The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need Quotes

“Here’s a rule of thumb: in the early stages of the sales cycle, any statements that you make about yourself, your product, or your solution should be responses to the client’s questions only. If they aren’t, you’re signaling that you are more interested in selling than in helping the client achieve his desired outcomes. So, don’t tell, tell, tell. Instead, engage in a dialogue and make sure all of your responses relate to the client’s needs.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Make a list of three clients or prospects and call them simply to see how they are doing personally and professionally. Don’t pitch them, and don’t ask them for anything. Just call because you care.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Embrace the empowering belief that you can always find a way. Resourceful people know that even though a solution may not be immediately obvious, it probably exists.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s taking action even though you are gripped by fear. Courage requires the self-discipline to put yourself in harm’s way and ignore the internal dialogue that tells you to retreat to safety. Self-discipline”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Your own company is full of skeptics who don’t believe they can produce the outcomes your dream client needs for you to win the business. That’s because the status quo isn’t just entrenched in your client’s company; it’s also deeply embedded in your own. This resistance to change, this unwillingness to stretch, creates what I lovingly refer to as the Department of Sales Prevention, headed by a vice president of We Can’t. There’s one (or more) in every sales organization”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Consider the widely used quarterly check-in calls that salespeople make on their prospective and current customers. I think they are a time-wasting nuisance, used by salespeople who have no value to offer. There’s one salesperson who has called me once a quarter for almost twenty years. Every call is exactly the same. He says, “This is Matt with [company name removed to spare it from horrifying embarrassment]. I just wanted to check in and see if anything has changed.” I always give him the same reply. “Nope. Nothing’s changed.” Matt, undeterred, asks, “Can I call you again to check in next quarter to see if anything has changed?” Has anything changed? Matt! In the last two decades, all kinds of things have changed—in my company, in my industry, in the economy . . . in the world! It would be impossible to miss the massive technological, economic, and cultural changes of the last twenty years. Yet Matt has not noticed anything noteworthy enough to ask how it has impacted my business. He has not shared a single idea as to how he can help me. This makes Matt a nuisance. I keep agreeing to take his calls because the value of this story as a lesson for salespeople grows with every passing year. But, alas, poor Matt has never gained my business.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“The antidote to complacency is initiative.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Draw up a list of the stages of your sales cycle with all of the commitments you need to move a deal from beginning to final closing event. Refer to this list before every sales interaction so you know which commitment you intend to obtain.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Understand that you no longer sell products or solutions. You sell outcomes in the form of performance acceleration and improved business outcomes.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Can I share some ideas with you?” “Can I ask you to collaborate with me on the solution we are building?” “I feel like we’ve done enough work to move forward from here. Can we go ahead and get started with a contract or is there still something you need in order to be 100 percent confident moving forward?” “What’s your vision for the right solution?”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Only after you demonstrate that you truly understand the client’s situation, feelings, and preferences can you effectively present your ideas and solutions as part of the continuing dialogue.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Let’s draw a line in the sand here. From this day forward, you will be a bulldog. No backing up or backing off, no giving up or giving in.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Being prepared is critically important but without focused, massive action all the preparation in the world won’t help you succeed. —Hector LaMarque, legendary sales leader of Primerica”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“adopt a beginner’s mind and question whether your answers from the past are still the best answers for the future.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“For you to win a prospective customer’s business, all of your competitors must lose. You need to be better than you were yesterday and better than your competitor is today.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“All things being equal, relationships win.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“I quickly saw that there was nothing manipulative or self-oriented about anything he did; it was all about finding a way to help the client. Once I discovered that selling was about helping people get a result that they couldn’t get without my assistance, I began to love the game.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Salespeople who sell on price alone often negotiate win-lose agreements: these are wins for the customer but losses for the salesperson, who earns just a tiny bit of money for himself and his company.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Once you demonstrate that you care and will go the extra mile to produce added value, your prospective clients will want you to succeed.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“If you don't accept "no," don't give up, and don't bow to the status quo, a window of opportunity will eventually crack open and you'll be standing in front of it. If it doesn't crack open, just keep prying with a crowbar until it gives.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Your intentions matter, and they are felt by your clients, your prospects, and all of the people whom you interact. When you come from a place of caring, you generate trust and build powerful relationships. But if your actions are self-serving, they destroy trust and ruin relationships.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“Absence does not make the heart grow fonder-it makes it wander. It sends a clear message that the client is not important enough to command your time. More clients are lost to neglect than to any other cause.”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

“SELF-DISCIPLINE: THE ART OF “ME MANAGEMENT” Managing yourself is essentially managing your commitments—with others, indeed, but primarily with yourself. And, keeping track of that inventory these days is no simple task. It requires a system—an “external brain”—to keep yourself oriented to be doing the right thing, at the right time. —David Allen, author of Getting Things Done”
― Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need