Salesman On Fire Book Review – Part One

📅 31st August 2021 | 2020/21 Sales Book Reviews

“Sales and leadership, like life and love, are heartbreaking”.

If an Hollywood A-lister like Charlie Sheen gives your book the thumbs up on You Tube then I guess you’re on to something!

Salesman On Fire is not the usual “how to” selling guide and is the latest publication from American author and sales guru Carson V Heady in his Birth of a Salesman series. These include Birth of a Salesman, The Salesman Against the World and A Salesman Forever – you can be sure I’ll be checking all of these out over the forthcoming few months.

So what’s so special about Salesman On Fire? It’s simply a great story about the author interviewing a fictional sales superstar by the name of Vincent Scott. The first few chapters are full of great anecdotes and general sales tips…..Part 2 coming up next week……READ ON

What’s New

Years ago, one was taught how to shake a customers hand. But in these days of fist and elbow pumping, the handshake has gone, albeit temporarily, out of the window. It’ll return soon enough once the pandemic has abated and we’ll have to contend with the ‘bone-crusher’ the ‘wet fish’ and abhorrent ‘limp wrist’. Anybody worth their salt though will know how to meet and greet with their manus – some will be aware that by offering their hand in such a way so the recipient is forced to ‘shake from above’ thus given them a psychological boost and general warm feelings. Manipulation or a just clever trick of the sales game?

Although a work of fiction, one line beautifully sums up this pandemic publication. It’s in the book’s introduction. “Some were infected but all were affected”. If that doesn’t hit home amongst sellers then nothing will. The sales world has changed and as Carson states, “sales became only about relationships”.

For quite sometime, I have not used the acronym USP (Unique Selling Proposition). In my view, it’s a very 1990’s sales expression. My reasons are

There are few products and services which are genuinely unique
The use of the word selling, in this context, smacks of being all about you, and…
A proposition is merely an opinion of how a seller can offer ‘value’ now and in the future.

It’s far better to use the term ‘Unique Value‘ as highlighted by the amazing Vincent.

What’s Old

Everyone who has ‘done’ the sales team thing or has been running their own business will know that in order to get on one has to put in a shift, and work long hours in that shift. It’s also expected that you will develop into someone who is tenacious and passionate about your firms products and services. That is the only surefire way if achieving success – right? Well, no actually. Hard work, doesn’t necessarily bring rewards but endurance might. Some see this as the ability to get up after being knocked down, not once or twice but many, many times. But they’re wrong. That’s resilience. Endurance is the ability to push and push your way to success. Our hero Vincent explains this in some detail on Chapter 4 entitled The Salesman’s Two Cents.

Most sales book I’ve reviewed recently include passages about getting to know your customer. SOF is no exception. ‘Vincent’ suggests we go deep. Find out what makes your customer tick. What are they proud of? what are their personal goals? What’s important to them and so on.

Part 2 will be published on September 10th

Tags: career, Learning, sales, work ethic