The Relationship Edge: The Key to Strategic Influence and Selling Success, 2nd Edition

by Jerry Acuff; With: Wally Wood

• ISBN13: 9780470068335
• ISBN10: 0470068337
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-01
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Get the relationship edge The Relationship Edge shows you exactly how to build valuable business relationships with people you don't naturally connect with. It presents a straightforward, three-step process that is easy to apply to your work and business. Jerry Acuff provides real-world principles for developing strong and lasting personal relationships with the key people in your business life, helping you become more effective and persuasive while maintaining meaningful, truthful dialogues with those around you. Acuff shows how the more truthful and direct you are with customers and colleagues, the more truthful they'll be with you-and the more likely you are to find meaningful solutions to the business challenges you share. This revised edition includes new information on building and leveraging healthy business relationships, especially how to maintain them over the long term. With real case studies and step-by-step guidance, The Relationship Edge offers the tools and advice you need to develop strong, rewarding relationships with customers, coworkers, and managers. With practical, concrete information on the mechanics of interpersonal relationships in the business world, you'll be well on your way to doing business better and more productively. "A great coaching tool for every sales manager-finally, a book that outlines step by step how to build both strong customer and personal relationships." -John M. Woychick, Senior Vice President, Training, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals "Time and time again, Jerry Acuff's approach to selling has been proven to work. A must-read for those who believe that successful selling is a part of their everyday life." -Georges Gemayel, Executive Vice President, Genzyme Corporation

Author Biography

JERRY ACUFF is President of Delta Point-The Sales Agency, a Scottsdale, Arizona–based consultancy that helps market-leading companies find new and innovative ways to market products. A graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, he has also served as Executive in Residence at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

WALLY WOOD is a professional writer and the former editor of two business magazines and an international marketing newsletter.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
Climbing the Relationship Pyramid	1	(20)
Building Relationships Is a Skill	4	(1)
Payback Time in Memphis	5	(2)
Relationships Can Trump Price	7	(2)
Four Fundamental Selling Truths	9	(2)
Meaningful Dialogue Comes with Trust	11	(2)
Climbing the Relationship Pyramid	13	(2)
You Need Knowledge, Integrity, Actions	15	(2)
Key Points about the Pyramid	17	(4)
What Strong Relationships Require	21	(26)
Three Steps to Building a Positive Relationship	24	(3)
Make Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Positive	27	(2)
Think Well of Others (Even the Jerks)	29	(2)
Implement the Process Completely	31	(2)
Learn Strategies, Not Tactics	33	(2)
Set Yourself Apart	35	(2)
Do Unexpected, Unselfish Actions	37	(3)
Building a Relationship Takes Time	40	(3)
Decide Who's Key, Then Do Something	43	(4)
Twenty Questions	47	(24)
Start with a Self-Check	50	(2)
Sharing Creates the Relationship	52	(1)
Learn What Someone Treasures	53	(2)
Thirteen Facts about Human Beings	55	(3)
Let the Other Person Talk	58	(1)
Sell by Not Selling	59	(1)
Start with These 20 Questions	60	(3)
Memorize the Questions, but Think Form	63	(2)
Tell Me Something That Will Surprise Me	65	(1)
Respect Their Time and Opinions	66	(2)
Plan What You Will Ask	68	(3)
Good Questions Promote Meaningful Dialogue	71	(24)
Motives Matter	73	(1)
Setting up a Good Question	74	(2)
Analyze the Bridge to the Question	76	(2)
Preface Your Question	78	(1)
Ask Personal Questions First	79	(3)
Hold up a Book	82	(2)
Don't Suggest an Answer	84	(1)
Learn What Someone Treasures	84	(4)
Make Them Think	88	(2)
Stimulate Real Thinking	90	(1)
Ways to Gain Respect	91	(4)
It's a Small World After All	95	(14)
Connect for Yourself	97	(2)
Use the Small World Phenomenon	99	(4)
Connect for the Other Person	103	(2)
Connect with Difficult People	105	(1)
Probe for Connections	106	(3)
It's Not What You Know; It's What You Do	109	(24)
Show You Genuinely Care about Other People	112	(1)
Business Gifts Are Not Unselfish Acts	113	(2)
Be Alert to Opportunities	115	(15)
Do the Right Thing	130	(3)
Why You Ought to Map Your Relationships	133	(16)
Map Relationships with Four Groups	136	(1)
People Inside the Organization	137	(2)
People Outside the Organization	139	(3)
People Important to Your Career	142	(2)
People Who Are Upset with You	144	(3)
Build Relationships Strategically	147	(2)
Pyramid Hopping for Fun and Profit	149	(14)
Pyramid Hopping Is Not Networking	151	(2)
Friendly Is Not the Same as Friendship	153	(2)
Pyramid Hopping in Practice	155	(1)
Pyramid Hopping Requires Questions	156	(2)
Pyramid Hopping Usually Requires Specifics	158	(5)
Build Respect, Set Goals, and Maintain Relationships	163	(42)
Identify Qualities You Respect	165	(3)
Thirteen Ways to Gain Respect	168	(1)
Examples of Building Respect	169	(11)
Set Clear, Written Goals	180	(2)
Visualize What You Want	182	(2)
Set Difficult Goals---But Not Too Many	184	(2)
Be Willing to Pay the Price	186	(1)
You Don't Have to Be Where You Are	187	(3)
Maintain Your Meaningful Relationships	190	(3)
Create Time for Relationships	193	(3)
Help Others to Succeed	196	(1)
Keep the Dialogue Continual	197	(3)
Make Contact When You Don't Need Help	200	(5)
And What If You're the Boss?	205	(26)
The Six Drivers of Business Success	208	(8)
Problems with Command and Control	216	(2)
Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction	218	(2)
Problems with Sales Training	220	(2)
Selling Is Learning and Teaching	222	(1)
What Managers Should Be Doing	223	(1)
A Coaching Process for Relationship Development	224	(4)
Build Relationships Routinely, Consciously, Deliberately	228	(3)
Notes	231	(4)
Index	235