The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies [Hardcover]

Chet Holmes (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Ultimate Sales Machine [is] a book that puts it all together to help you dramatically increase your sales if you are wise enough to follow its advice. -- Michael Gerber, bestselling author of The E-Myth and E-Myth Revisited

The Ultimate Sales Machine is an amazing book that will powerfully change the way you do business. Chet Holmes is a one-of-a-kind talent and this incredibly practical book is the embodiment of his highly successful approach. -- Stephen M. R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust

Chet Holmes is one of the greatest teachers of marketing, sales, and business success in the world today. This incredible book will supercharge results in every part of your business. -- Brian Tracy, author of The Way to Wealth

Chet has the best material I've seen for how to attract an army of top producers and how to get the most out of them once you get them. -- T. Harv Eker, bestselling author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

Chet not only knows more and better ways to grow sales than probably anyone, but even more important, he has the systems that make his concepts realistic and easy to implement. Most of the books I've read on business growth are interesting. But this man's material is out-of-the-park great. -- Loral Langemeier, author of The Millionaire Maker's Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life

No hype or theory here. Chet offers sound, yet simple, business advice to grow your business stronger than ever! -- Tom Hopkins, author of How to Master the Art of Selling

Reading Chet Holmes's book can turn your business into a high-performing, massively profitable, superior money-making force in whatever field or market you compete in. . . . It's essential reading for anyone craving business greatness and prosperity. -- Jay Abraham, author of Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got

This book will be a classic for as long as businesses seek to improve their profits, their sales, and their futures. -- Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the Guerrilla Marketing series

This is by far the best sales book I have ever read and I have read hundreds. As someone who runs [more than] fifteen companies and employs more than six hundred people, I can honestly say this is a book I will refer to for decades to come. -- A. Harrison Barnes, CEO, Juriscape

Product Description

Chet Holmes has been called "America's greatest business growth expert. He helps his clients blow away both the competition and their own expectations. And his advice starts with one simple concept: focus! Instead of trying to master four thousand strategies, zero in on the handful of essential skill areas that make the big difference in transforming your business.

Too many managers jump at every new trend, but don't stick with any of them. Instead, says Holmes, focus on twelve critical areas of improvement - one at a time - and practice them over and over with pigheaded discipline.

The Ultimate Sales Machine shows you how to tune up and soup up virtually every part of your business by spending just an hour per week on each impact area you want to improve. Like a tennis player who hits nothing but backhands for a few hours a week to perfect his game, you can systematically improve each key area. Holmes offers proven strategies for:

* Management: Teach your people how to work smarter, not harder
* Marketing: Get more bang from your Web site, advertising, trade shows, and public relations
* Sales: Perfect every sales interaction by working on sales, not just in sales

The Ultimate Sales Machine will put you and your company on a path to success and, more important, help you stay there!

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover; annotated edition edition (June 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591841607
• ISBN-13: 978-1591841609
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #47,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Sales & Selling > Techniques

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

126 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sales = Pestering?, April 5, 2008

By	Nick Fury "1001 places to visit" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies (Hardcover)

I am another one who does not understand why this book has gotten so many 5-star reviews. Essentially, I have just finished reading "How to Sell without being a Jerk!" by John Klymshyn and these two books seem to pull at the same topic from two completely different angles.

Chet Holmes take on Sales is, I feel, to wear the client down with repeated calls and sales pitch till they give in. He advocates that someone with High Influence (that is, an ability to empathize with others) and a High Ego (High drive and determination - never say die attitude) is absolutely necessary to be a Superstar Salesperson. At the end of the day, this never say die attitude requires you to push your product (because you feel that it is good for your client, regardless of what he thinks) relentlessly until he gives in and buys from you.

All these is good as long as the product which your client buys works out for him at the end. Alas, I'm into Structured Products Sales in a Private Bank and sometimes we all know that some products do not work out well if the markets are not cooperative! The failure of a product is never covered in any of Chet's materials. All his stories have happy endings - the executive who after 6 months gave in and bought advertisement space (through his relentless selling) and again bought more advertisement space after some more months when the first series of advertisements did not make any impact FINALLY saw the truth in Chet's words when his sales jumped etc etc - Never has Chet's advice been wrong or the products he sold not worked out (or these have been pleasantly omitted).

I think the book has some useful gems to take away and it has helped me address some of the weaknesses in my own selling. However, this 'Take No prisoners' approach may not be for everybody all of the time.

