SNAP Selling

Su m m ar ize d

SOUND SMART. SAVE TIME. SELL MORE.

A 15-page guide
to the #1 selling,
300-page sales
book.
Contents (Click to Jump to a section)

Quick Synopsis

Key Terms

Chapters 1-6: Snap Selling Defined

Chapters 7-14: The First Decision

Chapters 15-25: The Second Decision

Chapters 26-32: The Third Decision

Strut Your Smarts: Quotes Worth

Sharing

Free Tool for Snap Selling

Acknowledgements
SNAP Selling by Jill Konrath
on Goodreads Published 2010

Quick Synopsis:

Wherever you turn in the sales space, everyone has heard

of Jill Konrath and her sales practices. Having a high-level
understanding of her best-selling book will help you quickly
show your understanding of the most important component
of your job: Your customers.

Regardless of industry, todays buyers have access to

endless information. They can learn anything and everything
they want about your product or service, and as a result are
quick to not trust salespeople. Jill writes SNAP Selling from
the perspective of how these information overloaded
prospects and customers are purchasing today.

This summary will walk you through her SNAP Selling

framework, and how she educates salespeople to speed up
their sales and win more business with todays frazzled
customers.

Well start with some key terms, jump into the full summary,
and end up with sharable quotes to show o your latest
reading.
Key Terms

Buyers Matrix: A core foundation of your sales

strategies that enables you to get inside your customers
heads to better serve their needs.

D-Zone: The dreaded space where your sales email or

outreach gets deleted.

Frazzled Customer Syndrome: An understanding that

todays salespeople are working with todays crazy-busy,
impatient, easily distracted, demanding prospects.

Go Zone: A space where the SNAP factors are tightly

addressed and your sales outreach results in a response.

SNAP Selling: A sales strategy that sellers need to win

deals with todays modern buyers. The core factors are
simple, invaluable, align, and priorities.

The Three Decisions: An understanding of the unique

stages a prospect is in when deciding to choose your
business. These stages are allowing access, switching from
the status quo, and changing resources.
Chapters 1 -6: SNAP Selling Defined

SNAP Selling is a framework for selling with an

understanding of how customers make decisions. Jills blog
summarizes the concept quite well.

SNAP

Keep It Simple. Because crazy-busy prospects cannot

handle complexity of any sort, savvy sellers will do whatever
it takes to make it easy for make a change from the status
quo.

Be iNvaluable. Overwhelmed buyers want to work with

experts who continually bring them fresh ideas. You, the
seller, are now the primary dierentiator not your products
or services.

Always Align. This is all about relevance and risk. When

youre aligned with their critical business objectives and
core beliefs, people will want to work with you.

Raise Priorities. Its an absolute imperative to work with

frazzled prospects on their priority projects. With their
limited capacity, thats all they can currently focus on.

Well review the rest of this book through the SNAP

framework so you leave with the key points of the book.
Chapters 7 -14: The First Decision

Jill discusses three decisions a customer makes in choosing

to work with you. You can see these outlined here:

Customers are already bombarded with interruptions and

think of salespeople as a waste of time. In order to earn
access to their time, Jill says its critical to convey relevant
information in a series of 20-30 touches -- via phone, email,
etc. She frames this all within her own SNAP framework well.

SNAP

Simple: Once you understand your customers needs, this

is a key factor. Its critical to pack just the right information
into thirty-second phone messages, ninety-word emails, or
one-page letters.

iNvaluable: Your personal value will be assessed very

quickly by what you say in your message. If you
demonstrate an understanding of their business, objectives,
and priorities, youll dierentiate yourself. If you just give
your pitch, youll be Ms. or Mr. Ordinary -- a person not
worth meeting.
Aligned: This is essential. If you are not aligned with your
customers needs, issues, or objectives you will not be
granted access to the decision maker. Being ruthlessly
relevant is the name of the game.

Priority: This is the trump card in the first decision. If you can
tie the organizations or individuals priorities into your
messaging, your odds of getting in will be increased
exponentially.

Jill goes on to describe how most sellers dont pay enough

attention to the first decision and describing tactics for
improving your outreach. Heres a brief review of the key
concepts on what she recommends you do or dont do.

Stop ... Start ...

Opening with: Opening with:
Hi. My name is Anum and I In working with other orgs in
worked for Signals Team ... the sanitizing space ...
Using adjectives like: Using verbs like:
Industry leader, buzz, Accelerate, reduce, enhance,
groundbreaking, world-class revitalize, cut, save
Leaving a voicemail with: Leaving a voicemail with:
A lengthy pitch on what your A trigger event that establishes
product or service can provide. credibility and piques curiosity.
Sending: Sending:
Generic just checking in An email of useful resources to
follow up emails. educate and influence.
Chapters 15 -25: The Second Decision

The next 10 chapters of SNAP Selling focus on the second

decision: Initiate Change.

Once customers have allowed you access, salespeople

need to begin painting a new story that exemplifies the
value your business will bring them. At this stage, prospects
are still thinking about if the ROI is there or if they have
enough time to implement your solution.

Jill describes how the SNAP factors impact a prospects

second decision.

SNAP

Simple: Being able to deliver a sizable impact to your

prospects organization isnt enough. The complexity of any
change initiative can grind a buying decision to a
screeching halt. The easier you can make it, the better your
chances of success.

iNvaluable: By provoking your prospects thinking, showing

them better ways to do things, and guiding them through
the complexities of making a decision, youll be seen as a
valuable asset and part of the team. If they decide to
move ahead, you will be in the drivers seat.
Aligned: If what youre talking about isnt relevant to their
business objectives, they wont waste their time. However,
crazy-busy people are always interested in ideas, insights,
and information that can help them achieve their business
objectives. Their focus is also on the size and scope of your
oerings impact.

