A Good Salesperson Can Sell Anything

📅  21st May 2020 | 2020/21 Sales Book Reviews

“Nothing happens anywhere in the world until a sale takes place. And salespeople bring in the money that everyone else can eventually live off”.

That foreword above was a truism when this book was first published in 1988 and still is today despite the state of the economy.

In the introduction, Richard Denny indicates the need for a common sense approach to training and developing people in the ‘world’s greatest profession – and who can argue with that?  Later he asks the reader to consider this statement: ‘A good salesperson can sell anything’.

The Good

Like many sales books, there’s an early recommendation to read and re-read Chapters 3 & 16.  When I first read this book many years ago, I was transfixed on the difference between ability and desire and setting goals. Chapter 3 is full of great content on those topics along with confidence building and the ol’ chestnut of being enthusiastic and maintaining one’s enthusiasm. Chapter 16 on the other hand strongly advises the up-and-coming salesperson to eliminate the negative. Rightly so.  Chapter 7 is my favourite. Why? Well it’s the title – The Rules of Professional Selling.  So many tomes and ‘quick guides to sales’ (an oxymoron if there ever was one) use those awful terms ‘tips’ and ‘tricks’.  As mentioned on numerous occasions, tips and tricks are for flower arranging, removing stains from glass objects and dog walking. Selling is a profession. You don’t hear of doctors, airline pilots or dentists doing “tricks of the trade” do you? They learn the trade and continue to learn their trade.

At the end of each chapter there are ‘pocket reminders’. These weren’t so popular in the 1980’s, now ubiquitous, they prove useful to trigger certain actions and behaviours. My personal favourite is the reference to the ‘sharp angle” close at the end of Chapter 9.

The Bad

I really would have liked to have seen more content in Chapter 13 which is all about negotiation. Denny does mention some ‘what if’ scenarios and provides the reader with possible retorts, particularly in the area of price negotiation – but the book needed more. The publication is under two hundred pages in length, so there would have been plenty of scope.

I must include one of Richard Denny’s ‘sales rules’  – identifying your Unique Sales or Selling Point. This concept, to many sales practioners, is now redundant. There is virtually nothing unique about products or services. The only standard differentiator in the 21st century is you the seller.

The Ugly

You know the elation you feel when you’ve won an order – well on most occasions you have to temper those emotions by double-checking the order you’ve just won will ‘go through’ your admin and finance departments seamlessly. More importantly, is your customer fully satisfied? One must avoid ‘buyers remorse’ at all costs. Richard Denny covers this comprehensively in ‘Waterproofing The Sale”.

 

******************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Tags: Learning, sales training

Sorry Comments are Closed.