business Bestseller Selling with Integrity and 7 other books and 1300 articles on topics such as change management, decision making, listening, marketing automation and sales. Her off-kilter thinking generates ideas on how systems of any kind can change congruently, and how we all can enable each other to bring our brains, hearts, and authenticity to relationships and the workplace.

Morgen is the author of a award-winning blog that features articles on sales, questions, customer service, decision making, marketing, and listening. www.sharondrewmorgen.com.

Reviews

[Tom Behr) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharon can get a little hung up on having the "best" answer to the question of how to sell, but all of her work is absolutely on target and extremely valuable.

[Robert Merrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book along with three or four others when I was informed that my new role was Technical Sales. I never thought I would be doing that. All of the sales books but this one left me feeling like I needed to take a shower. The thinking served me well through my successful stint in sales support, and then as an independent consultant for a while. "These people are the experts in their situation, not me. How can I ask some questions that will help them see things differently and get unstuck?" Now I work as a Business Analyst ("IT social worker" is how I explain it) and it still serves me well. It even fits with the philosophy of care we use in a non-profit I volunteer with. Sharon Drew's (that's her first name) other books are good, too, but this one, and her latest "What?" stand out.

[Justina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me forever to get through, which shouldn't be a reflection of its value. The author has some great selling advice and I appreciate her philosophy. I wish sellers would behave this way with me!

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great concept but this could have been written in 4-6 pages as a long form blog post. Debated 3 stars because it’s a great idea but I found myself skipping too many pages for that.

[Camden Argyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt like a lot of repetition, but it wasn't supposed to be a high impact professionally streamlined manual either, so i shouldnt judge it as one; it was almost a journal, very natural and straight from the mind, therefore making it more real.

[Bill Donhiser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult book to finish. Good ideas but could have gotten most of it in a four page Executive Book Summary