the effortless yes. get all the sales you want, and make all you’ll ever need! Julie Steelman.  2011. ISBN 9781936487028.  This book languished on my shelf  for quite awhile, superseded by more heavily promoted items.  What I did not realize is that this book was written especially for female salespersons.  I started it and found it fascinating how Steelman approached sales.  This book opened my eyes as to how far off the  mark  most sales books were for this audience.   The basics from all the other strong sales books were recognizable, but covered in different way. Enjoyable, clearly written, concise  and useful, this is a book that every salesmanager  should have in his library. I especially enjoyed her approach to cold calling ( helping new people),  questioning,  and the 12 sales archetypes with related asking for the business approaches. Her comment on objections, ” Objections are made by people interested in what you are selling., else why would they bother? ”  Good two – three hr flight read.

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The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Business With Pinterest. Gabriella Taylor. 2012. The author contacted me and sent along a review copy.  She has done a very good job on learning how to use Pinterest and laying out a how to guide for the rest of us.  I admit I looked at Pinterest at  first and really could not see the benefit beyond fashion retail. But it is much more than that. She calls it the social media bridge between emotional and commercial worlds, which is to marketers a Holy Grail.   Caution though, the site is addictive once you start to play with it. The book easily walks you through your learning about Pinterest, and using the tools available.  By the end you will feel confident in how to best leverage what Pinterest can do for your brand. At its present growth rate (4 Million daily users, and high uptake for retail sales) a marketer must take notice of this evolving social network.

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Sales Eats First. How customer-motivated sales organizations out-think, out-offer, and outperform the competition.Noel Capon & Gary S. Tubridy.2011. ISBN 97809833330028.   The authors located a group of large companies with large sales forces that outperformed their peers over ten years.  They interviewed the senior management  and came away with five areas of shared excellence:

• leading from the front
• building a customer motivated culture by speaking clearly and carrying a big carrot
• advancing the science of sales and the art of customer relationship
• making loud mistakes and
• living the mission

From our practice I would add that they also found evidence of  clear alignment of sales and marketing where the silos do not exist and roles are clearly equal and supportive.   The companies surveyed are in big highly competitive markets where the job is never easy.  The authors provide a new model for making your sales force efficient and effective.  This is book for sales leaders and managers including CEOs.  Great for a cross country flight.

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25 Toughest Sales Objections. Stephan Schiffman.2011. ISBN 9780071767378. Another of this prolific sales trainers books. It is worth the read. His approach is logical, simple and straightforward.  The basics of selling have not changed and his material is directed at making salespeople effective as well as efficient. We have all heard these objections and his suggestions are designed to strengthen the sale and the salesperson.  His comments on cost objections are bang on:

• A product only costs too much if the customer believes its value is below its price.
• The sales mans job is to fix a dollar quantity to the problem that the product solves
• Negotiation is not just about price
• Discounting is not a strategy its a tactic

Best line to ask your team. “Is making the sale more important than the terms of the sale?”

Do you know before going in :

• How your price compares to  comparables in the industry?
• The last price your client paid for this product/service?
• Are prices set by you or a competitor?
• Are prices rising or falling?
• Your walkaway number?
• The client consequences if he does not buy from you?

Good book to have beside your phone.

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Make the Sale Happen Before Lunch/ The Power of Positive Selling. Stephan Schiffman. 2012.  ISBN 9780071788687 & 9780071788700.  Two books from a prolific writer/sales trainer.  These are both “give em a jolt of reality” type sales books.  They are to be read and reread as a pick up when the sales did not go the way you thought it would. He could be like Jeffrey Gitomer and his help. I liked both these books.

Make the Sale Happen Before Lunch – helps a sales person hone his craft with doing the basics better.  Useful comments for me:

• Move at least one deal forward each day
• People live their life two weeks at a time
• The power of the story
• The greatest practice  players become the greatest players
• Know when to move on
• Find out what makes sense to the buyer
• No Rolodex is up to date
• Make 15 cold/prospect calls every  day

He has one of the better sets of tips with leaving voice mail –

The Power of Positive Selling.  If your heads not in it you are not in it.

• Believe in what you are selling
• Help the client solve a problem
• Approach everything with a positive attitude
• Everyone wants something and everyone wants something different

This book also has some great ideas for follow-up emails.

Both books are worth your reading them. As he says, you should spend  your time 40% prospecting, 20% presenting, 20% on product knowledge  and 15% on professional development.

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