54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Selling in the era of behavioral genetics, March 21, 2002
This review is from: Selling Yourself To Others: The New Psychology of Sales (Hardcover)
I've read and reviewed a number of Kevin Hogan's books, this one is probably his best work (along with Irresistible Attraction). What sets this book aside from every other sales book I've read is the brilliant weaving of hypnotic stories with truly razors edge scientific advances in behavioral genetics.
The authors of this book have the greatest respect for salespeople and go so far as to say, "Salespeople make the world go around. Without the salesperson, nothing happens...no one gets paid." Clearly Hogan and Horton are salespeople themselves. They tell their stories in a most elegant and unique fashion. More importantly, those of us who sell for a living, sense an understanding that is rarely experienced in books that beat "overcoming their objections," "scripts" and "close hard close often techniques."
There is no question that what makes this book stand out are the three chapters about how to ask questions and present information based upon people's genetic bias. Hogan goes into great detail about sex and selling, the flight/fight response, the drive to eat, connect and acquire...and he details how you communicate so you push all the right instinctual buttons at the right nanosecond. I confess I had never considered these concepts...ever. I've been to see Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins and Zig Ziglar numerous times. They are all incredible, but even they don't have this material...or if they do, they haven't presented it to my knowledge.
More specifically Hogan breaks down the genetic biases of individuals into key drives and desires which he claims are not original to his thinking but collected from William James and Stephen Reiss. However, with the credited assistance of Hogan's colleague Richard Brodie, they ambitiousl detail utterly new ways to get inside of the mind of your customer and show exactly how to help that customer see your product in it's best possible light.
Hogan's co-author Horton, contributes with NLP techniques, many of which we have seen and several we haven't. I took my NLP training in Chicago and now I wish I would have taken my training with Horton as his contributions are significant to this book. I'm not an afficianado of the martial arts but I felt his metaphors from his experience in the martial arts were useful in understanding the sales process.
This book only has one weakness and that is that it reads unevenly at times. It sometimes feels as if you are reading a long article after another long article. However, this criticism is really to be taken in the context of its enormous contribution to the field of selling and really to every salesperson out there.
Selling Yourself to Others is based on selling with integrity and yet offers you scientific insights into the human mind that make you feel like you can turn the keys at will. After you read this, you will probably get pangs of guilt for having so much power. Once you get over it, you have a manual that likely won't be matched for many years.
There are also a number of truly funny stories that made me laught out loud. This is a serious book about how to sell but once per chapter you simply find yourself unable to control yourself with laughter. This is amazing stuff. Hogan's best work.
Five stars.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Salesmanship updated with latest research, March 25, 2009
This review is from: Selling Yourself To Others: The New Psychology of Sales (Hardcover)
I have read most of Kevin Hogan's books and this is one of my favorites. Since I am a field sales pro and I make hundreds of face-to-face and thousands of ear-to-ear sales calls every year, I am always looking for the slight edge that willl give me a better chance to help my customers overcome their resistance to buying, and make the decision that will help them in the long run.
This book, "Selling Yourself to Others" is chock-full of good ideas, many of which I have tried and tested in the field with good results.
One anecdeote that stands out is the Nissan car salesman who used an anchoring technique to take a person who was "just looking" and turn him into a Maxima buyer in less than a couple of hours. Could you use techniquies like this in your sales arsenal?
The forward by Jeffrey Gitomer is cool- and he advises to use a high-lighter and not to read this too fast. I think that is good advice, and I would add-- read it more than one time, and test the things you find in your own sales career. You will come away much richer than the measly $20 or so Amazon wants for this book. Just get it.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best selling books I've ever read., July 26, 2004
This review is from: Selling Yourself To Others: The New Psychology of Sales (Hardcover)
I have no idea what book the guy below me read. I've read four or five of Hogan's books now and this is one of the best.
From the stories of his childhood to the tips he got from some of the all time greats, this book is filled with anecdotes, lots of research. And I mean a *lot* of research.
I've never seen this much new stuff in a sales book...and I've been selling for over 10 years.
DT
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