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The Contrarian Effect by Michael Port and Elizabeth Marshall

The full title of this book by Michael Port and Elizabeth Marshall is

The Contrarian Effect: Why it Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite“.

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Four Stars. This means I consider the book to be Good and Well Worth Reading.

Here is my book review.

A well argued and powerful punch against the old, tired, hard-sell tactics

This fascinating book is a well argued and powerful punch against the old, tired, hard-sell tactics.

The world has changed from the time when John H. Patterson introduced sales training to overcome objections and how to close a sale which was eventually developed into the NCR Primer in 1887. That’s over 120 years ago but if you read some of the sales training books, the ideas still seem horribly familiar.

As well as anecdotal evidence that the traditional sales techniques have little impact, the authors call on the massive research project behind SPIN Selling which shows that emphasis on traditional sales closing damages the probability of the sale.

The old techniques haven’t moved on partly because they work some of the time, partly because there is still a lot of sales training based around the old methods and partly because many sales people don’t bother to learn about better methods. Excessive focus on short term results by employers doesn’t help either.

In recent years, consumers have gained far more power. We are all overwhelmed with marketing messages through every possible media and that has taught us how to blank out many of these messages and we have no recollection of even seeing them. More and more we only want to receive communications from people who we have given permission to.

The seller is no longer the best, most reliable source of information. A search in Google can find plenty of information about a particular product or supplier and the competitors from anywhere in the world. Social media gives consumers power to make complaints public. We’ve moved from “There Is No Alternative” to “There Are Plenty of Alternatives”.

The book doesn’t really answer the question why the old methods still work some of the time. It argues more success will come from building a trusted relationship with customers and doing the opposite that a lot of sales training teaches.

It dismantles the old ideas but doesn’t do enough to replace it with new ways to sell. I am very much agree with the message but all the way through I was waiting for the solutions. They never came to my satisfaction. That’s partly because it repeats ideas from Michael Port’s earlier book “Book Yourself Solid“.

It is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

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