Thanks to Shoumitro of Austal Group this book has happened. Selling the wheel elucidates how to sell a product based on the complexity of the purchase decision and expertise of the customer.
The authors, Jeff Cox and Howard Stevens, are successful in clearly conveying their idea through a story. The narration, though verbose at some parts, made the complex and boring theory into a practical anecdote. The story begins with Max inventing a wheel in a world that is “wheel-less” or manual. Like any other “technology focused entrepreneur” he believes that his idea is revolutionary and everybody in the World will be after him to buy one. But to his frustration, his initial attempts to sell the wheel fails. In the meantime, his factory is full of inventory!
Then the story progresses to how he gets his sales startegy right and recruits different sales persons at different stages of the product life cycle. He starts with Cassius the Closer who target the “innovators” or customers who are visionary and can use the technology with no help. Then to target the “early adopters” Max recruits Tody the Wizard. This class of sales people are suitable to deal with customers who need a little help to use the product. When the product enters maturing zone, Max recruits Ben the Builder to improve sales. The Builders primarily focus on customer relationships and are exceptional at Business 2 Business (B2B) selling. When the wheel becomes a commodity, Max relies on Captain of Sales. These people are good at building sales systems that succeed in a commodity market. The story closes with Max acquiring a couple of competitors, finetuning the corporate strategy to focus on early adopter market and becoming a Fortune 500 company.
The beauty of the book lies in its simplicity. It makes topics like customer segmentation, Roger’s diffusion curve, managing sales force and choosing markets & products very easy to understand. Minnie’s (Wife of Max) notes and Oracle’s (Consultant to Max) tips make reading simpler. The idea can be an ipod or a new restaurant .. but the concepts remain same. This is a good book to teach children about selling as a bed time story..
