Soft Sell: The New Art of Selling

Straight forward advise. No gimmicks. Just very sound how to information on how the sales process works, and how to navigate within it. Very useful for all sales positions. Whether it be telemarketing or corporate sales or network marketing, this book will increase your ease of selling through mastery of the sales process. Also, very interesting take on buying motives. The author is an advocate of the "we buy from want not need" consumer mindset. This of course flies in the face of the "uncover the hidden need (pain) sales philosophy and focuses squarely on want as the true emotional basis for buying. It just shows this fellow has experience and knows exactly what he's talking about. Buy this book. You'll be very glad you did. PS. The recommended reading list suggested by the author is worth the price of the book by itself. No joke. I'm trying to help you here---buy the book!

In his opening paragraphs Tim says that only 5 percent of his readers will attempt do anything permanent with the material covered, and that these 5 percent already know who they are. He goes on that the book is written for the other 95%, and that his goal is to get under my skin, be a thorn in my side, and make me uncomfortable with myself and my progress. If change is to take place it must come from within me, not from books, family, my work environment or some other outside force. And it worked for me! I felt somewhat depressed and apathetic about my situation going in, but now have a clearer perspective on my issues and an action plan for moving forwards. I've got about 20 sales books in my business bookshelf; some (Socratic Selling, SPIN Selling) address listening and questioning skills, others (How to make friends and influence people) address attitude, others (Strategic Selling) address organization, tactics and closing. This is far and away the best! Soft Sell contains adequate coverage of all the topics in my other books, extracting the perls of wisdom of these other books, explaining them clearly and concisely and telling you where to go for more detail. Reading Soft Sell was like taking inventory of my sales skills to determine what is working best and what might need improvement. It also contains the tools necessary to pursue improvements. And it was also (for me) a positive attitude adjustment. There is so much compressed and valuable content in the 248 pages of this book that I am sure I will return to it many times.

This is the best resource book on sales I have ever come across. When I started sales, I knew absolutely nothing... and I struggled for years. I read other sales books, but I never quite got it. Until I read this book. This book gives you the psychology, the tactics -- and what works now. You won't find cliched 70's style sales techniques. And you won't find hard-sell techniques. In my market, which is home businesses and Network Marketing, specifically Emerald Passport, the hard sell does not work anymore. This does -- and if you read this book -- and apply it -- I'm sure you will have the same success I am having. And let me tell you that as soon as you realize you need to learn how to sell and actually begin to learn, you will feel relief as your self-confidence goes up. But perhaps more importantly, once you learn how to sell, you will not fear for your family because you will know that no matter what happnes, you will be able to provide for your family.

There is probably more here than most people need or can handle all at once. I'd going to guess I'll probably get more out of this book in a second reading some time in the future. However, that being said, I give a strong recommendation to this book to any in a selling career.There is common selling advice here, but there is also items with a twist from the authors point of view. Every bit helps. There is something here that would make it worth reading for almost any sales professional or manager.Another great thing in this book is a long list of recommended reading. These types of lists, when complied by someone trustworthy, are often worth there weight in gold. I plan on checking out some of his recommendations myself.There is a lot here on setting goals and planning out the future. I am not big on "filling out the forms", however I recognize the importance of what it is that he is trying to get across here. Perhaps in my future I'll be more disciplined in this area.The handling objections portion of the book is worth the price of owning it. Remember that it only takes one tip or bit of advice for a book like this to pay off in a big way. I give it a strong recommendation.

This business classic is now in its twentieth printing and third revised edition for good reason: It helps salespeople sell. This precise guide covers every aspect of sales, from the nuts-and-bolts of prospecting and closing to the inspiration and motivation that keeps you fired up and excited about your work and goals. We [...] recommend this book to all sales professionals, including managers. But we also encourage all non-sales professionals to spend some time with this book, since whether you like it or not, selling is an important skill in your career and your daily life.