iSell – Sales Book Review

📅 15th May 2021 | 2020/21 Sales Book Reviews

You are motivated by only two things; pain and pleasure.

Over half of the content of Leigh Ashton‘s book, published in 2011, is devoted to what’s going on in your, or your salespeople’s heads. Before you can rise to the top in sales, you first of all have to concentrate not on your customer (which does sound a bit counter-intuitive) but on you. If you’re not focused and/or lack the motivation to make things happen – things will never happen. Read on…….

What’s New

Although iSell was published a decade ago much of the content is as relevant today as it was back in 2010. Even the book’s cover looks very contemporary and the strap-line Unlock your winning sales mindset is what one would expect of a modern motivational sales book. There are ten easy-to-read sections with ample space to write down notes and thoughts as one goes along. Leigh needs to be congratulated for getting a testimonial from Brian Tracy in the front cover – and the inside cover has the brilliant Peter Thomson and Penny Power weighing in with contributions.

As I alluded to above, the first few chapters are dedicated to you, your aspirations, goals and what maybe holding you back from selling more – or even have the confidence to get started. Much of the content is derived from the author’s experience of NLP and how it applies in sales.

I must admit that I had never heard of IPA (apart from the brand of beer!) in the context of sales. Leigh Ashton writes in Section 9 that it stands for Income Producing Activity. Back in the day, we had a similar mnemonic – CFT or Customer Facing Time on the basis that you can’t get an order when you’re not in front of a customer. Little bit different nowadays with the internet.

What’s Old

Getting a rapport with your prospective clients is central to getting “the deal across the line”. This is old hat but oh so true. There’s little point in knowing everything about your client, or your product unless one gets on the same wavelength as your customer during the sales cycle.

Setting personal goals and seeing them through has been around for donkeys. So what? If you don’t write down what you want to achieve in the short, medium and long-term….you will suffer great disconsolation in your career. Create goals and stick to them.

What’s Better

What’s great about iSell is its simplicity. It’s a paper version of a sales training course one can attend over a weekend and ideal for a new starter in the sales profession. The final section which is written for sales managers gives oversights for the previous nine sections. One of the most important passages is about communications to and from the sales team. That in itself justifies the relatively inexpensive cost of the book.

What else did I like:

a) The font style used throughout the book

b) The tough questions the author asks of the reader in the early sections

c) The ‘Victor Kiam’ style comment about confidence in Section 10

d) The passage on procrastination.

What’s Worse

The only thing that’s ‘worse’ about iSell is that it’s well under 200 pages long. Having mentioned that, I believe I will rank it in the top two or three sales books for those who are beginning their sales journey, whether as a salesperson or fledgling sales manager.

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Tags: sales, sales training