q
Executive Summary
q
Welcome to the executive overview to Sharpening Your Competi-
tive Edge: How to Strengthen Your Distribution Sales Team for
Top Results. This summary is meant to help you better understand the
focus and goal of this book. The following members of your distribution
sales organization may find it useful:
l For distribution sales executives who want to lead their
sales team to increased selling effectiveness and success: This
overview will provide you with an understanding of this book’s
overall direction and a quick reference guide to help you find
the specific chapter you want to review.
l For senior executives or owners who want to understand
what their sales executive is working to accomplish in driving
this selling process improvement initiative within your com-
pany: This overview is meant to give you a quick understand-
ing of this book’s direction and goals so you can better support
your sales team as team members work to understand and
apply these ideas.
l For sales managers and reps who want to understand the
direction and goals of this selling process improvement initia-
tive: This overview can help you understand how and why the
issues being discussed within your sales team evolved; you
might find special interest in the final chapters in this book,
which talk specifically to the sales manager, the experienced
sales professional, and the new salesperson.
xv
Executive Summary
xvi
The two goals of this book are (1) to provide you with the best questions
and tests to help you understand and evaluate your current distribution
sales organization and (2) to show you a low-risk path to bring change
and improvement to your sales team.
Part 1. Preparing to Use the Seven Questions to Increase
Your Team’s Selling Success
In Part 1, you will identify the biases that affect your organization’s
leadership, review quality improvement philosophies, and learn how to
use the seven questions to lead your sales team to success.
Chapter 1. Introduction: Identifying the Biases in