The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need

What would happen if you locked a leading self help expert and a sales expert in a room, challenging them to write a book?  No, I’m not setting you up for a line like, “How many self help gurus does it take to screw in a light bulb,” or “What do you call 100 sales thought leaders sitting at the bottom of the ocean?”

I’m actually quite serious.  Think of your favorite self help expert.  Perhaps Stephen Covey, Tony Robbins, Napoleon Hill, Tim Ferris, James Altucher, or anyone else.  Think of some of your favorite sales thought leaders, Dale Carnegie, Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Miller/Heiman, Mike Weinberg, Jeb Blount or dozens of others.

Then consider the book that results from the collaboration.

It would probably be different from most other sales books you read.  Most of them, talk about skills in being a sales person.  They may focus on certain aspects of selling, like questioning, prospecting, objection handling, closing, negotiating, selling against competition, creating/articulating value.

It would be different from most of the self help books focus.  They focus on things like, what makes you tick, how to establish goals for yourself, your life.  How to commit to those,the importance of mindset, what it takes to live a rich life. How to be a better person.

But a book written by a collaboration of these two different types of authors would be different.  It would certainly contain a lot of self help perspectives—but from a sales person’s point of view.  So it would cover things like self discipline, optimism, caring, competitiveness, resourcefulness, initiative, persistence, communication, accountability, and mindset.  It would approach these important personal development areas in terms that are meaningful to being a sales professional.

But the book wouldn’t stop there, because the attributes of being a sales professional are useless unless you execute in the best way possible.  So the book would continue on with how top sales professionals execute.  It might cover things like, closing, prospecting, storytelling, diagnosing, negotiating, creating value, building consensus/managing change, creating competitive differentiation.

A book that results from this collaboration would integrate the aspects of being a sales professional and executing as one.

That’s just the book that Anthony Iannarino has written with The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need.  Anthony’s book bridges that gap, self help—all of us look to those to improve who we are, and sales skills—to produce a unique book for sales professionals.

Will it be The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need?  Absolutely, not!  Otherwise, Anthony wouldn’t be writing a follow on, and many other sales authors wouldn’t be praising his work.  Duuggghhh!

But it’s a great starting point for any new sales professional.  It’s a great book for experienced sales people seeking to re-ground and refocus themselves, continuing to improve their practice as sales professionals.