Gone are the days when salespeople sold products. Today they are expected to offer ideas, advice, perspective, information, wisdom and value that will improve their customer's business and provide a return on their investment. Few salespeople have achieved this level of mastery or know how to get there.

In THE MIND OF THE CUSTOMER: How Great Companies Like UPS,
Lexus, and Nokia Have Reinvented the Sales Process to Accelerate Their Customers' Success (McGraw Hill), Richard Hodge and Lou Schachter show sales professionals how to get to the next level of success with
a new approach to selling based on helping customers achieve their
key business objectives. The companion digital toolbox provides all of the assessment tests, tools and guides needed to put these groundbreaking concepts into practice.

The authors include tips, inspirations, and insider secrets gleaned from interviews with nearly 100 sales executives at the world's most successful corporations. Executives at such companies as Lexus, Nokia and UPS share their best practices on things salespeople most want to know: what works in a presentation, what they want—and don't want—from salespeople, and how they make their most critical purchasing decisions.

Readers also learn how to:

• Gain insight into what the customer wants
• Create products and services the customer values
• Turn one-way presentations into two-way interactions
• Build rock-solid customer partnerships using “cooperative negotiation”
• Establish credibility within 12 minutes of an initial meeting with an executive
• Coach an ordinary sales force to world-class mastery

The Mind of the Customer is for every sales leader, sales professional, and business leader who wants to stay ahead of rapidly changing business realities and take their organizations, teams, and selves to a new level of competitive advantage.