This is a good book. This is a very good book. It is aimed at anyone who is involved in any way in the marketing or sales of “hi-tech” products or services. A slight stretch of the definition to include “selling” our own services when we each are job hunting would mean this book can be useful to anyone involved in our industry, although it will certainly appeal more to the person professionally involved in sales or marketing in some way.
Although this is a relatively short book (217 pages), it is remarkably complete. The Introduction plus 15 chapters cover these topics:
What is Sci-Tech Selling? (“Selling is helping people get what they want, in this case, a scientific or technical product or service.”)
The Sci-Tech Selling Process
Researching Markets, Companies, and Prospects
Contacting Prospects
Needs/Problem Identification
Proposals
Closing the Sale
Handling Technical or Financial Objections
Handling Stalling, Interruptions, and Negotiating
Follow Up
Strategizing
Managing Sci-Tech Sales Efforts
I feel this book is extremely unusual in that it attempts to address three levels of need and appears to succeed at all three: tutorial, educational, and reference. The tutorial approach is fulfilled primarily through the narrative text, which is interesting and brief (without being too brief). The educational aspect is addressed via the tutorial material plus some excellent, common sense exercises at the end of each chapter. While many of the exercises will work better in a small group setting, they are still useful for the individual reader. I was impressed at how well the exercise material acted as reinforcement of the textual material. Finally, it works as a reference book, as there are many checklists of varying types, usually at the end of each chapter. The checklists can be used for quick reference and, because the book is well organized, can act as pointers back to the details in the text (if that is what the reader needs). The text, exercises, and checklists interrelate much better than in most books that attempt to be multipurpose. This book will join a very small set of well-used “how-to” reference books on my bookshelf and on my recommended list. I would hope this book sees considerable use in seminars and in sales and marketing training classes, both in schools and in the field. Any reader interested enough in the topic to read this far into the review should read the book.
