Rating: 
Summary: What I Was looking For
Review: After leaving a sales position in a company I helped start I felt very frustrated. I could not understand why my sales performance was so poor in a company that I cared so deeply about. My conclusion was that I must be a [lousy] sales guy. WRONG!This book taught me that sales success comes from finding and using my talents. This requires that I work in a role that allows me to fully leverage those talents. This was a wonderful insight for me and I feel a great deal of gratitude to the authors for giving me the direction I was looking for. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who felt success was eluding them in their sales career. However, anyone looking to see the documented research may not be satisfied. Sure, there are some juicy morsels to enjoy along the way, but most often I kept wanting to go deeper into the research. The authors' evangelistic style keeps the reader on the straight and narrow. I would have liked the opportunity to draw some of my own conclusions. The supporting website makes this book an incredible value. The online assessment was excellent. Similar tests cost companies hundreds of dollars. The book, along with the assessment, was exactly what I was looking for while I make my next big career decision.
Rating:
Summary: What I Was looking For
Review: After leaving a sales position in a company I helped start I felt very frustrated. I could not understand why my sales performance was so poor in a company that I cared so deeply about. My conclusion was that I must be a [lousy] sales guy. WRONG! This book taught me that sales success comes from finding and using my talents. This requires that I work in a role that allows me to fully leverage those talents. This was a wonderful insight for me and I feel a great deal of gratitude to the authors for giving me the direction I was looking for. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who felt success was eluding them in their sales career. However, anyone looking to see the documented research may not be satisfied. Sure, there are some juicy morsels to enjoy along the way, but most often I kept wanting to go deeper into the research. The authors' evangelistic style keeps the reader on the straight and narrow. I would have liked the opportunity to draw some of my own conclusions. The supporting website makes this book an incredible value. The online assessment was excellent. Similar tests cost companies hundreds of dollars. The book, along with the assessment, was exactly what I was looking for while I make my next big career decision.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Enlightening
Review: As a psych major who has worked in sales for over 10 years, I found this book to be very informative. I think the StrengthsFinder hit my nail on the head! I am currently using the information gained from this book to better fit my current position to my strengths, and I am plotting a course for the future that will allow me to do the things I do best everyday.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I have ever read on Sales
Review: Bar none, this is the best book you will ever read about the art of selling. Moreover, this book will change the way you think about hiring, training, managing and motivating anyone who is responsible for bringing new customers to your organization and keeping those customers engaged. See of you can answer this question from the book correctly:
What do the top sales and marketing professionals have in common?
a. Experience and background
b. Education and training
c. Great presentation skills
d. Aggressive closers
e. None of the above If you guessed "e", you are correct. According Gallup's extensive research spanning 30 years and interviews with 250,000 sales people, over 1 million customers and 25,000 sales managers, this is what the top sales people have in common:
• They were in the type of sales job where they were able to use their top talents every day
• They developed their own unique selling style based on their top talents
• They had a productive relationship with their manager. Since the top 25 % of the sales force accounts for 57% of the sales revenue in most organizations, the more sales people get to use their top talents, the more likely they are to build a sustainable and profitable customer base. So, how do you discover your individual strengths and talents? One of the unique features of this book is that you go to an Internet site and take an assessment that will immediately tell you what your top five strengths are. What I found intriguing is that these strengths are much more practical than the strengths I have seen in any other kind of assessment instruments. You can then use the book to determine how to put these strengths to work for you so they become true talents. (By focusing on these strengths I have increased my own productivity by 100%!!) The other thing I really liked about this book is the easy to read format and the fact that the author includes great real world stories and examples of how top sales people used their talents to excel in their job. The author, Benson Smith, who started his career as a successful salesperson with a Fortune 500 medical device company and eventually became the CEO, writes in clear business language and does not spend a lot of time espousing complicated theories. If anything, the book is too short and leaves you wanting more. The book also talks about the key role that managers play in insuring the success of the sales effort. The chapter on management should be required reading for anyone who is a manager or thinks they want to become one. (You will also find this chapter extremely helpful if your current manager is less than ideal.) I have spent over 20 years in the medical and pharmaceutical industry in sales, management, marketing and training. Over the last 9 years, I have had a successful business focused on performance development consulting and training. This book has inspired me to rethink my approach. I hope it will do the same for others in my profession. Most organizations tie training to "improvement opportunities." Gallup's research has found that training will be far more productive if you focus on strengths and how to build them into true talents.
