Customer Reviews

The Giants of Sales: What Dale Carnegie, John Patterson, Elmer Wheeler, and Joe Girard Can Teach You About Real Sales Success

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4 star:		(4)
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Sir Isaac Newton reputedly explained that if he could see further than others, it was because he "stood on the shoulders of giants." (Actually, centuries before him, Bernard of Chartres observed that "We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.") When John Wooden began to coach basketball at Dayton High School in Kentucky, he began to formulate principles for a "pyramid of success" for himself and the players he coached. Throughout Wooden's career, these principles focused much more on development of character and quality of life than they did on victories on the court, although his U.C.L.A. teams won 10 NCAA titles during his last 12 seasons, including 7 in a row from 1967 to 1973. His UCLA teams also had a record winning streak of 88 games, four perfect 30-0 seasons, and won 38 straight games in NCAA Tournaments.

I mention all this by way of introducing the remarks that follow. Thanks to the author of this book, Tom Sant, his readers are able to stand on the shoulders of four "giants" in salesmanship: John Henry Patterson, Dale Carnegie, Elmer Wheeler, and Joe Girard. As did John Wooden, each thought of success in terms of a pyramid that has a broad base of participation and (yes) opportunity at the point of entry but a severely limited area at the summit. In fact, the favorite greeting of Zig Ziglar, another giant of sales, is "See you at the top!"(In fact, he likes the expression so much that he used it as a new title for one of his books, Biscuits, Fleas, and Pump Handles.) Sant examines the career of each of the four men, then explains what he thinks can be learned from their quite different approaches to sales...and to life.

For example, Sant credits Patterson (1867-1947) with being the first -- or at least among the first -- to institutionalize the process of selling as a standardized system. As a result, by all of them following his brother Crane's four step process, CEO Patterson and his sales force enabled their company, National Cash Register, to continue to growth profitably throughout the Great Depression in the 1930s. Sant characterizes Carnegie (1888-1955) as "the apostle of influence" because Carnegie's original "six ways to make people like you" continue to guide and inform sales planning and initiatives more than 50 years after his death. According to Sant, Elmer Wheeler claimed there were no magic words but understood "the magic of words" which he formulated in his original five "Wheelerpoints" (e.g. "Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle!"). As for Joe Girard (1928-present), he used various strategies and tactics for "priming the pump" to become (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) "the world's greatest salesman. Sant devotes considerable attention to how Girard developed his "Law of 250" (i.e. "Most people have about 250 other people in their lives who are important enough to invite to a wedding or to a funeral") which serves as the basis of his continuous cultivation of past, current, and prospective customers.

Had Sant limited his attention entirely to the four "giants," I would still rate this book Five Stars but hasten to point out that that there is a substantial value-added benefit which I did not anticipate when I began to read this book: Sant correlates all of the "lessons" to be learned from Patterson, Carnegie, Wheeler, and Girard and then suggests to his reader how to select the most relevant material from among the abundance he provides. Here are key points he stresses:

"1. The sales method matches the customer's preferred mode of buying.

2. The sales method is flexible enough to be self-correcting, incorporating lessons."

3. The sales process itself creates value, usually in the form of intellectual capital, for both the customer and the vendor.

4. The methodology followed increases the efficiency of the sales process, making the sales cycle shorter or enabling the salesperson to handle a larger volume of accounts successfully.

5. The methodology should be transferable across all skill levels.

6. The methodology is based on objectively measured events or tasks."

Also in the final chapter, "Looking Back to Look Ahead," Gant observes that "all of the sales methods we have looked at have one thing in common: They work...But they work only if you work them." Therefore, "Chose one. Use one. Do it every day. Keep at it steadily persistently, consistently. The bottom line is that you just need to do it." Of course, the methodology selected could be a "hybrid," one which combines some of Patterson's ideas about process with Carnegie's insights about influencing others, Wheeler's focus on "the magic of words" (as opposed to "magical words"), and Girard's "Law of 250." It remains for each reader to decide what is most relevant to her or his own circumstances. Whatever they may be, "you just need to do it."

As a consultant and sales trainer, I am very familiar with the people Tom writes about in his book. I have studied and successfully used their works to help my clients. Now, Tom has taken the best of the best and put it together in one succinct book. His approach is clear, unbiased and inclusive. Not only does he review the contribution of the giants of sales, he offers chapters on how you can make their approaches work for you. The book is both a primer on these people and totally practical for today's sales professionals. Everyone in sales should read it.

I highly recommend investing in "The Giants of Sales" by Tom Sant. This book is a rare collection of both the inspiration and the key elements of what made Carnegie, Patterson, Wheeler, and Girard so influential in helping good salespeople become great. Tom Sant does an outstanding job of showing us in a concise way how to learn from four of the best experts that helped turned sales into a genuine profession. I would highly recommend having this book be part of your foundational sales library.

Shawn Green, PhD
Director of the Aurora University Sales Institute
Vernon Haase Chaired Professor of Business
Aurora University
Aurora, IL

One of the ways that journalists try to tell a story is by finding one individual that they can anecdotally focus on, and then using that person to explore and provide context for larger concepts. This approach to storytelling is called "showing the macro through the micro." Readers of the book entitled - Giants of Sales - are fortunate because the author doesn't merely rely on a single individual to convey macro-truths about sales and influence; instead writer Tom Sant uses four timeless icons of persuasion to create a meaningful, overarching narrative. Those four sales gurus are: Joe Girard, who pioneered referral selling and outsold 95 percent of other U.S. car dealerships; Elmer Wheeler, who has written more than 20 best selling books and coined the phase, "Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle;" John Henry Patterson, who rebounded from near financial ruin and led a sales renaissance at NCR; as well as the legendary Dale Carnegie who needs no introduction. Soundview likes this novel, semi-biographic approach because it not only provides useful insight gleaned from the successes of these individuals, but it provides even more useful wisdom from their failures. Additionally, unlike the tired trend in allegory that continues to afflict many business books, all the stories in Giants of Sales actually happened and that's a major selling point for this particular book.

Books about selling are seldom considered page turners, but this work by persuasion expert Tom Sant is a rare exception. Sant tells the captivating stories of four sales giants: John Henry Patterson, Dale Carnegie, Elmer Wheeler and Joe Girard, and describes their profound impact on the way products and services are bought and sold. Their sea changes in the once-quiet waters of the sales profession still make waves. Each sales pioneer spawned a new approach to selling. Sant explores their methods, discusses why they worked so well, and gives you step-by-step advice about applying these strategies to your sales practice. If you want to learn from the masters, instead of the self-appointed sales guru of the month, We feel there is no better place to start. Those who are interested in history - as well as in sales techniques - will find this a fascinating read.

Sant's book is a nice mix of American business history and practical advice for modern times. I would have liked to see a somewhat more critical treatment of the ethical underpinnings of some of the Giants' approaches, but it might not be fair to review the book that wasn't written. This book is an easy, often entertaining read, and it has a lot of insight to offer.

This is a good survey of some of the key sources for most modern-day sales training and the types of training that evolved from each source. The book will help readers put the countless sales training methods out there into a broad, historical context. And it's an enjoyable read as well.

Enjoyed reading it, very interesting life examples of the 4 giants of sales, very precise information, strongly recommend reading this book!

This book offers an easily understandable thumbnail of how to build those elusive long term relationships that lead to success. Not only is the information good for "sales" but I found it equally valuable for fundraising at nonprofits.

Sant does a great job helping us better understand the different sales methodologies, its historical development and applications. And he does that in a very entertaining way, since he writes in a quick, fresh and simple style. For anyone serious about selling this book is required reading.