Book excerpt: The Web has changed the game for your customers—and, therefore, for you. Now, CustomerCentricSelling, already recognized as one of the premiermethodologies for managing the buyer-sellerrelationship, helps you level the playing field soyou can reach clients when they are ready to buyand create a superior customer experience. Your business and its people need to be“CustomerCentric”—willing and able to identifyand serve customers’ needs in a world wherecompetition waits just a mouse-click away.Traditional wisdom has long held that sellingmeans convincing and persuading buyers. Buttoday’s buyers no longer want or need to be soldin traditional ways. CustomerCentric Selling givesyou mastery of the crucial eight aspects ofcommunicating with today’s clients to achieveoptimal results: Having conversations instead ofmaking presentations Asking relevant questions insteadof offering opinions Focusing on solutions and notonly relationships Targeting businesspeople insteadof gravitating toward users Relating product usage instead ofrelying on features Competing to win—not just to stay busy Closing on the buyer’s timeline(instead of yours) Empowering buyers instead of tryingto “sell” them What’s more, CustomerCentric Selling teaches andreinforces key tactics that will make the most ofyour organization’s resources. Perhaps you feelyou don’t have the smartest internal systems inplace to ensure an ideal workflow. (Perhaps, asis all too common, you lack identifiable systemsalmost entirely.) From the basics—and beyond—ofstrategic budgeting and negotiation to assessingand developing the skills of your sales force, you’lllearn how to make sure that each step yourbusiness takes is the right one.