If you would like to download an instant ebook of
WOMBAT SELLING: How to sell by Word of Mouth, simply click here.

WOMBAT SELLING is a completely rewritten and updated version of NewSell, first published in New York in 1984 (Boardroom Books) and then in Australia in 1990 (Wrightbooks). It became required reading for any businessperson. It exposed the dirty secret of traditional selling: that we actually have no way of knowing how to close the sale!

When first released NewSell had a huge impact on businesspeople and salespeople, trainers and managers, entrepreneurs and CEOs. It challenged them to get their thinking on track about the business of selling. It was an attempt to show the underlying logic of a new type of reasoning–a new way of thinking about selling. It was brain candy of the highest quality.

Michael’s writing simply changes our familiar view of ‘selling’. He turns into questions what had unthinkingly been regarded as answers. He reveals previously undreamed of opportunities for doing new business. He surprises us with dimensions of counterintuitive strategies. Above all, he clears up long-standing confusions, even those that others writing in the field are afraid to tackle.

In this new edition, WOMBAT SELLING shows how your customers can create a whole new world of business for you and become hard-working rainmakers 24/7—selfish rainmakers perhaps but constant.

NEWSELL was unique in that it was genuinely something new about selling. It was acclaimed by marketing gurus and business leaders alike. It provided the intellectual basis for customer-driven selling, permission marketing, viral marketing and buzz or word-of-mouth selling. It became the most important teaching aid for salespeople.

Now WOMBAT SELLING has the power of educating a new generation of ecommerce businesspeople about selling—it literally leads salespeople out of one way of thinking and forces them, often quite shockingly, to see selling in a different way.

For those who are looking for the actual fountain of new ideas about selling, the quintessence of the emerging ecommerce paradigm, they had better consult WOMBAT SELLING. A full understanding of this strategy will revolutionise your ability to manage evolving complex markets, grow new online passion groups and get your customers replicating and your business growing.

WOMBAT SELLING by Michael Hewitt-Gleeson. RRP $24.95. For further information or to request a review copy or an interview with Michael please email or contact Megan Taylor 03 8520 6444.

Michael, Peter Cosgrove, John Tickell and other leading Australian speakers will work with business people at a unique workshop on the Gold Coast in August.

……

Your Business Success Seminar
Sheraton Mirage, Gold Coast
Friday 3 August – Sunday 5 August 2007

“In the twenty years I have been in the corporate speakers business I have never seen a seminar post a line-up as strong as this.” Barry Markoff, CEO - ICMI Speakers & Entertainers

BOOK RESERVATIONS HERE: The Your Business Success program on Channel 9 has seen many struggling businesses and sometimes the only reason they are not succeeding is due to the mindset of the operator.

“Before I could put my name to this seminar I needed to be convinced it offered substance and the right ingredients to allow all attendees to receive real take home benefits for their business.” Andrew Vincent, Executive Producer - Your Business Success, Channel 9, every Sunday.

From Glenn Mickle:

I read your book, Wombat Selling, six months ago and found it to be a revelation. Not because of it’s remarkable content, although the research, concepts and action plan are pretty amazing. What I loved more than anything is that, at last, someone has articulated the sales method that I had been fumbling with for ten years.

Let me explain. I have been a self-employed wedding/portrait photographer in Orange, NSW for ten years. Prior to that I worked in press and druing that time did photography, journalism, layout/design and even sold advertising. I loved my work as a photographer. It’s a rare privilege to be invited into someone’s home and heart to help record their lives.

Over the years I developed an approach which I discovered later (thanks to your book) approximated the WOMBAT method. Usually my new customers came from referrals and that’s a good place to start. My goal from the first meeting was to create images for them that would not go out of date (this is a common objection to the price of professional photography). I reasoned that if a portrtait dd not date then it would be excellent value for money, almost irrespective of the price paid.

Bob Pritchard, aussie head-kicking marketer, says you cant promote your business until you know what business you’re in. What I discovered was that I was in “the family history business”. Therefore timeless portraits must include four essential ingredients (and these do not include posing, lighting or didigital manipulation). The four are the client’s family history, personality, emotions and relationships.

I would explain this to my clients and they would then go home to prepare for the shoot. On the day of photography session (usually at their personally significant location) I would bring my camera gear and they would bring all these wonderful raw materials for me to work with. Family heirlooms like hats, jewellery or books. The locations would include grandparents farms or the place where mum and dad first met. We would photograph family picnics, riding bikes, drinking wine or playing touch footy.

Of course all these great ideas caught on film by me, but provided by the clients, made me look like a creative genius. That was also good for business.

Anyway, as you can see, by focussing on the process, I was basically following your methods. I was taking the client into check and they were helping me. When it came to checkmate, it was often a case of “I yield!”.

So again thankyou for your book and your thoughts.

Glenn Mickle

“The phenomenal growth of Second Life continues, and its presence is being felt around the world,” said Bob Ivins, Managing Director of comScore Europe. “With nearly 800,000 active residents in Europe, Second Life is proving to be popular on an international scale. It’s especially fascinating to note that the number of active German residents exceeds the number of active residents in the entire U.S. It is little wonder that bricks and mortar businesses are seeing Second Life as a virtual-world way of accessing a global, real-world customer base.”

In addition to the resident activity cited above, comScore found that the Secondlife.com website was visited by 3.6 million worldwide visitors aged 15 and older during March, up 17 percent from February and an increase of 46 percent over January.

The strong visitor growth to Secondlife.com indicates continuing and potential future growth in Second Life residents, since the software application used to access the Second Life world is only available from this site.

SMH: Google has knocked Microsoft from its perch as the world’s top-ranked brand, according to findings released on Monday.

The rankings, compiled by market research firm Millward Brown, also put Google ahead of well-established brands like General Electric, No. 2; Coca-Cola, No. 4; Wal-Mart Stores, No. 7; and IBM, No. 9.

Some key factors seen this year in building brand recognition ranged from corporate responsibility to serving customers in emerging markets like Brazil and India, according to the study.

The top-ranked brand from a non-US-based company was China Mobile, which dropped a spot but still came in at No. 5.

The rankings were based on publicly available financial data along with primary research, including interviews with a million consumers worldwide, Millward Brown said.

For Google, which ranked No. 7 a year ago, the jump to the top underscores how quickly the web search leader has become an everyday name. The company uses relatively little advertising, instead relying on word-of-mouth promotion.

More on this story …

Nearly 2 Million New Zealanders Spent an Average of 20 Hours per Person on the Internet in March says ComScore. More from ComScore …

SIMON CHEN says: This is probably the most respected teaching forum for people who really want to learn about selling online. I attended this back in 2003 and the faculty that Ken McCarthy pulls together every year are all leading players in their field.

But this is where the basic model of these events is flawed. You see, the speakers all need (or want) to be compensated. So their sessions are platforms whereby they are supposed to deliver content to the audience and then gently mention that there are options for investing with them - by either buying their product or service.
More from Simon …