| Book: | You Can Sell |
| Author: | Shiv Khera |
| ISBN: | 9381626510 |
| ISBN-13: | 9789381626511, 978-9381626511 |
| Binding: | paperback |
| Publishing Date: | 2012 |
| Publisher: | Westland |
| Number of Pages: | 328 |
| Language: | English |
WHY I READ THE BOOK
The book caught my attention as soon as it was up on Blogadda – for one, it was just in line with my work profile and other, I am a sucker for self-help books. Who doesn’t love a well experimented and oft taken path to perfection? Self-help books, as often misinterpreted are not the easy way out for dummies. On the contrary, they are a means of knowledge sharing and evolving as a group.
To give you an idea about my work profile, I am involved in client engagement, from the requirement analysis to project completion phase and my work revolves around a lot of sales processes happening in my organization. I saw an opportunity to better myself at these processes and who wouldn’t grab a free hands-on training from THE sales guru?
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THE BOOK
As Mr.Khera puts it, everybody is a salesperson at some point of time. You need not explicitly be into the sales domain to identify yourself as a sales person. If you are a student seeking admission, you are selling your resultsheet to your college. If you are a writer, you are pitching your draft to your publisher. If you are a homemaker, you are competing to be the best host in your social circle and yes ma’m, that makes you a sales person selling your hospitality skills to social contacts. (Err…I honestly didn’t want to sound so medieval finishing schoolesque. Nevertheless, you get the idea!)
After reading this, now if you are wondering ‘How in the world am I a salesperson?’ You’ve gotta read this book to find out!
THE BOOK
The book consists of 31 chapters each dealing with different aspects of selling – which is defined both as an art and a science. The author sets the tone for the talk in the book from the Preface itself. What I like about self help books is that it has a lot of motivating anecdotes. This one too has them, and coming from Mr.Shiv Khera, they give a feeling that even successful people have had their fair share of a learning curve before becoming an authority in their field.
The author starts from What is Selling? Well if you want to learn something, the very basic thing is to know what you are learning. He says that those into Sales are not there by accidents. They choose the profession and then excel in it by following a few set of rules which when combined with ethics and logic give fantastic outputs. He gives the readers a well defined action plan after taking him through the basics and ends on a very alluring note that ‘You can sell’!
Each chapter has in depth discussion on its topic (For example : What buyers need and want). The chapters throught the book describe how giving the best to your customer should be your prime objective rather than earning money (which eventually follows 😉 ) The salesperson should always be looking for a win win situation for his firm and the customer. It delves hugely into the buyer psychology and offers insights into how can one create the need for his product when he sees that there is no possible way people may want to buy it.
It focuses on the communication that should go on between the sales person and the prospect – at the time of pre-sales, sales and post-sales. Sales deals are basically relationships that you build over your career and go a long way in establishing your brand in the market.
There are assignments at the end of each chapter for evaluation of your learnings from it based on your own professional setting. I had quite a time scratching my brain over it. The assignments help one get to know – kinda like the SWOT analysis – where he stands.
WHAT I LIKED
I liked the simple narrative, well defined chapters and flow of the tutorial style lessons. The quotes used to illustrate a point are spot on.
To quote an example :
“Winners make it in spite of problems, not in absence of”
WHAT I DID NOT LIKE
Well, the book does get a bit repetitive as the chapters progress. I guess it is a strategy followed by most motivational speakers to imbibe the thought process in their audience.
IN A NUTSHELL
The book is worth its money. The advice therein is golden. Just start from now, be consistent and success follows. Those into sales, aspiring MBAs and self help book lovers should absolutely read it.
A tip for reading the book : Refer it time and again even after you finish reading it. Write down all the exercises in a notebook and analyse your present standing vis-a-vis that from the book. Practice what is written……you won’t believe the results I got after putting this book in practice have kept me from posting this review since long 🙂
Reap the benefits of a seed well sown, a deed well sold!
Credits : Book Information – Flipkart.com
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Kamikaze speaks 