Book of the week: The Little Red Book of Sales

Book of the week: June 24

Title: Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling

Author: Jeffrey Gitomer

Selling is something that most people associate with a negative connotation. Used car dealers, greased back hair, cold calling, and other annoying experiences come to mind. However, selling is something that each of us does on a daily basis. Selling is a critical part of teamwork, business, relationships, and our personal lives. If you are ever involved in situations where you would like to influence someone else, you are in sales! Congratulations, you are officially a salesperson.

I have read quite a few books on sales. Some of them bring up the typical mental images that are less than ideal. Closing techniques, ways to overcome objections, and other persuasive tactics are usually mentioned. However, this book was different. This is a no-nonsense sales guide. Even though the author does go into some simple sales concepts the majority of the book is focused on the big picture. Things such as the sales mindset, how to add value in the things you do, and where to go in order to sell more of yourself, your product, or your service. Even if you are not someone who is in sales as a career, the knowledge in this book can benefit you on a day-to-day basis.

Favorite Concept: Prepare to win, or prepare to lose to someone who is.This chapter lines up nicely with one of my favorite quotes. The quote says: “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” I chose this concept because this is something that applies to everyone! A great quote that the author highlights in this chapter is: “The work day starts the night before.” So far in my experience, I have found this to be spot on. I highly advocate a method made by John T. Meyer called 8 For The Day. This is a great technique for structuring your work day the night before it arrives.

Have you ever heard the phrase “Showing up is half the battle”? If so, did you ask what the other half may be? I believe that the other half is showing up prepared. Earl Nightingale was famous for believing that luck was “When preparation meets opportunity.” Most successful people will tell you they get “luckier” the harder they work. A large reason for this is hard work prepares you to capitalize on all the great opportunities that will arise. This is a vague concept because you can apply it in any way you choose.

How to Apply: Take the authors advice and plan the day before your work day begins. Try the 8 for the day method. The way it works is you make a to-do list of 8 items. One item for each of the 8 hour work days. 6 of these items are professional or business related. Job tasks, sales calls, important emails, or other things related to work. The other two are personal tasks. Things like reading, exercising, random acts of kindness, or self-improvement tasks. If you can accomplish 8 key items in an 8 hour day, you are off to a great start! I have personally been implementing this method the last few months and have loved the results. It adds order to your crazy schedule and ensures that you are doing first things first.