Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling, 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness
By Jeffrey Gitomer
I love this little book!! It may be the most direct, most helpful book on salesmanship ever. The no-hold-barred approach gets right in your face about what it takes to be uber successful in sales.
The author, Jeff Gitomer, links the book to his website to add more information and expose you to more opportunities to learn even more - to go deeper in to each topic.
The content is broken into easy to digest bites with clever cartoon illustrations and helpful graphics. The left sidebar column features a “ Red Whine” while the right sidebar column shows its counterpart “Red Selling Response” winner. Here’s an example: Red Whine: “They keep throwing away my brochure.” Red Selling Response: “They don’t want your brochure. They want answers to their situations and concerns.”
It’s obvious Jeff speaks from experience and his experience means you can leap forward if you follow his lead. Jeff recommends reading this book multiple times and committing most of it to memory! There are helpful checklists and information shared from other sales greats as well.
One of my favorite sections (pg 112 questions) talks about the power of smart questions. There are lead in suggestions for probing questions that will get you the information you really need to help your prospect get to the heart of how you can help them.
A few examples of good lead- ins for smart questions:
“Smart questions make you look smart. Dumb questions…”
The goal of these types of questions is to collect the information in this list of 9.5 benefits:
1. Qualify the buyer.
2. Build rapport.
3. Create prospect disparity.
4. Eliminate or differentiate from the competition.
5. Build credibility.
6. Know the customer and their business.
7. Identify needs.
8. Find hot buttons.
9. Get personal information.
9.5 Close the sale.
Jeff uses humor to look at the fun side of sales. And he is inventive about his sales tactics.
Late in the book, we are encouraged to figure out the “why” behind our sales efforts.
Who will you help with your sales? That’s the real reason you called. It’s the real reason you do business. It may take several layers of “why” to get to the real reason for you. Take the time to get there.
When you have your “why,” put it everywhere. Remind yourself of why you do what you do.
People buy for their reasons, not for your reasons. Make sure you know their “why”, too!
Full of humor and creative approaches tested by many years of success, The Little Red Book of Selling is more than worth the read. Our author reminds us that we all do sales in one way or another, anytime we want to win someone over to our point of view. It might be your spouse or your kids, your neighbors or co-workers but we all need to understand these principles regardless of our career.
Thanks, Jeff! I appreciate the help and the laughs!
Rose Anne Huck
Poole Communications Poplar Bluff Manager
For more information on this book and other works by Jeff Gitomer: http://www.gitomer.com/Jeffrey-Gitomer-Little-Red-Book-of-Selling-pluLRB.html