Channel your inner J K Rowling for sales success... This is an extraordinary sales guide for professionals selling complex products and services into the Enterprise. You will not find the usual banal derivative 'steps to sales success' here, instead, Mike Adams digs deep into his own experience as a big ticket Enterprise sales professional to share a totally unique approach to complex sales that is practical, human and easily applicable from the get-go. Rather than a technical guide, Adams gives us a narrative map to sales success. His approach reminds me of the difference between being told technically how to paint and then adding, through experience, the tacit knowledge to become a master; one must learn the interaction between brush and canvas, the subtle shift in the muscles of the hand necessary to produce desired effects and these skills are only understood through painting time and again. In his book, Adams shares his experience of using stories to become a master of the complex sale and gives us an end-to-end guide of what one must say, and when, at critical stages of the sale to ensure consistent stakeholder momentum. Adams recommends that we dig deep into our own personal wells of experience to develop stories that carry the messages we want to communicate to our prospects. Adams explains that it is through stories we best learn new information - they are the most effective way to engage, entertain, connect and ultimately build lasting relationships with our customers. I especially enjoyed the chapter which recommends stories be shared even at the RFP evaluation stage - when we have submitted our proposals and we typically suffer radio silence. Adams tells us not to wait for the client to tell us the status of our pitch - instead, maintain open communication by sharing success stories along the way to subtly influence a positive outcome. There are many more gems in every chapter. A brilliant addition to contemporary sales literature - and practitioners of Account Based Marketing looking for ways to accelerate conversion through the funnel will especially enjoy this book as a novel set of tactics for competitive advantage. Highly recommended to complex sales professionals everywhere.

Chris Bourke 5, Stars Amazon UK