a great book with great lessons
 

Sent: 2/3/2004 12:51 AM
Preface

People waste their lives trying to sell. They get confused between persuasion as a belief system ("You have to believe in what you sell.") and persuasionas as a natural talent ("You can't teach anyone how to sell.") Soft Selling in a Hard World is designed to clear up that confusion.

If you aren't selling up to your potential, you probably don't understand that selling is a game. Most poeple don't. Those who do make 85% of the money, become executives, or run their own successful businesses. This book is about that game-how to play it, when to play it,, where to play it, and with whom.

This book is aboutfulfilling your potential w/o resorting to "motivational" & "inspirational" beliefs. As in sports, you'll find that certain mechanical moves need to be mastered before your inspiration or genius can shine. A dog can become inspired to chase a car but doesn't know what to do with the car once it's caught it. This knowledge is about what you do when you catch the car, that thin slice of face-to-face time with the buyer when persuasion actually occurs.

This is a handbook. There is very little theory-it is nearly all mechanics. While there is a certain primitive logic in the way this story is told, you can begin to read on any page and profit.

This is a perfect for the bathroom. Studied and practiced in small bites over time, the culturally awkward acts required to persuade others will become automatic. The selling trade takes practice. Everything worthwhile does. Sex and selling are the only endeavors that the human being is expected to perform perfectly the first time w/o practice. By now, you know, you know the fallacy of the first illusion. The second illusion is even more embarrassing.

Read gently. Enjoy your profession, for the selling profession is really about making more trusting friends than you ever thought possible.



THANKS

A heartfelt thanks to my loyal clients. They paid me well and kept me alive long enough to learn the stuff I pass onto you. Their high expectations and uncompromising performance standards made me good.

And thanks to the brightest people in the country, those super-salespeople, the front-line street-soldiers who were my students through the years. This book is for them. They taught me how to sell. They made me laugh.


J.V.