Chris Lytle

If you already work in a sales department, you call prospects to arrange meetings, qualify clients, present proposals and close sales, then this is a great book and you should definitely buy it. Five stars, no question.

But I'd been led to believe that this book covered more than that, and it doesn't. Specifically, I'm interested in improving back-of-room sales of my books and other products when I run workshops and seminars. I would definitely call myself an accidental salesperson, in the show more sense that I now find myself trying to sell things as well as delivering my talks or leading workshops. I don't work in a sales department and have no wish to. I don't phone corporate clients to arrange meetings, I don't present proposals, etc, which is what this book is all about. I don't have any problems getting people to come to my workshops and seminars - in fact they're often over-subscribed.

But the author's definition of an accidental salesperson differs from mine. His (only) definition is someone who now works in a sales department when it wasn't their original ambition to do so.

Since the author runs seminars and is a speaker himself, I hoped he'd have some useful tips to pass on about increasing back-of-room sales. But from reading the book it appears that he only gives seminars and courses for corporate clients, and all of his sales efforts are concentrated on getting those bookings. So he is a salesperson in the traditional sense, presenting proposals to his corporate clients about how much better their sales people will perform after taking his course or attending his seminar. He doesn't appear to have any back-of-of room sales. Or if he does, he doesn't mention anything about it in his book. So for me it was useless - no stars.

I've compromised and given it a middling score of 3, because if you do work in a sales department I can see that it would be a useful book. show less

This book was by far the most fascinating sales improvement book I've ever read. In fact, after reading it I kept wishing I had read it 15 years ago because I feel I would have been even more successful. I found the book to be full of easy to use tools and steps to put into practice immediately. So often when you read a sales improvement book it just gives you general advice. This book not only gave me the advice but then gave me the things I would need to apply that advice and see how it show more works. I was actually able to see results from applying the process laid out in this book. It also gives lots of anecdotal evidence along with examples from movies that most of us have seen that portray some of the principles Chris talks about. I give this book my highest recommendation to anyone that is looking to improve their sales and is looking for a strategy to get there. show less

i thought this was a pretty good sales book. I don't think it helped to much in the latter chapters with life insurance, which is what i sell but i thought it was a worthwhile book. I would add this to my must read sales books for new agents.

Great read and reference guide for first time sales managers.