Coming soon · Book Profile
The Collaborative Sale Solution Selling in
To win in a buyer-driven world where informed, risk-averse buyers engage sellers late, sellers must abandon control and instead collaborate as equals by mastering situational fluency and three sales personae: the Micro-Marketer, the Visualizer, and the Value Driver.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Building on the acclaimed Solution Selling methodology, The Collaborative Sale addresses a radically changed buyer—'Buyer 2.0'—who researches independently online, buys by committee, is highly risk-averse, and engages sellers only late in the process. Drawing on Sales Performance International's research and work with hundreds of global clients, Eades and Sullivan argue that selling is now a collaborative effort between equals, and that sellers differentiate themselves not by what they sell but by how they sell. The book equips readers with a foundational competency—situational fluency—and three learnable personae that align with where buyers are in their process: the Micro-Marketer who engages early buyers through social media and personal brand, the Visualizer who creates and reengineers compelling solution visions, and the Value Driver who quantifies value collaboratively and mitigates buyer risk. It closes with a practical implementation framework of the right process (dynamic, buyer-aligned sales process), right people (talent assessment and analytics), and right tools (focused enablement). Illustrated with a running narrative and real client stories (Maersk Line, Microsoft, PNC Bank, Emerson), it offers a modern, research-grounded roadmap for succeeding with today's empowered buyers.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A sales, sales management, or marketing professional who wants to consistently win business and become a trusted partner to modern buyers.
- The problem
- Informed, risk-averse Buyer 2.0 engages sellers late, buys by committee, and often chooses 'no decision,' making opportunities harder to win. The seller feels frustrated, defensive, and increasingly reduced to a commodity vendor competing on price.
- The plan
- Understand Buyer 2.0 and how buying behavior has changed.
- Develop situational fluency as your foundational competency.
- Play the Micro-Marketer persona to engage and add value early via personal brand and social media.
- Play the Visualizer persona to create, enhance, or reengineer compelling solution visions.
- Play the Value Driver persona to quantify value collaboratively and mitigate risk with a Collaboration Plan.
- The payoff
- Higher win rates, larger deals, and better margins. · Elevation from vendor to trusted partner with buyers. · More and better-quality pipeline with earlier buyer engagement.
See our guide
Related profiles we’ve built
- Spin Selling the Best Validated Sales →
- Predictable Revenue Turn Your Business Into →
- To Sell Is Human the Surprising →
- Pitch Anything an Innovative Method for →
- Crucial Conversations Skills →
- Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In →
- Never Split the Difference →
- Sources of Power How People Make Decisions →
Additional reading
- Attitudinal Variables and Behavior: Three Empirical Studies and a Theoretical Reanalysis · M. Fishbein & I. Ajzen
The book cites this work to support its research philosophy, which emphasizes observing actual behaviors over measuring attitudes, as attitudes are often poor predictors of performance.
- SPIN Selling · Neil Rackham
The book positions the Challenger model as the next major breakthrough after the 'consultative selling' era, which was largely defined by Rackham's research and the SPIN methodology. Rackham wrote the foreword, framing this book as a potential 'fourth breakthrough' in sales history.
- The Psychology of Selling · E. K. Strong
Referenced in the foreword as a foundational breakthrough in sales that introduced the idea of learnable sales techniques like questioning and objection handling. This provides historical context for the evolution of sales methodologies.
- From Impossible To Inevitable · Aaron Ross & Jason Lemkin
The sequel to Predictable Revenue, it expands on growth strategies for scaling a business, co-authored with the founder of SaaStr.
- First, Break All The Rules: What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently · Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
Referenced for its 12 key questions to measure employee satisfaction, which is crucial for retaining the star talent needed to run a sales machine.
- The Seven Day Weekend · Ricardo Semler
Recommended as a resource for CEOs looking to move away from command-and-control management and toward more democratic, employee-empowering organizational structures.
- Barking Up A Dead Horse · Tom Batchelder
Recommended for its focus on the importance of disqualifying poor-fit sales opportunities quickly, a key principle for sales efficiency.
- CEOFlow: Turn Your Employees Into MiniCEOs · Aaron Ross
The author's other work, recommended for deeper insights into creating self-managing teams and empowering employees.
- Inbound Marketing · Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
Written by the co-founders of HubSpot, this book provides a deeper dive into the demand generation philosophy that is a cornerstone of the author's sales formula.
- The Long Tail · Christopher Anderson
The book's central concept is cited as a key strategic principle for inbound marketing content, advising companies to target niche, 'long-tail' keywords rather than highly competitive head terms.