Customer Reviews

20 Days to the Top

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This brief sales guide offers solid suggestions for such powerful techniques as asking questions, listening to customers, taking notes, using call sheets and doing research to turn selling into a standardized, measurable and repeatable process. If none of that sounds new to you, the problem isn't you. But that doesn't mean the advice isn't sound. It is. Author Brian Sullivan, a motivational speaker, has packaged old guidance in a new wrapper that he calls the "Precise Selling Formula." He says nothing that is outright wrong and much that is outright right. We think his elementary but helpful book (and its accompanying CD) will be most useful to inexperienced salespeople who lack self-confidence, and who may need exhortation and reassurance. The author's earthy anecdotes, Kansas City optimism and self-deprecating but enthusiastic tone may be just what novice salespeople crave after a day in the trenches.

This book has a ton of applicable information and a proven strategy that can put into play starting tomorrow.


I have read a large majority of the sales books on the market, and until reading this book, I would have considered SPIN Selling to be the best material available. What I really like about "20 days to the Top" is that it breaks the selling process into a proven and replicable formula that makes sense and can actually be used. SPIN Selling talks about a lot of the same things (plus a ton of backup fluff on all there research) but leaves you hanging as-to how to really use the questions on day-to-day sales calls...where PRECISE really fills in all the blanks.

I highly recomend this book.

Josh

I've looked at a book or two on selling and some of those things are heavy! I powered a good portion of this book down while sitting in the bookstore and was pleasantly surprised. Of all the fluff of other books, this one had a method, something you can actually do and follow.
I'm a photographer and engineering consultant (go figure) and I only have time for things that are broken down into processes, procedures and such when I'm not in the creative mode. Even then, I follow procedures. That way I can evaluate my performance and improve. This book provides just that.

This book is a winner! I've read many sales books offering the same tired formulas and "power closes" designed to trap unsuspecting consumers into a deceitful sales web. Refreshingly, Brian Sullivan offers a proven, duplicatable formula based on learning what the customer really wants, and giving it to them in an ethical way they find hard to resist. One problem with most sales books and training is that the student has no way to easily remember and implement what they've learned, so the initial enthusiasm quickly wears off and sales people resort to their old way of doing things. With easy to remember acronyms and PRECISE call sheets, you'll soon be asking CLEAR questions and using SHARP responses to customer concerns, and having more fun and making a lot more money along the way. Buy this book and become a PRECISE selling superstar. Your family, your customers, and your banker will thank you.

Brian Sullivan's "20 Days to the Top" is a fantastic read and well worth the investment. I have read countless "sales" books, some fun and full of fluff, and some so jargon laden and process oriented that you feel like you're reading an instruction manual on how to change the spark plugs in your electric toothbrush. 20 Days to the Top combines the best of both...a quick and enjoyable read with plenty of meat to sink your teeth into and try out the next day. As a salesman and business owner I have always wanted a repeatable process for a sales call. Something you can measure to improve weaknesses and capitalize on strengths. The PRECISE sales formula gives you just that. And the "Call Sheets" alone are well worth the price of the book.

I read this book out of curiosity because I know the author - I didn't really expect to learn much that would help me in my own business. But I've now read it at least five times, cover to cover. It's unbelievably readable - Brian's self-deprecating humor and easy-going attitude make it a fun read, the kind of book that leaves you laughing out loud and wanting more.

But more than simply good entertainment, Brian's ideas and philosophies are refreshing and definitely thought-provoking. I find myself using many of his principals in my own consulting practice, even though I'm not a salesperson.

Kudos, Brian.