Masters of Sales - By Ivan Misner - Book Review

Actually, I read Dr. Misner's book, "Masters of Sales," because I was going to interview him on a radio program I co-host every Friday. I wanted to be up to speed on it, and be able to ask the tough questions.Full of Nuggets of Gold for Salespeople -- Scattered ThroughoutWhat I discovered is that this isn't a book where you'll "learn to sell." It is a book that will provide techniques, little tweaks, tune-ups. It is full of nuggets of gold. If you pick up on the nuggets that are scattered throughout each chapter in stories that relate to most salespeople, you'll find ways to increase your sales results by several times. It provides the secrets, the opportunities, and the strategies that you should ADD to your existing sales techniques.The book is written by Dr. Ivan Misner, founder of BNI, (Business Network International), and Don Morgan. Both of them have several New York Times best sellers. This book is subtitled "Secrets from Top Sales Professionals That Will Transform You into a World Class Salesperson" and that is probably the best description there is of this book.Nuggets from Over 80 of The Most Successful Salespeople in the WorldThere are over 80 of the most successful salespeople in the world contributing and have written their own secrets. It is broken up into eleven chapters:
Master of Sales Attitude
Selling Goals vs Life Goals
Getting Clients: Prospecting the Old Way to the New
Speak to be Heard, and Hear to Know How to Speak
Relating to Your Corporate Clients
The Buyer's Perspective
Sales Systems
The Virtual Salesperson: Online Selling Technologies
Handling Objections
Relationship Selling: All the Rage...or Just a Fad?
Closing the Customer: It's in the WOW Factor
As I went through the book, I highlighted those little gold nuggets so that I could capture them for myself sothat I could use them to tweak my own sales as well as those of my clients, and so I could discuss them with Dr. Misner on the radio show. I found that I had highlighted 2-3 passages on most pages. If I tried to suck those out to put them in my notes, I'd just about have a whole book. I'm sure that not everyone will connect with every contributing author in the book, in fact I didn't. But there are very valuable snippets throughout.Abundant Sales Attitude vs Scarcity Sales AttitudeJust to name one of them, "The Abundant Sales Person" by Kimberly George talks about sales people that either have an abundance mentality, or a scarcity mentality that struck home since, as a business coach and sales trainer, I run into those two kinds of sales personalities. In fact, most business people start with the scarcity mentality and my job as a coach is to get him to move to the abundance side of the thinking process.It goes like this: Most sales people, and business people, believe there isn't enough to go around, and some, just live with what is dealt to them...by the economy, by the market, and just by who walks through the door. That tends to leave them in a downward spiral that they see no way out of. A salesman coming from that perspective approaches his customer to SELL....SELL....SELL at any cost. He usually scares off the prospective customer.Where a salesman coming from the abundance side has so much value that he is willing to share, give, help anyone he touches. He becomes someone that everyone loves having around and is THE BEST salesman. In fact, the salesman working from the abundance side will have several times greater close rates than one operating from the scarcity side (my comments, not Kimberly George's.)What I have discovered in my own business coaching is that a business coming from the abundance perspective isn't caught in the "whatever walks through the door" perspective, or the "I can't this month because the budget won't allow me" perspective. He is in a mode of avoiding spending every dollar.The abundance business is always looking for opportunity, and he is always looking for the BEST place to invest a dollar rather than what he can't spend. He multiplies every dollar. He will find that if he spends $1 here he'll generate $10, or if he spends it there, he'll generate $100, or over there he'll generate $1,000. Now he knows where he's going to invest that $1 and how much that will make him. The business in the scarcity mode, doesn't care....he's just looking for NOT SPENDING any dollar....and he's good at not spending...but he's killing his business.In any case, Kimberly George's article shows the best way to move into the abundance sales characteristics.There are snippets like this all of the way through the book. dr seuss cat in hat book