Samurai Selling: The Ancient Art of Service in Sales [Paperback]

Chuck Laughlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1994

Samurai Selling is a unique guide for the modern salesperson. The code of the ancient Japanese samurai is grounded in service and personal character. Samurai Selling shows sales professionals how to apply the code of the samurai, so that whether you sell cars, real estate, office products, or personal home products, you have fresh and powerful techniques to win life-long customers.

Samurai Selling tells stories of the ancient samurai and relates them to today's competitive sales climate. Based on a proven seminar which the authors have taught to thousands of managers and sales professionals, the book is filled with practical tips, examples, and exercises that will hone your selling skills and improve your customer service.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Yes, we have even more to learn from the Japanese. The authors of this study, who run a sales management consulting firm, tell us samurai actually means "one who serves," not one who wields a sharp sword. Despite the gimmicky hook, their book does provide a serviceable presentation on how salespeople should put the customer first. While the discussion of finding the centered harmony of your personal ki may appeal to New Agers in the more soft-sell Nineties, the book's blank worksheets make it a better personal purchase. There's also plenty of promotion for the firm's own seminars, which may annoy some readers. An optional purchase after stocking such service classics as Chip R. Bell and Ron Zemke's Managing Knock-Your-Socks-Off Service (Amacom, 1992), Regis McKenna's Relationship Marketing (Addison-Wesley, 1991), and Carl Sewell and Paul B. Brown's Customers for Life (Pocket, 1991).
- Judy Quinn, "Incentive," New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A sales manual that reveals the almost mystical power to sell that one gains from developing inner confidence in the mission of serving the customer...[A] fascinating handbook." --Success Magazine

"We should not launch another product or service without this process...Full Stop!" --Richard Anderson, Global Account Manager, Schlumberger

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (December 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312118856
• ISBN-13: 978-0312118853
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 4.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #707,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tips of power and passion, June 9, 2006

By 

Abu Hamzed "Loud and proud" (Austin, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samurai Selling: The Ancient Art of Service in Sales (Paperback)

It would be very difficult to read more than a couple of pages without being challenged on your sales approach or to be reminded of a proven solution to a problem. Managers of sales and marketing operations will find creative ways to approach their craft as well as those devices and methods that have always worked (and always will). Written in bite-sized chunks, you might find it helpful to simply meditate on one concept per day. They all apply to the successful management of sales and account management. If you apply these principles, you will be successful. It's as simple as that.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Do Not Leave The Sword Behind On The Next Sales Call, December 31, 2004

By 

AliGhaemi (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samurai Selling: The Ancient Art of Service in Sales (Paperback)

Here is a book on sales technique with a different angle. Samurai Selling: The Ancient Art Of Modern Service by Chuck Laughlin, Karen Sage and Marc Bockmon takes lessons learnt from the famed and legendary shogun and the nameless or ordinary samurai of Japan and applies them to the arena of modern selling. The authors are armed with metaphors, quotations, excerpts and parables of the samurai and use them to create analogies between the two worlds. Samurai, the authors tell, translates roughly to 'one who serves' and the writers seek to instill the value, along with other concepts like Ki, balance, integrity, urgency and APE (Account, Problem and Effect) questioning into the reader.
The concept is different and interesting, but the book has as many hits as misses. For one, the authors' analogies are often stretched and forced. For another, the book seems to run out of applicable parables on occasion and just does without. Moreover, to maintain perspective, the samurai sought to serve without looking for gain. The modern salesperson - and his manager - would hardly care for that attitude. Yes, serving brings and facilitates the sale, but the juxtaposition still has merit.
Samurai Selling is a lofty ideal - the authors' use of it to launch, nurture and enrich a corporate training career notwithstanding - but looking around one sees plenty of real-life examples which contradict its application to success.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The art of service, June 8, 2007

By 

Frederic G. Jones MD "purple doc" (sapphire, nc United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samurai Selling: The Ancient Art of Service in Sales (Paperback)

Using age proven concepts to succeed in the modern world, not just selling.