The Little Red Book of Selling book by Jeffrey Gitomer is full of bite-sized pieces of  sales information all designed to inspire and encourage the reader to become more of an expert in sales. In it Jeffrey answers the question that a lot of people in sales ask all the time:

What’s the difference between failure and success in salespeople?

It’s not usually technique.  But rather attitude.

Jeffrey outlines the fundamentals that successful sales people do as well as the way successful people think.

The basic fundamentals outlined are:

1. Believe you can.
2. Create the environment.
3. Have the right associations.
4. Exposure yourself to what’s new.
5. Plan for the day.
6. Become valuable.
7. Have the answers your prospects and customers need.
8. Recognize opportunity.
9. Take advantage of opportunity.
10. Take responsibility.
11. Take action.
12. Make mistakes.
13. Willing to risk.
14. Keep your eyes on the prize.
15. Balance yourself.
16. Invest, don’t spend.
17. Stick at it until you win.
18. Develop and maintain a positive attitude.
19. Ignore idiots and zealots.

In the introduction he touches briefly on each of those then he outlines additional principles necessary for true sales success.

But…

He does it in that “in your face” style that Jeffrey is know for.  Just take a look at the titles of the twelve principles he covers:

• Principle 1: Kick Your Own Ass.
• Principle 2: Prepare to Win, or Lose To Someone Who Is
• Principle 3: Personal Branding is Sales: It’s Not You Know, It’s Who Knows You.
• Principle 4: It’s All About Value, It’s All About Relationship, It’s Not All About Price.
• Principle 5: It’s Not Work, It’s NETWork.
• Principles 6: It You Can’t Get In Front of the Real Decision Make, You Suck
• Principle 7: Engage Me and You Can Make Me Convince Myself
• Principle 8: If You Can Make Them Laugh, You Can Make Them Buy!
• Principle 9: Use Creativity To Differentiate and Dominate
• Principe 10: Reduce Their Risk, And You’ll Covert Selling To Buying
• When You Say It About Yourself It’s Bragging. When Someone Else Says It About You, It’s Proof.
• Antenna’s Up!

There is a chapter devoted to each of those principles.  They aren’t chapters full of fluff and sales stories.  But rather, simply full of  sales principles and tips.   I say sales principles because some people will believe that this is more of a book on self-improvement than on sales.   If you are looking for a step-by-step how to sales book.  This isn’t the book for that.

But..

If you are looking for a book that you can pick-up and study for a few minutes every day to help you become better at sales than this is great for that purpose. You could think of it as a daily sales devotional.

The layout of the book makes it quick and easy to read.  It’s printed in full color with key points in bold, and plenty of graphics .

For example, the sidebar contains “red whine” the term he uses to identify the excuses for failure people use all the time.  He counters that with a red selling response.  The solution that great sales people use to deal with those excuses.  One such “red whine” is “Nobody knows me.”  The “Red Selling Response: If you brand yourself people will know you.”

I’ve noticed that people who read this book either hate it or love it.  There doesn’t seem to be much middle group.  Me I really like it.