Non-Manipulative Selling: A Sales Book Summary for Small Business Sellers

Introduction

Non-Manipulative Selling is a great overall book that includes some theory and a lot of tactical selling advice. It offers an overall emphasis on understanding behavioral styles.

The goal of the book is help the reader learn to sell with flexibility by adjusting to each prospect’s style. The six-step selling process described by the authors is particularly useful.

With its details on behavior styles, Non-Manipulative Selling will be beneficial for those small business sellers involved in complex or transactional sales.

Summary

Non-Manipulative Selling is a practical book, oriented toward the process of selling. The authors offer instruction on practice with every idea they present.

The emphasis on practicality is not surprising when you consider that the book originated in 1975 as a seminar workbook. The authors note in the Preface that since the original publication, many others have written, spoken, and taught about non-manipulative selling. They feel, however, that most of those are trotting out a non-manipulative philosophy as a surface over the traditional sales hard sell approach.

The book begins with five chapters that explore the skills a salesperson brings to his or her craft. With chapter titles like “Relationship Strategies” and “The Power of Listening, Observing, and Feedback,” these chapters address the techniques required for non-manipulative selling.

The authors then present six chapters on the sales process itself. These chapters cover subjects ranging from meeting the prospect to assuring customer satisfaction.

The book concludes with four chapters on general sales skills, including chapters on “Selling by Style” and “Developing Self-Management Skills.”

First I’ll take a look at the authors’ view of non-manipulative selling compared to traditional selling. Then I’ll review examples from three chapters of the book.

Non-Manipulative Selling vs. Traditional Selling

The authors argue that traditional objection-handling, sales pitches, and closing techniques are not consistent with non-manipulative selling. As a result, it is often difficult for organizations and individuals from traditional sales cultures to adopt non-manipulative techniques.

The authors target three problems with training in traditional techniques: “not enough training, too much product training and inappropriate sales training.”

• Not enough training. This causes salespeople to learn from role models. Unfortunately, role models normally rely on traditional sales techniques.
• Too much product training. This results in a seller who can only talk about products. He or she ignores — or is unaware of — the other issues that surround the product, such as how it relates to buyer needs and concerns. Since different buyers work in different cultures, have different goals, and respond to different issues, a seller who only understands product features and benefits is not well-prepared to address issues that really concern buyers.
• Inappropriate sales training. Sales training often focuses on how to present, close, and overcome objections. These traditional techniques certainly work, in the sense that they deliver sales, but they don’t work well to deliver long-term customers and healthy, respectful relationships. They often produce an environment where the salesperson “wins” and the customer loses.

Non-manipulative selling puts the emphasis on planning, meeting, and studying, the early steps in the sales process. This approach leads to a greater understanding of the customer’s needs.

Here are some of the distinctions the authors draw between traditional and non-manipulative sales:

Table 1 – Non-Manipulative vs. Traditional Selling

 

Phase	Non-Manipulative Selling	Traditional Selling
1	Planning. Plan and manage time, territory, and accounts to assure that you are talking to the right people	Prospecting. Talk to as many potential prospects as possible
2	Meeting. Beginning a potential relationship; getting to know the prospect; beginning to establish credibility and trust	Small talk. Introductory chatter to smooth the way
3	Studying. Time spent understanding the prospect’s business, specific needs, and opportunities	Fact-Finding. Needs are assumed to exist based on the target market; gathering a few additional facts to lend credibility
4	Proposal. A presentation custom-tailored to the prospect’s needs, with benefits discussed as they apply to specific problems	Pitch. The same basic presentation regardless of customer; minimal customizing
5	Confirming the sale. This phase is the logical conclusion to excellent communication between seller and buyer. If there is no opportunity for a sale, this would have emerged earlier in the process. If the sale is appropriate, but there are objections, this reflects a need to gather more information or clarify additional issues.	Closing. Overcoming objections; driving to the sale; completing a “win” for the seller
6	Assuring. Confirming that the client receives the product or service they expect, when expected, with the terms and benefits expected. The goal is to create a long-term client. This is possible because there is common cause. No one has “won.” No one has “lost.”	Reselling. Coping with buyer’s remorse; assuring that the sale does not fall through; reestablishing the relationship

Overall, non-manipulative selling has many positive results, but the one that stands out me is this: “The sales process [is] built on a foundation of trust and mutual agreement. Relationships that are open, honest and free of tension create long-lasting business associations that pay off in many ways for many years.”

Relationship Strategies

In the chapter, “Relationship Strategies,” the authors recommend “treat[ing] people the way they want to be treated.” To accomplish this, they propose understanding people based on these dimensions:

• Are they open or self-contained?
• Are they indirect or direct?

