ATLANTA (Mar. 27, 2014) – Sales creativity? That’s an oxymoron—or worse, something completely unthinkable—in the minds of most salespeople. When it comes to the business of closing sales, meeting quotas, and increasing revenue, sales organizations overwhelming rely on analytics and established systems. Creative thinking is for artists, inventors and marketers, not serious salespeople.
It’s time for serious salespeople to think differently, sales effectiveness expert Mark Donnolo believes. “We can track leads and dollars sold until our pipelines burst. But the sale happens when we connect to the buyer and offer something they need in a way our competitors cannot. And often, that sale is ultimately made through thinking that is more difficult to measure. It includes listening, understanding the customer, gaining new insight, getting beyond our standard offer, creating divergent ideas, pushing the customer’s thinking, and coming up with an answer that leads the customer ahead rather than simply meeting a requirement. Without creative thinking,” Donnolo contends, “sales is reduced to the role of order takers.”
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In his new book, THE INNOVATIVE SALE: Unleash Your Creativity for Better Customer Solutions and Extraordinary Results (AMACOM, ISBN: 978-0-8144-3347-8), Donnolo presents a left-brained process for right-brained thinking that any salesperson can master and apply consistently and profitably.
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Beyond thinkable, sales creativity is doable—and not just for the few with natural talent or a job with Apple, Google, or another celebrated innovator. It’s not about eureka moments. As Donnolo demonstrates, sales creativity follows a predictable, logical problem-solving progression.
Packed with practical tips, productive tools and liberating revelations, THE INNOVATIVE SALE encourages serious salespeople to not only embrace their innate creativity, but get serious about putting it to work to win buyers and reap unimaginable rewards.
About the Author
Mark Donnolo is a managing partner of SalesGlobe, a leading sales effectiveness consulting firm. Over the past 25 years, he has worked with IBM, Comcast, AT&T, Office Depot, KPMG, LexisNexis, Accenture, and Verizon, among many Fortune 1000 companies. He is also a founder of SalesGlobe Forum, a sales leadership community teamed with top business schools, and the author of What Your CEO Needs to Know About Sales Compensation (AMACOM, 2013). Connect with Mark on Twitter at @SalesGlobe and LinkedIn.