Also, I do not agree with his material on Presentation. He mentioned that it is necessary to have a very dramatic and visual approach to your slides to have your clients at the edge of their seats. In addition, humor is often an effective and useful content to have in your presentation. NOTHING WRONG HERE. However, this presentation style may not be for everyone. I've been trained in presentations and have learnt that doing a presentation with NO SLIDES is also a very effective way to conduct a presentation because then the audience would have to pay attention to you instead of staring at the slides. I'm not saying that one is right and the other wrong - I feel that at the end of the day, YOU would have to decide what is most comfortable ane effective for you and your audience when giving a presentation.

Chet's way is definitely one way to succeed in Sales - he is a living example. But to call his way the Ultimate Sales Machine is just over the top.

55 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent material, some new and unique ideas, July 26, 2007

By	John Chancellor "Mentor coach, www.teachtheso... (New Orleans) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies (Hardcover)

No matter what business you are in, no matter what product or service you provide, you can benefit from the wisdom of the "Ultimate Sales Machine".

The book starts off where most of the work is needed ... with top management. Everyone today complains of too much to do and too little time. Chet describes how he cut his work days from 16 hours to a normal work day and got more done in the process. The first step is to become proactive rather than reactive. Adopt the mantra, "If you touch it, take action." We let our desks pile up with material that we read, examine and think about but never get around to taking any action on. Develop the habit of touching a letter, memo or report once. Take action and get it off you desk.

We also let the small interruptions rule our day. Eliminate these pesky interruptions by scheduling "got a minute" sessions. Also hold regular staff meetings where general questions can be answered for the benefit of everyone.

Most of us are good at making "to do" lists. Chet's offers some excellent advice. Never have more than six items on your list. Make sure those are the most important things for you to get done. Leave the minor tasks off your list and only work on those things on your list.

The book is divided into twelve chapters or steps which if you implement all the steps will totally transform your organization. Chet stresses the importance of strategic thinking as opposed to the reactive style of most managers.

He has a very interesting and unique approach to hiring superstars. Age and background are not relevant. Results are the only thing that counts. While his approach is a little bold and many people will be reluctant to try it, it is very difficult to argue with success.

The book is well written and contains plenty of exercises. There are some original ideas and you will certainly benefit if you choose to implement some of his ideas.

He gives lots of good ideas about how to create your ultimate sales machine. In the final analysis, his best advice is "pigheaded determination", Whatever you are doing, if you give up when you meet a little resistance, you will never achieve the level of success you are capable of achieving.

The book is filled with good ideas that can really make a difference in your business - but only if you follow them with pigheaded determination.

28 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even if you think you already know this material, Holmes presents it in a fresh and compelling way, June 26, 2007

By	Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies (Hardcover)

Chet Holmes knows his material very well and has the ability to not only say it concisely, but he can also present it in clear and memorable ways. He packs a whole lot of information into 245 pages and I am certain you can find more than enough useful information here to justify the price of the book.

The title refers to the book's emphasis on fashioning your entire organization to support your sales and marketing efforts rather than just having a sales department. This makes a great deal of sense to me. Holmes starts with making sure that you, the reader and leader of your organization, are managing your own time most efficiently. The principles he lays down here also have resonance with the principles he will present later.

Holmes also demonstrates the values and benefits of deep and ongoing training of all your employees. Some companies consider it a luxury and cut back on it the moment any trouble occurs. This is a mistake, according to the author. Training gets everyone on the same page, helps them be more efficient, and, when handled properly, motivates them to higher performance.

Meetings consume way too much time. We all know that. Holmes shows you how to use them to greater effect in less time. He also talks about how you need to become a brilliant strategist and a great tactician. This is more easily said than done, but with what he provides you here, improvements are possible.

Holmes then talks about hiring superstars rather than just staffing your departments, how to get the best buyers (not just customers), the seven musts of marketing - how to turbocharge your efforts, using compelling visuals to close more sales, and the nitty-gritty day-to-day work of going after those best buyers he talked about earlier.

He then talks about deep selling, client bonding, and how to put it all together.

Each chapter not only has its topic, it usually has a list of steps or a checklist, and a concluding section to summarize the points made and guides for implementation.

It is a good read, a great reminder for those who are already experienced in this area, and will be a revelation for those who are coming to running their own companies or sales efforts for the first time.