Closers:
Great American Writers on the Art of Selling
by Mike Tronnes, editor
I often recommend novels to my sales training clients to help them get into the heads of people unlike themselves, to experience unfamiliar worldviews so they can better empathize with prospects. I recommend this collection of fiction to salespeople to help them get more comfortable in their own heads.
This collection of short stories and novel excerpts covers the history of sales in modern America, from rail riding drummers who had no homes to today’s real estate broker next door. I was pleased to see that most of the portrayals of salespeople were sympathetic and insightful, not the usual huckster bashing. Each selection captures the poignant human experience of making your living and earning your self-respect from the approval of strangers.
Salespeople will learn that their concerns and fears, their appetites and distractions are shared by others in their profession. Perhaps this insight will give them the freedom to accept some of what they are trying to fix about themselves, leaving energy and attention to work on more satisfying projects.
I particularly recommend the book to people who live or work with sales people. The stories of the people in this book will tell you more about what it is like to be a salesperson than you would likely learn by knowing one for twenty years.
Page references are to the hard cover edition
[Items enclosed in brackets are comments by Tony Mayo.]
p. 144 Richard Ford Independence Day
My job, therefore, is to keep him on the rails–to supply sanction pro tempore, until I get him into a buy-sell agreement and cinch the rest of his life around him like a saddle on a bucking horse. Only its not that simple, since Joe at the moment is feeling isolated and scared through no fault of anyone but him. So that what I’m counting on is the phenomenon by which most people will feel they’re not being strong-armed if they’re simply allowed to advocate (as stupidly as they please) the position opposite the one they’re really taking. This is just another way we create the fiction that we’re in control of anything.
[See Influence by Cialdini public & effortful and inner responsibility.]
p. 145 “Okay, but just let me ask one thing.” Joe crosses his short arms and leans against the doorjamb, feigning even more casualness. (Now that he’s off the hook, he has the luxury of getting back on it of his own free and misunderstood will.)
Closers:
Great American Writers on the Art of Selling
by Mike Tronnes, editor
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