Rating: 
Summary: don't buy the e-book version - doesn't have strengthsfinder
Review: DO NOT buy this book if you've already read the Gallup Organization's earlier book, 'Now, Discover Your Strengths' by Buckingham. They're almost identical and you really learn nothing new in 'Sales.' Having taken the StrengthFinders tests for both books, I found that 3 of 5 strengths were the same for me. In addition, I found that 'Sales Strengths' did nothing to tell me what sales environment or type of sales I should be in. The authors did a poor job of applying the theoretical strengths to practical sales environments and telling me that if I have x strength I should seek y sales job. Overall, the 'Sales' book read like a very long instruction guide to the test. Caveat emptor...
Rating:
Summary: Duplicates 'Now, Discover Your Strengths'
Review: DO NOT buy this book if you've already read the Gallup Organization's earlier book, 'Now, Discover Your Strengths' by Buckingham. They're almost identical and you really learn nothing new in 'Sales.' Having taken the StrengthFinders tests for both books, I found that 3 of 5 strengths were the same for me. In addition, I found that 'Sales Strengths' did nothing to tell me what sales environment or type of sales I should be in. The authors did a poor job of applying the theoretical strengths to practical sales environments and telling me that if I have x strength I should seek y sales job. Overall, the 'Sales' book read like a very long instruction guide to the test. Caveat emptor...
Rating:
Summary: don't buy the e-book version - doesn't have strengthsfinder
Review: I bought the adobe e-book version, and complications aside, found out that it does not come with the access code to Gallup's online utility "StrenghtsFinder".
All the print versions come with this access code; the online utility is essential to getting the most of the book. Without the StrengthsFinder Tool, the book is worthless, unless the reader has taken the online test from other sources, like the "Now Discover your Strengths" book from Gallup.
Rating:
Summary: don't buy the e-book version - doesn't have strengthsfinder
Review: I bought the adobe e-book version, and complications aside, found out that it does not come with the access code to Gallup's online utility "StrenghtsFinder".
All the print versions come with this access code; the online utility is essential to getting the most of the book. Without the StrengthsFinder Tool, the book is worthless, unless the reader has taken the online test from other sources, like the "Now Discover your Strengths" book from Gallup.
Rating:
Summary: A new pair of glasses
Review: I have been hanging around the Gallup Organization for 20 years, and have seen many significant discoveries bloom. However, this (research driven) approach to sales and sales management may indeed be one of the most significant. Every single person in any organization (from the CEO down) needs to be armed with these critical insights. Organizations everywhere are being choked to death with the sobering reality of "no growth." This book holds the answer. However - DO NOT read it unless you are willing to discard your old conventional specs and put on a new set of lenses to view the world with. I have known both Benson and Tony for many years, and can attest to their conviction, passion and integrity around finding "what really works." Beutifully written, and so clear in laying out the new sales world, and its new set of realities.
Rating:
Summary: A new pair of glasses
Review: I have been hanging around the Gallup Organization for 20 years, and have seen many significant discoveries bloom. However, this (research driven) approach to sales and sales management may indeed be one of the most significant. Every single person in any organization (from the CEO down) needs to be armed with these critical insights. Organizations everywhere are being choked to death with the sobering reality of "no growth." This book holds the answer. However - DO NOT read it unless you are willing to discard your old conventional specs and put on a new set of lenses to view the world with. I have known both Benson and Tony for many years, and can attest to their conviction, passion and integrity around finding "what really works." Beutifully written, and so clear in laying out the new sales world, and its new set of realities.
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