Uncensored Sales Strategies: A Radical New Approach to Selling Your Customers What They Really Want - No Matter What Business You're In (Paperback)

~ Sydney Biddle Barrows (Author), Dan Kennedy (Author)
Key Phrases: sales choreography, fantasy experience, marketing letter, Tactics of Seductive Selling, Outside Influences, Preparing Yourself (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sex Sells…

With a gift for sales, Sydney Biddle Barrows, once known infamously as the Mayflower Madam, found wealth in selling her customers exactly what they wanted - and shockingly, it wasn't sex! Yes, ultimately a sure thing was involved, but if that was really her clients' main objective, they could have gone elsewhere for a lot less.

The business she was really in? Selling a fantasies. Fantasies inspire, excite and motivate - they make us feel good about ourselves. We all buy fantasies everyday - from a car dealership, a spa, a realtor. The salesman that masters the art of selling fantasies can write his own check. Now the Mayflower Madam shows you how - in a way you've never dreamed of.

This one-of-a-kind sales guide works for any business and any salesperson. Through racy examples and entertaining anecdotes, discover how to:

• Unearth your prospects' unspoken expectations so you can create a sales design that delivers the goods
• Figure out what business your customers want you to be in - and how to reverse engineer it so your customer actually receives that experience
• Be selective and attract affluent customers where price is not a barrier
• Reverse the sales process, creating a sales choreography to take control of your prospect
• Quickly establish your clients' trust - lessons from a business where trust is hard to come by

Plus get Sydney's 25 XXX-Rated Sales Secrets!

Provocative and clever, Biddle Barrows brilliantly addresses hidden, overlooked and neglected aspects of selling. Through her own experiences, she takes you where no other sales expert has ever taken you and equips you to fine-tune your own sales process providing the ultimate payoff!

[REVIEW:]

The fast-talking, closing-obsessed salesperson of the past is dead and doesn’t know it. Potential customers hate being bullied; though they may cave in the face of such old-style aggression, they won’t be back and they won’t send referrals. Barrows and Kennedy make an irrefutable case that people are more beguiled by an approach centered on providing an experience consistent with inner desires than a pressure-sell.

Barrows urges listening first, then selling clients what they yearn for. “What problem are they trying to solve, what pain are they seeking to alleviate or avoid? What pleasure or gain are they hoping to experience? What do they see as the ideal outcome and how will that make them feel?” This approach meets less sales resistance than trying to convince people to want what is already on hand.

The author and co-author are an absolutely unique duo in the sphere of marketing. Sydney Biddle Barrows first came to the public’s notice when labeled by the press as the “Mayflower Madam,”—mistress of a highly lucrative out-call service, called Cachet. She is now a highly in demand public speaker, business mentor, and management consultant. Dan Kennedy is a consulting guru whose daily fee (which folks line up to pay) is about the same as the average annual per capita income in the U.S. His eleven previous books include The No B.S. series of specialized sales guides.

According to Barrows and Kennedy, the smart seller should shift focus from products and pricing, to the minds of customers, and put their energy into building honest relationships. Those who aren’t sure exactly what business they’re really in (answer: whatever legal business the clients want you to be in) will soon be out of business. Niche businesses are lucrative, but sub-niches serving a very particularized segment are even more suc-cessful because the seller can tailor their approach to more closely match expectations. One proviso: the techniques detailed here apply without modifica-tion only to those serving clients with plenty of disposable cash. Individuals on limited budgets might like to be catered to, but they still check the price tag.

Several additional sales specialists contribute short sections that reinforce Barrows’ and Kennedy’s priorities through examples of their own successes and learning experiences. The general approach is concerned with ending overt coercion in the sales process; it’s about deeply understanding the movies playing in clients’ heads. That’s the direction of the future for the entire occupation. Don’t discount the advice of the madam and the madman; they might know more about your business than you do.
(January) Review by: Todd Mercer, Foreword magazine, January/February 2009

About the Author

Sydney Biddle Barrows, known today for her innovative, unorthodox, approach to sales, is perhaps best known for her reign as the Mayflower Madam when she founded and operated New York's most elite, premium-priced escort service. Her autobiography and bestselling book, Mayflower Madam, was recognized as one of the best business books of its year by Fortune magazine. Today, Sydney is a successful sales consultant advising million dollar companies and entrepreneurs within multiple industries.

Dan Kennedy is provocative, irreverent and sarcastic - but most important, he's effective. His unmatchable advice has earned him the moniker Millionaire Maker. Every year, he and his network of consultants help more than a million business owners succeed.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Entrepreneur Press; 1 edition (January 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599181932
• ISBN-13: 978-1599181936
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #43,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good news & bad news, January 26, 2009

By	claude whitacre "www.unfairadvantageretail.com" (wooster, ohio United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

There is good news & bad news. First, the bad news; The title may attract a readership that is expecting something far more explicit than you get. And if you're itching to criticise the content because it talks about Ms. Barrow's former business...there is little to support such a point of view. The fact that she ran an escort service becomes incidental pretty quickly. There is more bad news. The book is slightly hard to read in that you sometimes don't know whether you are reading Sydney Barrows or Dan Kennedy. Either their writing styles are very similar, or Mr. Kennedy has actually written the book from speeches, interviews, and notes from Ms. Barrows. The book tells you who wrote the chapters, but they all read in a very similar style. Also, about half the book is written by Ms. Barrows & the other half is from Dan Kennedy and assorted contributors.

