cover image The Inner Game of Selling: Mastering the Hidden Forces That Determine Your Success

The Inner Game of Selling: Mastering the Hidden Forces That Determine Your Success

Ron Willingham, . . Free Press, $26 (253pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-8628-2

Your ability to sell is much more an issue of who you are than what you know," asserts Willingham, CEO of the sales training organization Integrity Solutions, in this workbook-style manual. Moving beyond the usual sales advice about gimmicks and closings, he focuses on the emotional factors behind effective sales and the hangups that prevent salespeople from achieving their full potential. Willingham synthesizes advice from his successful sales seminars, offering self-assessments and scorecards to aid the reader in applying each chapter's lessons. From an initial chapter on understanding the personal context in which one approaches one's job, through chapters on understanding boundaries, breaking through barriers to success and activating the drive to achievement, the advice is much more psychologically oriented than in most business books. Despite occasionally complicated concepts and more warm-and-fuzzy approaches than the average business reader might be used to, this book is worthwhile for salespeople and readers who may be wondering how to move forward in their work or even their personal lives. (Sept. 6)