The Instant Sales Pro

More Than 600 Tips and Techniques to Accelerate Your Sales Success

AMACOM, 2003

15 min read

10 take-aways

Audio & text

What's inside?

Muster the basic tools of professional selling, one tip at time: from prospecting, to presenting to closing the deal.

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Editorial Rating

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Recommendation

It’s hard to find a book that doesn’t emphasize only one phase of the sales process, such as prospecting, at the cost of another phase, such as presentations. Cy Charney’s authoritative manual lives up to its name and thoroughly covers all areas. The tips provide a comprehensive compendium of predominant wisdom on how to sell. This is essentially a book of lists - lists of prospecting tips, how to make presentations, how to overcome objections, how to close and more. This handbook is notable more for its breadth than the originality of its ideas, some of which are targeted to beginners. However, it does offer up-to-date coverage of newer technologies, such as Internet searching. The volume’s minimalist organizational design actually suits its goal: providing straightforward information to those with a sincere desire to master the art of selling. getAbstract.com very highly recommends this book to those pursuing the noble profession of sales.

Summary

How to Sell More Effectively

Nothing happens until somebody sells something. The factory’s machinery comes alive and clanks into operation. The product is rolled to the loading dock and packed carefully onto trucks. The trucks deliver to a retailer, and you walk in to buy the product. Why did that product just happen to be there, waiting for you? It is there because someone at the plant sold an order to the retailer, and the retailer is ready to sell to you. So it’s true that until someone sells, the plant sits idle and nothing happens.

Once you see that selling is necessary, you can ask the question that’s driven salespeople over the years: how can you sell more effectively? Your livelihood depends on the answer.

The Customer

The customer is your reason for being. Examine your customers’ needs, wants and desires. Most customers say they want some combination of reliability, speed, product knowledge and value. In exchange for buying from you, customers come with certain rights that you, as the salesperson, simply must respect. First, view customers as stakeholders in your organization. Second, since every customer is unique and different, treat each one...

About the Author

Business author Cy Charney’s books include The Manager’s Tool Kit, The Trainer’s Tool Kit and The Portable Mentor. He is president of Charney and Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that focuses on improving individual and organizational performance.

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S. G. 6 years ago

The author tells you to do the obvious but skips over explaining the how to of what he suggests.

The author wastes reading time by defining what a gatekeeper and a decision maker is. I knew from the get go, the author has nothing new to say by starting off with " nothing happens when a sale is made".

You probably guess by now I don't recommend this book. Waste 10-15 minutes to see if you agree

Cy Charney