The subtitle is: The Proven 3-Step Formula Anyone Can Learn to Get More Leads, Book More Appointments, and Make More Sales

Some say either you can sell or you can’t. You’re born with it or you’re not. Eric Lofholm disagrees. And he’s in a position to know. If he were a born salesman, he would not have been on the verge of being fired from his first sales job for consistently failing to meet quotas. And if you couldn’t learn to sell if you were not a born salesman, he would not have been one of that company’s top producers within a few months. So, I think we have to revise that viewpoint.

Anyone can learn sales, he says, and this book can get you started on that road. It’s a system. To be successful in just about anything, you have to have a system, a plan. You can get lucky a few times, but you’re not going to consistently succeed if you don’t have a plan. The first thing to do to learn how to sell is to get rid of the terrible images the term conjures up. When we think “sales,” we think of smarmy used car salesmen. Not just the average used car salesman, the smarmy ones.

Sales is not about convincing someone to buy something. It’s not about convincing at all. It’s about being of service. My brother is a born salesman (and yes, he has a system) and he cringes when people say he’s such a good salesman he could sell ice to an Eskimo. That’s a bad salesman, he says. A good salesman doesn’t sell somebody something they don’t need! That’s a scam artist, not a salesman. Which is exactly Eric’s premise.

Here’s a section of his book that he suggests you read out loud to yourself 10 times a day for 30 days: Sales equals service. When you sell, sell from honesty, integrity, and compassion. It’s not about a hard sell, it’s about a heart sale. Selling is about leading and moving people to action. He wants you to really get in into your head that sales equals service.

The 3-step formula involves the Inner Game of selling, the Outer Game, and taking Action. His book guides you easily through the steps. When you’ve read a section, you feel like you’ve got a good handle on it.

The writing is easy to read. Unlike so many business tomes, you don’t have to read this, bit by bit, over the course of weeks. You can read it straight through, like a normal book. There are times when the writing gets a little awkward. It sounds to me like this is written from his workshops and seminars, where he has an audience in front of him. It doesn’t come across the same way to a reading audience, just like a live performance does not necessarily make a good CD. It would still be an enjoyable CD, it just wouldn’t be the same as the live performance.

Reading one book, no matter who it is by, is not going to take you from not selling to master salesman. But this one’s a really good start.