cover image The Sales Advantage: How to Get It, Keep It, and Sell More Than Ever

The Sales Advantage: How to Get It, Keep It, and Sell More Than Ever

. Free Press, $26 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-1591-6

According to the business sages at Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc., sales make the world go round. That's a bold statement, but when you consider that a driver for an international freight company may not have a job if a salesperson hasn't sold the products being delivered, or that an aerospace engineer wouldn't have anything to do if an account executive hadn't secured a contract for commercial jets, it makes pretty good sense. In this snappy guide to making winning transactions, the organization behind the colossal bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People explains the ins and outs of finding prospects, getting their attention, building trust, giving customers what they want, negotiating, handling objections and securing the sale. The suggestions range from the practical (e.g., make sure the audiovisual equipment works before giving a sales presentation) to the psychological (e.g., figure out the customer's emotional motive for buying something); taken together, they make for a good primer for novices and a perfect refresher for old hands.