Consistency Selling: Powerful Sales Results. Every Lead. Every Time.

The author of two previous books, one of which was a New York Times bestseller, and the other a winner of the 2009 New York Book Festival's award in the biography/autobiography category, Weldon Long built a company that reached over $20 million in sales in its first 60 months. The same year his first book was recognized by the New York Book Festival, his company was selected as one of Inc. magazine’s fastest growing private companies in America. "Both his life and his work," writes Stephen M.R. Covey's in his Foreword to Long's new book, Consistency Selling, "are built on the many of the solid principles I have discovered through my own work on trust." 

All of which makes the opening paragraph of Covey's Foreword at least a bit surprising: 

Some might think that spending thirteen years in state and federal prison as part of a larger dysfunctional life would be poor qualification for writing a powerful, practical, and inspiring book on sales. But in Weldon Long's case, the exact opposite is true.

As a "high-school dropout and a three time convicted felon who had no resume, no experience, and no job history, stepping off the city bus and knocking on any and every door he could in a desperate attempt to get a job," his prospects were slim. But he's told that story before; it is the subject of that first, award-winning book, The Upside of Fear. He tells us up front in his new book that he doesn't find it very useful to dwell on the past, preferring to engage in "the present moment where real life is happening." But, when one's real life past is as incongruous with their current success as Long's, it's informative—even inspiring—to know how that success was achieved. Long doesn't spare a whole lot of time for it, though:

Even though I wasn't very experienced in selling, the sales industry immediately changed my life. In my very first month of selling (July 2003), I sold $149,000 worth of air conditioners and earned $14,000 in sales commissions. I was still wearing a Department of Corrections ankle bracelet to track my whereabouts, and I has spent the past seven years making twenty-five to fifty cents per day in prison. … It was the sales industry that picked me up, dusted me off, and gave me a real chance to create a life of success, wealth, and happiness.  

By 2004, he had started his own company, and his life today includes doing keynote presentations and corporate training for clients like Comcast, The Franklin Covey Organization, The Home Depot, FedEx, Owens Corning, and Farmers Insurance, among others. But it all rooted in something he learned just a couple of months into his career in sales—the importance of process in achieving consistent results. And that is the subject of Consistency Selling. I'll let Long himself explain:

You see, we have an expectation for the operations folks in our business to produce quality products and services, and that quality comes from adhering to the process embedded in the operations side of things. 

 

The operative word is process. Now, that doesn't mean there isn't an occasional problem. Technology fails. People are human. But as a general rule, following a process to the letter ensures a consistent product and service.

 

If you want consistently high-quality sales results, the same process applies to the sales profession. […] But here is some really good news: Although a consistent sales process is necessary to deliver consistent sales results, the process need not be complicated or restrictive.

Long introduces a set of "Consistency Anchors" and the concept of the "Sales Hallway," but you'll find the first step throughout is always very simple: to build trust—honestly, respectfully, and politely. And that is easier to do if you maintain a "focus on what you can control (the process)—not on what someone else controls (the result)." That keeps you asking questions, keeps the conversation friendly, keeps you focused on the customer's needs—all with an understanding that "no is a perfectly acceptable answer," that their are always other opportunities you are then free to pursue. You can lower the anxiety of doing so while increasing the consistency of success with the simple, straightforward process found in Consistency Selling.

We have 25 copies available.