New Sales. Simplified. book club questions

1. 1.

   Could you deliver your two-minute sales story right now, without notes, to someone who has never heard of your company? What would be missing?

2. 2.

   How many truly new accounts have you opened in the past ninety days? Is that number consistent, growing, or declining?

3. 3.

   Weinberg argues that account management and new-business development are fundamentally different activities. Do you treat them that way in your schedule?

4. 4.

   What is your current target account list, and how did you build it? Is it strategic or merely a list of everyone in your territory?

5. 5.

   When was the last time you made a cold call? What happened, and what did you learn about your pitch from that call?

6. 6.

   Weinberg is harsh on organizations that let salespeople drift into pure account management. Does your company reward hunting or farming more, and how does that shape behavior?

7. 7.

   What objections do you most often hear in the first conversation? How directly does your current sales story address them?

8. 8.

   Pick a deal you lost in the past year. At what point in the process did you actually lose it, and was there a story problem at the beginning?

9. 9.

   The book argues that salespeople avoid the phone mainly out of discomfort rather than data. What evidence do you have that your alternative channels are actually more effective?

10. 10.

    How much of your selling time last week was spent on prospecting new accounts versus managing existing relationships?

11. 11.

    Weinberg says differentiation is almost never communicated clearly enough. How differentiated is your pitch from your top competitor's, and could a prospect tell the difference?

12. 12.

    If a new salesperson joined your team tomorrow, what would their sales story be? Is it written down anywhere?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.