So why in the world would I give the book five stars?
Because the content is Phenomenal.
Ms. Barrows explains how she used proven marketing principles to build an extremely lucrative professional services business. Her explanation on how she charged a premium price for standard services by creating "perceived extra value" is worth the prices of the book alone.
The extra contributed articles (by different authors) I first thought was just "padding" to fill the book....but they actually contribute and have valuable marketing lessons on their own. For example, this is the first place I've seen the entire method of selling Encyclopedias (and why the sales method is practically foolproof) spelled out, by a contributing author. Again, worth the price alone.

As a business author myself, I constantly hear "This won't work in my business". Well? If Ms. Barrows can take time tested marketing principles (the type taught by Mr. Kennedy) and profitably apply them in HER former business...you can apply them to YOURS.
I also own a retail store. Every strategy in the book can be easily translated into a usable profitable idea, that I can use in my business, and so can you. Ms. Barrows' insight on creating a "buying experience" was eye opening and completely spot on.

Her essay on how to create higher value (in the customer's eyes) even when you DON'T have what they want, made me laugh out loud. Not because it was funny, but because the idea was so simple and effective, I couldn't believe I never heard of it before. (or thought of it myself)

This book is promotional, in that it has a couple of offers in the back of the book. And here you'll see the "Kennedy Method" of selling...give sooo much value up front (in the book), that you just WANT to buy what he has next. Ms. Barrows seems to have learned that lesson too. Plus...this IS a book about selling, isn't it? If you weren't offered a chance to spend more money...what kind of salesmanship would that BE?

Suck it up, pay the $14, and use a highlighter. You'll need one. After you get through the "Sex sells" and the "Oh Gosh, I can't believe she was in THAT business" nonsense...you can uncover the real Gems. There are plenty.

Added 3/03/09 I read a review that said that other authors just say positive things...and are misleading. I have to agree. It happens all the time. But you can usually tell who really read the book being reviewed.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb marketing and sales book - a "must read" for all entrepreneurs, March 4, 2009

By	Kenneth Calhoun "StockTradingSuccess.com" (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Let me start off by saying a self-made millionaire entrepreneur marketer, and have been a careful Dan Kennedy student/implementer for many many years. He has had a profound impact in helping me earn a fortune (along with what I've learned from Brian Tracy, Earl Nightingale, and Jeffrey Gitomer), through his strategies and techniques. Sydney's insights and strategies are a perfect extension of all I've learned from Dan, and she comes through with superb ideas that are real-world and make for a winning business strategy.

I don't know why there aren't 30+ 4- and 5-star reviews for this book (yet!), as there ought to be - it's a real gem. Highly recommended.

I've bought and studied and profited immensely from many of Dan's works (books, courses, dvds at dankennedy dot com), and now from Sydney I found dozens of new strategies and techniques covered here, that makes it a "strong buy" recommendation.

This book is much more about marketing and customer perception, market positioning, and processes than it is about the specific example of escort services; that's in fact much downplayed, which makes this book much more useful for all businesses.... with the core focus as it should be, on strategic and tactical operations for differentiation and leveraging in the marketplace.

The book is large, nearly 300 pages, with a ton of content and details.
I also like that it's a hefty book packed with useful content. No fluff or filler, no BS, no glossing over -- this is an extremely well designed "course in a book" that I highly recommend for all business owners and entrepreneurs to read carefully. Use it as a "checklist" for what you're doing well, what you need to improve upon, and how to adapt the insights to your own operations - I certainly am.

Techniques I found particularly valuable that were illustrated include:

- "sales choreography" at work (p. 140)
- "tools and tactics of seductive selling" (part II)
- "expectations management" (p.72)
- "have an angle/be consistent" (p. 244)

As a bonus, the book even comes with a third chapter featuring guest professionals sharing case studies (like "directing the movie in the customer's mind" by Dan Cricks, well done!) and more.

This is a superb book and exceeded my expectations; I had thought it would be a fluff, fun read without substance -- and instead I was pleasantly surprised to see this book overdeliver on so many fronts, packed with actionable depth and detail. Very well written and structured, with a lot of tips I'll use to improve my business, market positioning and tactics for boosting sales. Bravo! Well done, Sydney! Superb insights from a top business entrepreneur.

This book rocks - buy it now.

To profits,

Ken Calhoun, Pres.
DaytradingUniversity

P.S. I'm a skeptical millionaire, it takes a lot to impress me. This book did. More than I expected, one of the better marketing books I've ever read, in the top 30, of hundreds. Surprise! It overdelivered. Thank you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique approach, February 25, 2009

By	Stacey Morris "Copywriter sui generis" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A unique and original approach to marketing. I've read hundreds of business, sales and marketing books - it's rare to find something so original and well written. The chapters on Sales Choregraphy are mind-blowing.