Selling to VITO (the Very Important Top Officer)
by Anthony Parinello

Salespeople waste time, get their hopes up, make premature sales presentations, send out inappropriate proposals, and fill their sales forecasts with unqualified prospects - only to get their hearts broken in the end. Why? Because they were never, ever dealing with the real decision maker to begin with. Anthony Parinello shows sales representatives how to identify and deal directly with the true decision maker from cold call to close.

Stop Telling Start Selling: How to Use Customer Focused Dialogue to Close Sales
by Linda Richardson

Though often well meaning, a lot of sales professionals talk too much, ask too few questions, ignore genuine objections, present the wrong products, and try to hard sell their customers. Why? They aren't listening. Linda Richardson sees this painful reality all the time and goes about helping salespeople understand why they have a tendency to do this and how to focus less on talking and more on understanding the needs of the customer.

Cold Calling Techniques
Ask Questions, Get Sales
Closing Techniques
by Stephan Schiffman

It happens all the time. A brand new hire starts outselling a seasoned sales veteran. Why? The rookie, fresh from training, is putting to use all the tried and true sales techniques they just learned. The veteran is winging the introduction, isn't asking enough qualifying questions, or assuming the sale and not formally closing. That's for newbies. They don't need that entry-level stuff anymore. Oh, but they do. Stephan Schiffman's series goes all around the sales cycle. It's a great primer for new sales representatives and an important refresher for a veteran on the sales staff.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D.

Dr. Cialdini is not a salesperson and this is not a book about sales. He is a social psychologist who has spent his professional life studying compliance or, more specifically, the techniques and strategies used by compliance professionals. All of us attempt to either influence or get people to comply with our wishes and Dr. Cialdini outlines the six basic strategies that people use effectively. I know many executives, some in sales roles and some in non-sales roles, who read this book every year.

Will your sales team exceed their quota for the first half of 2007? Are they on track to meet their annual goal? If not, find out why. The summer is a great time to evaluate the sales staff and put together a plan for the fall.