Sales Bible

I used to be part of a business coaching group called EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey. It was a good group of people. One guy, Eric put me onto this book by Geoffrey Gitomer called the Sales Bible. He was enthusiastic about it, so I bought a copy. It sat on my bookshelf for a few years, but I finally got around to reading it.

I’m not a sales guy so take my review with a grain of salt. I am an entreprenuer who struggles with sales. I read the book hoping it would have some magical advice that would immediately turn me into some sales guru and cause me to make tons of sales. That didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean the book was useless. The book does have a lot of good insights along with some parts that I was not a big fan of.

Let’s cover the good stuff first. For the most part, the author comes from the right place. It’s not about selling your customers, but rather serving them. He also talks a lot about being relational over transactional, which I think is huge. The author can be a little forceful, but for the most part, he avoids the slimy used car salesman feeling.

The book has a lot of useful tips and tricks. One that I liked was recognizing that the customer asking you questions is a buying sign and then capitalizing on that to confirm the sale. Part of the key is to not simply answer the question but to ask them a question that draws them deeper into the sale. For example: If a client asks “What is your lead time?” Instead of simply answering and shutting down the conversation, ask them “When would you like it by?” I thought that was a powerful little trick. There are a bunch more tips like that.

What did I not like about the book? Honestly a lot of it was philosophical stuff. His views on competition were not in line with mine. I much prefer collaboration. His views on networking events and cold calling are also not in line with mine. He puts a lot of emphasis on them. I much prefer a warm introduction over either of those. He also has a section where he specifically talks about ignoring no soliciting signs, that I was not a fan of. Those are just my opinions. I am not a super-salesman so maybe I am on the wrong side of those issues. However, I am going to try everything else in the book first before I even begin to entertain those ideas.