[.ca] The Giants of Sales: What Dale Carnegie, John Patterson, ... (ISBN 0814472915)

A "Pyramid of Success" for Sales:
Sir Isaac Newton reputedly explained that if he could see further than others, it was because he "stood on the shoulders of giants." (Actually, centuries before him, Bernard of Chartres observed that "We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.") When John Wooden began to coach basketball at Dayton High School in Kentucky, he began to formulate principles for a "pyramid of success" for himself and the players he coached. Throughout Wooden's career, these principles focused much more on development of character and quality of life than they did on victories on the court, although his U.C.L.A. teams won 10 NCAA titles during his last 12 seasons, including 7 in a row from 1967 to 1973. His UCLA teams also had a record winning streak of 88 games, four perfect 30-0 seasons, and won 38 straight games in NCAA Tournaments. I mention all this by way of introducing the remarks that follow. Thanks to the author of this book, Tom Sant, his readers are able to stand on the shoulders of four "giants" in salesmanship: John Henry Patterson, Dale Carnegie, Elmer Wheeler, and Joe Girard. As did John Wooden, each thought of success in terms of a pyramid that has a broad base of participation and (yes) opportunity at the point of entry but a severely limited area at the summit. In fact, the favorite greeting of Zig Ziglar, another giant of sales, is "See you at the top!"(In fact, he likes the expression so much that he used it as a new title for one of his books, Biscuits, Fleas, and Pump Handles.) Sant examines the career of each of the four men, then explains what he thinks can be learned from their quite different approaches to sales...and to life. For example, Sant credits Patterson (1867-1947) with being the first -- or at least among the first -- to institutionalize the process of selling as a standardized system. As a result, by all of them following his brother Crane's four step process, CEO Patterson and his sales force enabled their company, National Cash Register, to continue to growth profitably throughout the Great Depression in the 1930s. Sant characterizes Carnegie (1888-1955) as "the apostle of influence" because Carnegie's original "six ways to make people like you" continue to guide and inform sales planning and initiatives more than 50 years after his death. According to Sant, Elmer Wheeler claimed there were no magic words but understood "the magic of words" which he formulated in his original five "Wheelerpoints" (e.g. "Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle!"). As for Joe Girard (1928-present), he used various strategies and tactics for "priming the pump" to become (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) "the world's greatest salesman. Sant devotes considerable attention to how Girard developed his "Law of 250" (i.e. "Most people have about 250 other people in their lives who are important enough to invite to a wedding or to a funeral") which serves as the basis of his continuous cultivation of past, current, and prospective customers. Had Sant limited his attention entirely to the four "giants," I would still rate this book Five Stars but hasten to point out that that there is a substantial value-added benefit which I did not anticipate when I began to read this book: Sant correlates all of the "lessons" to be learned from Patterson, Carnegie, Wheeler, and Girard and then suggests to his reader how to select the most relevant material from among the abundance he provides. Here are key points he stresses: "1. The sales method matches the customer's preferred mode of buying. 2. The sales method is flexible enough to be self-correcting, incorporating lessons." 3. The sales process itself creates value, usually in the form of intellectual capital, for both the customer and the vendor. 4. The methodology followed increases the efficiency of the sales process, making the sales cycle shorter or enabling the salesperson to handle a larger volume of accounts successfully. 5. The methodology should be transferable across all skill levels. 6. The methodology is based on objectively measured events or tasks." Also in the final chapter, "Looking Back to Look Ahead," Gant observes that "all of the sales methods we have looked at have one thing in common: They work...But they work only if you work them." Therefore, "Chose one. Use one. Do it every day. Keep at it steadily persistently, consistently. The bottom line is that you just need to do it." Of course, the methodology selected could be a "hybrid," one which combines some of Patterson's ideas about process with Carnegie's insights about influencing others, Wheeler's focus on "the magic of words" (as opposed to "magical words"), and Girard's "Law of 250." It remains for each reader to decide what is most relevant to her or his own circumstances. Whatever they may be, "you just need to do it."