Professional salespeople need business acumen to help customers do what they want to do
Reviewing the rules for raising capital and starting a company may not be at the top of your list of things to do. If not, rearrange your priorities. More than ever, salespeople who sell B2B need to understand their customer's business and the pressures felt by board members. They need business acumen. A Good Hard Kick in the Ass demolishes some of the popular ideas about starting a company and supplies much of the insights needed for business fluency.
Rob Adams has spent a large part of his career working with entrepreneurs preparing to raise large sums of money to launch software companies.
You may be thinking, “That has little to do with my customer's businesses”. If so, please think again. The many kicks in the ass offered by Rob’s book are to do with business fundamentals.
Boring? Definitely not. Even the Foreword, written by Mike Maples of Microsoft, zings along, leaving you wondering if you have accidentally skipped on to the first chapter.
There are ten kicks and every one is worth paying attention to. Most of them have parallels in sales so this book has double the value if you plan to remain in the relative safety of a sales job.
From a sales point of view, kick number two is very significant. Have you ever caught yourself saying, “I know my customer"? For salespeople, this chapter alone makes it worth buying this book. At the beginning of this chapter, Rob makes the statement, “You don’t know your customers as well as you think you do.”
I read this and considered how it applied to my knowledge of SalesSense customers. I thought, “You are probably right Rob”. Then, as I read on, I became increasingly uncomfortable about just how much I didn’t know.
The words in this book do more than convey an idea; they make it vivid, in your face, and sometimes unpleasantly real.
In the same chapter, you will learn about validating customer needs. The term describes the first step that Rob’s venture capital firm, AV Labs, has start-up firms take, to test their ideas. Validating customer needs is what top salespeople do to qualify prospects properly.
If you are tempted to think that you know what qualifying is about and that you already do what is necessary, read chapter two of this book and then ask yourself again.
At the end of each chapter, you will find a neat summary of the ‘takeaways’. You would be right if you think this makes it easy to skim the book although if you do, you will miss a lot of depth, colour, and appreciation. Every chapter is full of insights and business stories.
On the face of it, this is a book for people who aim to raise capital to start or accelerate a company. In fact, it contains a wealth of wisdom, backed by layers upon layers of experience.
Whether you see yourself as an entrepreneur, business builder, turnaround specialist, manager, or salesperson, you will find business acumen gold in this book.
You are also very likely to read it. I got a sense of pace and excitement from its pages that reminded me of the last time I read a great novel.
ISBN 0-7126-7644-9
Review by Clive Miller
If you need a good hard kick in the ass to develop business acumen amongst a sales team, we can help. Telephone +44 (0)1392 851500. We will be pleased to learn about your needs or talk through some options. Alternatively, send an email to custserv@salessense.co.uk for a prompt reply or use the contact form here.
