Impressions of a Sales Book

I’m psyched.  I love reading a good book except that I don’t read for what most people would call fun.  I don’t read fiction books.  I don’t read stories.  I read non-fiction books that I can learn from.  Here is where I should start by thanking Michelle Mangen.  Make sure you check out her blog, Your Virtual Assistant, it is full of some great and useful information for anyone trying to find their way in social media.  Michelle asked me if I was interested in reviewing a book.  How could I turn down a free book about selling?  I love books and I love selling.  How could this go wrong?

I got the book in the mail today.  It’s called, Lead, Sell, or Get Out of The Way: The 7 Traits of Great Sellers by Ron Karr.

At this point, I truly know nothing of the contents of this book.  Perception is everything right? Well this book comes across strong.  The cover catches your eye with the color scheme of orange and black on a white background helping the title stand out.  It also has a the word ‘Sell’ in all capital letter bigger than the other words, seemingly to help emphasize the main purpose of the book.

I then went to that back of the book.  Again the strong color scheme this time with a black background and white and orange print.  The back of the book contains 5 testimonials.  I, personally, don’t give a lot of weight to these but I understand their purpose from a marketing perspective.

The inside flap on the book starts out by talking about the intense competition of sales and how “great sellers lead relationships in the same way great leaders sell ideas.“  It goes on to promote action by saying how “you must communicate persuasively and effectively” as well as “sell outcomes”.  The inside flap goes on to list the 7 traits that top sales leaders possess:

Have a clear vision of where they’re going

Position themselves powerfully in the mind of customers

Build alliances rather than go it alone

Ask powerful questions that result in new sales opportunities

Create a value proposition that neutralizes the competition

Communicate well and persuasively

Embrace accountability and responsibility

I, then, opened the book to see the dedication to his wife and daughter as well as a memory of his mom.  A very nice touch.  The table of contents caught my eye because it is seemingly an outline of the book.  Each chapter is further broken down into types of subheadings that seem to promote each idea or concept a page or two at a time.

I went on to read the introduction which gave me the feeling that this book is designed to be easy to read.  It is written in common everyday language with decent size print.  The epilogue of the book begins on page 230 to give you an idea of the length.  This shouldn’t be too hard to get through.  I am planning to have a more indepth write up on it early next week.  Stay tuned.

Disclaimer: I’m not professional book reviewer or marketing or anything of that sort.  What I am writing is drawn upon from my experiences on and are my opinions.  Feel free to agree or disagree as well as add insight and advice.  If you see a way in which I can improve or better myself please let me know.

Tagged as: book review, reading, Ron Karr, sell