There’s a revolution underway in sales. What used to work, even just a few years ago, is no longer enough to win major sales today. As a result, a new breed of seller, who's beating out the competition and winning the sale, has emerged: the insight seller. Insight sellers share new ideas and perspectives with their buyers, and they collaborate with buyers to develop the best solutions. They don't just sell the value of their products and services, they become the value. To succeed as an insight seller, we've identified 12 key attributes, which we divide into tendencies and qualities that drive their success. They're divided like the image to the left. Insight sellers share 7 tendencies—these are the predispositions that drive how people choose to spend their time:  Passion for Work and Selling: Insight sellers have a desire for success in general and for selling in particular...   Image source: Schultz, Mike, and John E. Doerr. Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2014.      

What do James Franco, Daniel Craig, and Mo'Nique all have in common? They're described as actors who bring gravitas to their roles on the big and small screens.* Another is Sir Patrick Stewart, who embodied gravitas as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Picard had power and authority. He commanded respect. When he spoke, the Enterprise—and everyone else in the universe—listened. Gravitas is rooted in Latin, meaning heavy, serious, having gravity. In the sales world, gravitas means you're someone to be taken seriously. When buyers take you seriously, they're more apt to take your advice and buy into your ideas. That's why gravitas is a key quality of an insight seller. Got Gravitas? What It Means for Winning Sales Insight sellers possess 12 key attributes needed to succeed in sales. We've divided them into tendencies that drive behavior and qualities that guide those actions. Gravitas is one of five qualities found in sellers who consistently win sales. So what does gravitas look like?      

You've been working on a sale for 4 months and everything's going great. Your potential customer, the decision maker, is talking as if the deal is done. But before final sign off, you must meet with the CFO. You get to the meeting. The CFO is icy. She opens by saying, "I have a hard stop in 45 minutes, and the only issue I have with the project is the price. I’m prepared to sign off on it, but things have been tough and I am going to need you to drop your fees by 15%. If you can do that, the deal is done." Sellers who aren't prepared for this situation lose sales. Or maybe they win them, but they only do so after dropping their prices and cutting their margins. Anyone who's been around in the world of sales has heard of win-win negotiation. The idea is to work collaboratively to develop creative solutions that expand the pie and create success on both sides. Some people go as far to say that win-win is the only approach you need to know for success...      

A long time ago, I was fly fishing with a grizzled, old, big company leadership consultant. I asked him what he thought differentiated good consultants from great consultants—those at the pinnacle of the game. He said, "Let me think." A little while later, we were in the middle of the river when he turned to me and said, "A great consultant will say what he has to say to the client—what the client needs to hear—but that might get the consultant fired. Though, at the end of the day, the consultant has the interpersonal skills not to get fired." In other words, great consultants are assertive, but also have a deep well of emotional intelligence. What makes for a great consultant, in this case, also makes for a great insight seller. In fact, assertiveness is one of the 12 key attributes of insight sellers.      

Good negotiators have the ability to recognize the negotiation style of the other party. When a buyer comes to the negotiation in partner mode, it allows you to work collaboratively to create possibilities that expand the pie and result in the best possible agreement for both sides. But what about when your buyer takes a different approach? What if your buyer is just trying to get the price reduced, get more from you for less, or something else altogether? Despite the benefits of a partner-style negotiation, you need to know how to deal with positional buyer tactics when they arise. In this infographic, we share 18 of the most common tactics a buyer might use, what they look like, and how you can be prepared for and respond to each so you can successfully negotiate with buyers on their terms. View the infographic now.      

You’ve spent months working with the buyer, defining needs, and collaborating with them to build a solution. You both agree in principle, but when you ask them to sign on the dotted line, you hear: "I just need to run this by the CFO..." "There's just one more thing: I need you to give us..." "I'm ready to sign today...but I need you to drop the price by 10%." Much sales success is determined in the negotiation process. Sales negotiations gone wrong drive down margins, lengthen sales cycles, and lose you deals that you otherwise should have won. In this webinar, Mike Schultz, President of RAIN Group and bestselling author of Rainmaking Conversations and Insight Selling, will share 4 essential keys for sales negotiation success. Watch the on-demand webinar.        

Last week we shared our infographic on 18 Tactics Buyers Use in Sales Negotiations. The infographic highlights the most common sales negotiation techniques that buyers use, what they look like, and how you can prepare for and respond to each so you can successfully negotiate with buyers on their terms. Knowing these tactics exist isn't enough. You need to be able to identify these tactics and respond accordingly in the heat of moment during your sales conversations. As a part of our RAIN Sales Negotiation Training program, we've developed SPEED cards to help sellers quickly recall this information and put their learning to practice. These flashcard-like learning tools are proven to help sellers not only memorize important negotiation concepts, but to speak fluently about them in their sales conversations. Test Your Knowledge of the 18 Sales Negotiation Techniques.      

One of the major findings of our research on What Sales Winners Do Differently is that today's sales winners don't just sell the value of their products and services, they are the value. They are knowledgeable experts who bring ideas and new perspectives to the table. Essentially, they harness the power of ideas when selling, and it gives them the winning edge. It's difficult to harness the power of ideas, however, if you, you know, don't like ideas. Perhaps that's a bit simplistic, but the point is valid. Some people love to read. They are Harvard Business Review junkies. They watch webinars and seek out the newest research. They enjoy noodling over the 'next thing' on the horizon. These people like ideas. They like knowing. Their natural curiosity helps them.        

Last month we released a complimentary white paper, 5 Common Sales Negotiation Mistakes. In this new SlideShare presentation, RAIN Group Presidents Mike Schultz and John Doerr highlight the 5 common pieces of advice that cause sellers to say and do the wrong things in negotiations, resulting in alienated buyers, damaged relationships, and lost deals. Click here to view the SlideShare now.      

Money and budget issues are tricky, and they are almost never what they first appear. When buyers say some version of "Money is going to be a problem," they often mean something else. The following are 7 common price objections we hear and what buyers are really thinking when they say them...