"A good salesman actually sets his own pay scale by intelligently pursuing probable business from as many accounts as he can find. In essence, he can control his own destiny!"
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Selling is Joy by Stanley Bird Snyder Trafford Publishing
book review by Lew Koflowitz
This book is a celebration of a successful career in industrial sales. In brief, anecdotal chapters, Snyder effectively brings to life many practical lessons from a long sales career. He demonstrates that the sales process can be at once challenging, rewarding, and interesting.
Of great interest are the many anecdotes of how Snyder beat his competition, sometimes by "being incorrigible," i.e., ignoring or going beyond orders from his sales manager and developing creative ways to get new business. He tells, for example, of how he "penetrated" the Bendix Corp's military avionics business by "calling on all disciplines" within the company, and by living in proximity to the company's facility two days a week so that he could be there on a regular basis. Although his boss told him to "stop wasting time" and entertainment expenses at the facility, the strategy paid off in substantial business with Bendix.
Another big lesson is to follow up every lead. One example details how Snyder followed up what he thought was a "suspicious" lead because the inquirer's address was in an area of multi-million-dollar homes. He almost threw the lead away, but went there anyway. The inquirer, an engineer, had a contract with Pepsi Cola Corp to update its dispensers nationwide. The sales call turned into a $250,000 piece of business for Snyder's company.
This book is filled with many nuggets of wisdom and experience culled from a long career in sales. Although it contains references to technical and industrial products, it is interesting and written in plain language that could appeal to anyone interested in sales as a profession.