Sales Autopsy: 50 Postmortems Reveal What Killed the Sale (and what might have saved it) [Hardcover]

Dan Seidman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2006

In his hilarious new book Sales Autopsy, top sales coach Dan Seidman reveals stories of sales gone horribly, embarrassingly wrong, and what—if anything—can be learned from them. 

 

In 1999, Seidman launched SalesAutopsy.com and salespeople everywhere rejoiced in the knowledge that they weren't the only ones who had suffered the indignities of rambling voicemails left for prospects, small talk that inadvertently caused big problems, and pitches that crashed and burned in front of prospects.

 

Now, Seidman has gathered the best sales horror stories from around the world.  These are the stories that make you wince, laugh, sympathize, and say a quick "Thank God that didn't happen to me!"  But Sales Autopsy will do more than just entertain you—it will leave you with actionable strategies you can use to either turn the situation around if you're stuck in the middle of a sales nightmare or remind you of what not to do next time. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sales Autopsy will take every salesperson from rookie to rainmaker in minutes."—Jeffrey J. Fox, author of How to be CEO and How to Be a Rainmaker

 

“Sales don't die—you kill them. BUT—sales can be revived—all you have to do is buy this book, and administer the lessons to yourself!”—Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Little Red Book of Selling

“While hundreds of book focus on success, this rare and highly useful book shows us how we can recover and learn from failure. Failure offers a wonderful opportunity to develop our sense of humor. Dan Seidman's work teaches us that failure is the diamond dust that nature uses to polish its jewels.”—Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and Publisher, Selling Power

 

"For every disaster, Seidman offers a solution."—Entrepreneur magazine

"Sales Autopsy shows you how to make fewer mistakes and more sales, faster and easier than you may have thought possible"—Brian Tracy, author of The Way To Wealth
 

"Real sales learning comes from making mistakes.  Sales Autopsy's blunder stories truly depict what doing business in the real world can be like."—Sam Reese, President & CEO, Miller Heiman, Inc.
 
“Dan Seidman’s approach to sales is not only entertaining and humorous; it is also sound, solid advice that is useful and unusually insightful.”—William T. Brooks,
 author of The New Science of Selling and Persuasion

About the Author

Dan Seidman, founder of the award-winning website SalesAutopsy.com, is one of the top sales coaches in America. He has been a speaker, trainer, and consultant in the financial services industry for 15 years, and his regular columns reach more than 1.5 million readers monthly in online and print publications. He lives with his family in Barrington, Illinois.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing (October 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419540556
• ISBN-13: 978-1419540554
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,387,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars LOL salesman, March 16, 2011

By 

T. Hopkins - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sales Autopsy: 50 Postmortems Reveal What Killed the Sale (and what might have saved it) (Hardcover)

Excellent book. Better to learn from these guys mistakes and sales bloopers than to have to experience them first hand. This book does a good job of making reading fun and teaching at the same time. If you can make it through reading about the salesmen that looked like circus clowns without falling to your knees in laughter, more power to you.

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious Stories, Unique Strategies, March 17, 2009

By 

Dan Seidman (Got Influence, Intergalactic HQ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sales Autopsy: 50 Postmortems Reveal What Killed the Sale (and what might have saved it) (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:59 Mins

Sales Autopsy reveals 50 of my funniest selling blunders, out of 600+ collected. This is a unique and useful sales coaching or management tool. Check out the book: Sales Autopsy: 50 Postmortems Reveal What Killed the Sale (and what might have saved it)

Or get the Kindle edition: Sales Autopsy: 50 Postmortems Reveal What Killed the Sale (and what might have saved it)

By the way, if you have a most embarrassing sales moment of your own, send it to me, perhaps you'll gain selling immortality in my next book (anonymity guaranteed) [e-mail].

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learn from someone else's mistakes, May 2, 2007

By 

Timothy Kinney (St. Augustine, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sales Autopsy: 50 Postmortems Reveal What Killed the Sale (and what might have saved it) (Hardcover)

The ability to learn from one's mistakes is essential to business success, if not outright survival. Better still is to learn from someone else's mistakes. Dan Seidman gives readers this rare opportunity in his first book, "Sales Autopsy".

Pulling from 600 of some of the worst real-life sales scenarios, Seidman conducts an analysis of what went wrong as well as his recommendations for how it could have gone better for 50 of the most egregious (and amusing). The concept itself is quite clever and well played by Seidman, who offers sound, practical advice for both the novice as well as some needed reminders for the seasoned sales professional in a concise entertaining read.

As a small business owner constantly pressed for time, I was particularly helped by Seidman's work on how to quickly qualify and, more importantly, disqualify prospects. Developing a set of criteria and insightful questions to determine if a prospect is worth your limited resources is critical to effective sales management - a tool that will save you and your prospects a lot of time and headaches.

Seidman also stresses the need to re-tool your sales process to respond to more sophisticated buyers, noting the most successful sales professional know how to listen, not just pitch. By asking the right questions to determine your customer's real need is much more effective than spouting your product features and benefits. Good advice, worth the read.