How to Deal with Difficult Customers: 10 Simple Strategies for Selling to the Stubborn, Obnoxious, and Belligerent - Hardcover

by Dave Anderson (Author)

Praise for How to Deal with Difficult Customers


"The application of the ten key strategies in this book will help every sales professional learn how to deal with the truly difficult and how to avoid creating unnecessary difficulties. It's written with the same wit, humor, and inspiration that have made Anderson's prior books so effective."
--Margaret Callihan, President, Chairman, and CEO, SunTrust Bank, Florida

"Anderson knocks another one out of the park with How to Deal with Difficult Customers! The problem is real; Anderson's solutions make sense and, as always, he makes you laugh in the process."
--Mike Roscoe, Editor in Chief, Dealer Magazine

"I could not put this book down. It's a salesperson's bible, offering clear and concise how-to advice. If you're in the selling profession and want to sell more, you should read this book . . . twice."
--Warren Lada, Senior Vice President, Saga Communications

"An individual executing the ideas within this book will change their own life and their organization. No one has the gift like Anderson to articulate the importance character plays in maximizing potential."
--Mike Tomberlin, CEO, The Tomberlin Group

"Throw out all your other sales manuals. Anderson's new book will change the way you look at customers, the way your salespeople look at themselves, and, quite frankly, the way you look at the sales process."
--Dan Janal, President, PRleads.com

"What are you waiting for? We all have difficult customers. If you're tired of leaving money on the table because you can't handle them, read this book. If your good customers are turning into difficult customers, read this book. If you want to deliver results year-in and year-out, read, re-read, and apply the lessons of this book."
--Randy Pennington, author, Results Rule!

Front Jacket

Why put any effort into trying to sell to stubborn, obnoxious, and belligerent customers (SOBs)? Most sales trainers don't even mention them: they only amount to about ten percent of your client base, and it's much easier to sell to people who are friendly, likeable, and reasonable, right?

Wrong! As salesman extraordinaire Dave Anderson points out in How to Deal with Difficult Customers, ten percent of your business adds up to a very large amount of money over the course of a career, and you're going to have to work with SOBs whether you like it or not. If you don't earn their business, your competition will. And, here's the big surprise: once you've gained the trust of your really difficult customers, they become your most loyal and supportive clients, giving you plenty of repeat business and showering you with referrals.

In this one-of-a-kind guide, you'll discover that SOBs are made, not born, and you'll learn how to win over the customers who make most salespeople want to run away screaming. Anderson explains the seven major factors that turn normal customers into SOBs, most of which involve previous experiences with salespeople who lacked the skill, knowledge, or motivation to serve them well.

Next, you'll find ten simple strategies proven to transform any SOB into a sweet and cuddly pussycat who can't wait to close the deal. You'll learn how to:

• Understand and use the ten truths about SOBs
• Take the fight out of the sales process
• Face and finesse the SOB "quadruple threat"
• Shovel the piles while they're still small
• Create a cult that the SOB is dying to join
• Generate "buy today" urgency
• Read an SOB's mind
• How to save a deal after you think you've lost it
• And much more

So, the next time you're struggling with a grumpy, cranky, whiney SOB, you won't have to just stand there wondering, "How can I sell to this jerk?" With the can't-miss strategies you'll find in How to Deal with Difficult Customers, you'll turn that sourpuss into a sweetheart, close the deal in no time, and find yourself eager to take on the next tough customer.

Back Jacket

Praise for How to Deal with Difficult Customers

"The application of the ten key strategies in this book will help every sales professional learn how to deal with the truly difficult and how to avoid creating unnecessary difficulties. It's written with the same wit, humor, and inspiration that have made Anderson's prior books so effective."
--Margaret Callihan, President, Chairman, and CEO, SunTrust Bank, Florida

"Anderson knocks another one out of the park with How to Deal with Difficult Customers! The problem is real; Anderson's solutions make sense and, as always, he makes you laugh in the process."
--Mike Roscoe, Editor in Chief, Dealer Magazine

"I could not put this book down. It's a salesperson's bible, offering clear and concise how-to advice. If you're in the selling profession and want to sell more, you should read this book . . . twice."
--Warren Lada, Senior Vice President, Saga Communications

"An individual executing the ideas within this book will change their own life and their organization. No one has the gift like Anderson to articulate the importance character plays in maximizing potential."
--Mike Tomberlin, CEO, The Tomberlin Group

"Throw out all your other sales manuals. Anderson's new book will change the way you look at customers, the way your salespeople look at themselves, and, quite frankly, the way you look at the sales process."
--Dan Janal, President, PRleads.com

"What are you waiting for? We all have difficult customers. If you're tired of leaving money on the table because you can't handle them, read this book. If your good customers are turning into difficult customers, read this book. If you want to deliver results year-in and year-out, read, re-read, and apply the lessons of this book."
--Randy Pennington, author, Results Rule!

Author Biography

DAVE ANDERSON is an entrepreneur, author, columnist, trainer, and speaker. The author of two previous Wiley books, Up Your Business! and If You Don't Make Waves, You'll Drown, Dave also writes a leadership column for Dealer Magazine and has produced numerous books, cassettes, CDs, videos, and other training resources. He gives 150 speeches, presentations, and workshops each year on sales and leadership development to audiences from around the world. Dave is also President of Dave Anderson's Learn To Lead and LearnToLead.com, a cutting-edge Web site providing hundreds of free training resources to thousands of people in over thirty countries.