Little Red Book of Selling – Jeffrey Gitomer

May 25, 2007 – Subtitled 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness: How to make sales FOREVER, it delivers what the title promises. For many people, this book is certainly not new at all having been published in 2004, but it was a gift to me the last week I worked for my previous employer, and so I sat down and read it again. Jeffrey Gitomer knows how to communicate. His book is the closest thing to an interactive experience I think that it’s possible to have in a printed work. The content is simple and to the point. He didn’t invent the successful sales process. He communicates it well and ties the book back to his website by offering additional information for each chapter. In addition to being a successful author, his syndicated weekly column is published widely throughout the U.S. and he is a much-in-demand speaker and trainer. But his writing style is very forthright, engaging and pretty much in-your-face. He doesn’t mince words, and while the cartoons and format give the content some punch, humor and interest, you find that it’s the ideas and principles are solid as rock.

Gitomer gives credit to all those who came before him and their classic works that are still relevant today – Earl Nightengale, Edward de Bono, Dale Carnegie. He has endeavored here to synthesize volumes of valuable information into a handbook that he fully expects to be read regularly and often. There is no question that he is a product of his own research and practice, he lives his own philosophies quite successfully.

The book is a modern classic and should be the handbook he intended it to be for anyone who is in sales. It’s not a difficult read and well worth the time invested.