[afarrell]

> can't be achieved through reading a book.

Note to others: Some people learn better when they first acquaint themselves with some theory, then take that mental framework into practical situations and use it to orient themselves and pick out the important features of a situation. Know thyself and if thats you, avoid disorientation by being getting good book (or class) recommendations and discussing them. Just make sure it is a tool and don't let it be something you use to retreat from the discomfort of practicing a very new skill. You can't learn the skill only from a book.

> Don't sell a drill, sell the hole. Clients are not looking for the specs of the drill, but the size of a hole.

This is an example of a true piece of advice which is a very pithy way of stating what is in fact some reasonably meaty theory.

[thetrumanshow]

“Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eUmxGqsuKmY

[IAMsterdam]

A book won't help you making the actual sale. It can provide you some guidelines (SPIN, Miller Heimann, Sales 2.0, DISC, Challenger Sale and many more) and confidence to actually start, but eventually the complexity of the actual sale can be mapped to the weather. However if you have identified the clients budget, mapped their stakeholders, communicate with the decision makers and you have created the need and urgency for your solution, you can increase the likelyhood of coming to a sale. Even tough things will happen outside of your control.....