They discuss in detail characteristic behaviors that each dimension exhibits. For example, open people have animated facial expressions and physical gestures while self-contained people tend to be poker faced. Direct people confront conflict and often dominate meetings, while indirect people make changes cautiously and avoid conflict.

People are complex and exhibit characteristics from all four dimensions, which combine to generate four behavior styles. The authors assert that you can learn much about your prospect by evaluating them according to these behavior styles, summarized below.

Table 2 – Behavioral Styles

 

Behaviors	Behavior Style	Characteristic Statement
Open and indirect	Relater	“We’re all in this together, so let’s work as a team.”
Open and direct	Socializer	“Let me tell you what happened to me…”
Self-contained and indirect	Thinker	“Can you provide documentation for your claims?”
Self-contained and direct	Director	“I want it done right, and I want it done now.”

Meeting the Prospect

In “Meeting the Prospect,” the authors discuss the three ways a salesperson can make contact with a prospect: in person, by telephone, and by mail. They analyze these methods by the number of possible contacts and the quality of the contact. Their conclusions will not surprise you. For example, meeting prospects in person yields the highest percentage of high-quality contacts, while mail yields the most contacts.

They conclude that a salesperson should use all three methods to maintain a constant supply of contacts. Perhaps surprisingly, the authors prize salespeople who are excellent prospectors over those who are poor prospectors with excellent communications skills. They note that when you use non-manipulative selling, “…you will increase the number of sales you make for a given number of prospects, but this does not reduce the importance of contacting as many prospects as you can.”

They contend that it is helpful to include prospecting in the idea of payment. If, for example, you earn $1,000.00 per sale on average, and you must make ten contacts on average per sale, then you might regard yourself as being paid $100.00 per contact made. This can increase the salesperson’s interest in the quality and quantity of contacts.

Other topics in this chapter include detailed instructions on how to write letters, including format and contents. The authors present example letters targeted to each of the four behavior styles discussed above.

They cover telephone calls at length. Topics include eliminating background noise, the best times to call different groups of people, working with secretaries, and maintaining a telephone log.

In-person meetings, the authors note, are the most important type of meeting. They are covered both directly and indirectly in much of the book.

Selling by Style

In “Selling by Style,” the authors discuss how to modify your behavior style. They divide this into two parts:

• Modifying your openness and directness in general
• Being flexible in working with the buyers who exhibit the four behavior styles

The authors assume you have used their guidelines to assess your own behavior style. They make specific suggestions for modifying your style. Some examples are shown below.

Table 3 – Techniques for Modifying Your Behavioral Style

 

Goal	Techniques
Increase openness	Use friendly language and pay personal complements
Increase self-containment	Keep to the agenda and downplay body movement
Increase directness	Increase eye contact and give recommendations
Decrease directness	Do not interrupt and seek and acknowledge the opinions of others

They also treat in detail how to work with clients from each of the four behavioral types. They provide detailed discussions broken down by the six phases of the sales cycle. Here are some examples.

Table 4 – Working with Clients Based on Behavior Type

 

Phase	Client Behavior Style	Recommended Techniques
Meeting	Socializer	Be upbeat, friendly, and maintain a fast pace; downplay features, specifications, and performance data
Studying	Thinker	Phrase your questions precisely and ask for precise answers; ask for exact numbers, not approximations
Proposal	Director	Complete all necessary analysis and lay the results out for approval or disapproval
Confirming the sale	Relater	Clearly state your recommendation, explain your conviction that it is the best solution, and suggest next steps

The authors also analyze when in the sales process you may be comfortable or uncomfortable given your own behavior style. They make some concise suggestions on how to improve your performance.

Conclusion

It is one thing to assert that we are committed to ethical, trustworthy, and non-manipulative selling. It is another to actually put the principles and techniques to work in the field. The risks seem obvious: What if this doesn’t work? Don’t I have to press for the sale? After all, I need it.

The strength of this book is that it gives both the background needed to understand  non-manipulative selling and the practical advice needed to put it into practice. While this information will not eliminate all the stresses involved in moving to non-manipulative selling, it will remove a lot of the uncertainty about what is going on.

I highly recommend Non-Manipulative Selling to all small business sellers who work in complex and transactional sales and who wish to improve their practical abilities to sell effectively and ethically.

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Rob Reed is president of Terrakon Marketing, an internet marketing and sales consulting firm based in St. Louis. Terrakon helps small businesses, service firms and professionals attract more prospects and win more customers. Learn more at www.Terrakon.com or Rob's blog at www.MarketingCentricity.com.