Priority: Keeping the change initiative a high priority

requires a rigorous commitment to rooting out all possible
issues that could bog down the decision-making process.

The rest of the chapters on the second decision discuss

how to handle the meetings and conversations you have
with your prospects. Here are a few key components Jill
addresses.

1. The Death of Consultative Selling: While many modern

sales techniques discuss a consultation-driven sale, Jill
warns of being too consultative too soon. Buyers dont
want to sit and answer all your consultative questions
they want to hear why youre worth their time.

Start by using general assumptions around what your

prospects pains and needs are. Provide some examples
of how you can help, and then, once curiosity is piqued,
begin asking consultative questions to establish context
and cater your sell to their specific goals and needs.
2. Youve Got Five Minutes Talk!: Oftentimes, in order to
get a prospects limited time, you can only sneak 5
minutes onto their calendars. Jill recommends using
these mini-meetings as a foot-in-the-door strategy the
less time you ask for, the more likely you get a chance to
speak in the first place.

3. Finding Bigger and Better Business Value: When

listening to your prospects, listen for key words that
should highlight problems you can dive further into and
solve with your business solution:

Dissatisfaction Issues Headache

Bottleneck Frustration Trouble
Challenges Aggravation Concerns

4. Become iNvaluable: Jill spends four chapters on how a

salesperson can truly be iNvaluable. Her core ideas
include:
What makes your business dierent than
competitors is you. No one can replicate your sale.
Create a $500 customer experience ditch
PowerPoint and have real, valuable conversations.
Continuously create value through sales cycle.

5. Maintain the Momentum: Even when things are going

smoothly, a deal can go dark. Keep in contact and
continue providing value until the deal is won.
Chapters 26 - 32: The Third Decision

This final core section of the book reviews the third

decision: Select Resources.

At this stage, prospects have to make a decision on which

product to choose, how to justify their choice, and minimize
risk. Lets look at it through Jills words.

SNAP

Simple: Even hot prospects cool o when they start to

realize everything they need to do to make a change in
their organization. To prevent this, root out any complexities.
Most of all, provide strong leadership to guide your
prospect through the messy decision-making process.

iNvaluable: Unless you personally bring value, youre

disposable. If your prospects dont sense that you bring any
worthwhile expertise to the relationship, they will go with the
most cost-eective solution.
Aligned: Having a solid business case is a start, but you also
need someone to care. Companies are now looking for
alignment with their risk temperament: Are you safe
enough? They also want to be sure that youre a good fit
with their corporate culture.

Priority: Newtons Law is now working for you. Usually a

body in motion tends to stay in motion. But things can get
bogged down, so you have to keep the momentum moving
forward. The stronger youre aligned with corporate
priorities, the better.

The rest of the chapters on the third decision ultimately

discuss how to win the business youve been working. Here
are the high-level chapter points.

1. Selling to Hot Prospects: One of the biggest mistakes

Jill says sellers make at this stage is being too nice to
prospects. At this stage, Jill says how you sell is far more
important than what you sell. So focus on helping the
prospect make their decision versus eagerly pitching
yourself repeatedly. This can be accomplished by
creating:
Creating a decision map that maps out a prospects
journey to close from their perspective.
Landscape the competition to identify what youre
up against and understand where you can combat
objections.
2. Make the Decision as Easy as Possible: As the expert in
selling your solution to various businesses, help your
prospect make a decision by being a leader in the
conversation. Lead with questions that can help drive an
understanding of why they need your solution. One way
to make it extra simple is providing a roadmap.

3. Balance the Value-Risk Equation: Help your prospects

understand the value your solution will bring over the
risk of using it. Ask questions that begin unfolding the
true cost of inaction, such as:
How will staying with the status quo impact your
business?
What about the cost of the continued problems?
What wont you able to achieve? What does that
mean to you from a business perspective?

4. Be The One They Want to Work With: Collaborate with

your prospects as if theyre already a customer. Thatll
help them see how connected your relationship is. Act
as the trusted source, and consider giving them a
competitive checklist of how you fall on speed, cost, and
the like against the other vendor options.

5. Getting the Business: The end is near. At this point,

arrange conversation with existing customers, create a
SNAP-py presentation, and build a powerful proposal.
Just be sure you help them say yes with an easy plan.
Strut Your Smarts Quotes Worth Sharing

When you figure out how to deal with frazzled customers,

everything changes.
Click an icon to sh
are!

Sales is an outcome, not a goal. Its a function of doing

numerous things right, starting from the moment you target
a potential prospect until you finalize the deal.

Frazzled customers dont want to hear about your products

or services. They will grant you access only if you pique
their curiosity or provoke their thinking.

Dont wait around for your prospect to get in touch with

you. Keep thinking of fresh reasons you can get in front of
them, bringing them more ideas, insights, and information to
help them achieve their desired business outcomes.

You cant try to be successful at selling. It just doesnt

work. You have to commit to it and be willing to do what it
takes to reach your objectives. Then, when things change,
you have to go back to learning again.
Free Tool for SNAP Selling

Imagine receiving a notification that a hot prospect

has clicked the proposal link you pasted in your email.
You can then easily pull up every single interaction
the prospect has had with you, your company, your
website and more. Within a SNAP, you can reach out
when that prospect already has you on your mind.

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Acknowledgements

When all your time is focused on selling, its hard to find

time to sit down and read an entire book. But that doesnt
mean we should ignore the most talked about sales books.
Thats why I decided to sit down and do the reading for
you.

Whether youre a pro salesperson or simply considering

sales as a profession, I hope this summary was helpful in
understanding what SNAP Selling is all about.

With sales love,

Anum Hussain
@anum