Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling Paperback – April 28, 2008

First off, I'm not skeptical of Amazon in regards to the reviews here, but it looks like the author "encourages" positive reviews in some way on his own. Too many 5-star reviews that all sound the same.

The author lost me early on with the "fire your customers" thing. I don't disagree that customers that are never pleased, ask for discounts, or slow pay, etc., need to be dealt with, but it's Port's other reasons that seriously make me question his judgement and knowledge of human nature. He implores us to fire customers that BORE us, yes BORE us! And drain us, and other inconsequentials (made that word up).

It's our job to bring in sales. When our work day is done, we change hats and forget the work day. NO ONE should ever get into your head. YOU, and you alone, decide what your mood is going to be; the earlier and better this is understood and practiced, the better.

Port's point of view is the Selling his "Professional Services" is all about HIM. But the best salespeople in history realize that it's about THEM (customers), not about you. The sooner we, as salespeople, can learn empathy and that nothing matters but how we can best serve the needs of others, the better. Try to "walk a mile in their mocassins" and understand their world, ASK them what you can do to help them out in their job. I would highly recommend Bob Burg's "The Go-Getter" over this book. Add some healthy doses of Dale Carnegie and Stephen Covey, and that's 98% of what one needs to succeed in sales, if practiced. Other recommendations would be "The Inner Game of Selling".

We all have our opinions, and there is some valuable info in this book, but for the time and effort you might use on this book, find something else.

If you've never sold anything in your life I suppose this book would be helpful. If you have any sales experience or common sense, steer clear of this book.

Here are some "helpful" tips the author presents for speaking with potential clients:
* Speak with lots of expression, get excited and show the passion you have for the benefits your services can offer.
* Smile
* Make eye contact
* Be confident
* Open your heart
* When your potential client starts speaking, hush up and listen

Really, Michael Port? I spent time and money reading your book to learn that? Who would've ever thought that smiling and making eye contact with your potential client would be a good idea? Brilliant.

Here's another painful example of Port's expertise:
"Some professionals worry about losing money by paying affiliate fees. The numbers tell a different story - that you'll make money by paying for referrals. Say you charge $500 per month for your services and you currently have 10 regular clients. You're currently earning $5,000/month. Now let's say that each one of your 10 clients refers one more client to you at $500/month. That's another 10 clients for another $5,000/month. If you give a referral fee of 10%, you'll be paying each referrer $50 per referral for a total of $500 in referral fees. Would you spend $500 to make $5,000 for a profit of $4,500 and a new monthly income of $9,500, almost double what you were making? I would."

Gosh, Mr. Port, thanks for that earth-shattering calculation and advice.

The entire book is filled with information and suggestions that are incredibly obvious to anyone in the business world.

So friends, let me tell you how much I hated this book that I did not finish and won't: take your pick as to which (if any) gets your attention.

a) I kept it several extra days from the library to carve out the time to write this review.
b) It is one of the very few books (I was an English major, and have a catholic reading taste) I refused to finish. The only one that comes to mind as being as unintentionally ridiculous and celebrated (for very different reasons) was "The Magic Mountain."
c) I have never felt morally compelled to write a book review to warn people of something I perceive as a moral plague in our culture: the proliferation of con men.
d) A dear friend in my field recommended it, and I wanted him to know that I appreciate his kindness, but wanted him to know that I'm not rejecting it reflexively, but rather for a wide variety of reasoned reasons, below.

I'll make the review quick, I promise.

The author, Mr. Port, is an archetype of the American salesman in the 21st century: he thinks that attitude matters. He thinks that attitude matters more than the merit of the product or service you offer, and he is utterly wrong.

If I am thirsty in the desert, and you are trying to sell me sand, I will not buy; if you are trying to sell me cactus, you'd have to provide the tool to open it to get the water inside.

Mr. Port's first brag - the book begins with them, and as of page 29 had not ceased - is that he helped build the fertility practice of some undegreed quack. People wanting to have babies are upset enough with the effort at hand failing, without being told that sticking needles in you increases their reproductive chances. I have no doubt that Mr. Port was key to the fellow's growing practice, but assure you that prayer, burning sage, and sticking needles in people at prescribed points doesn't make them more fertile. If you want to increase your chances, go see people who had to compete to get into rigorous schools and pass difficult licensing exams, not conmen advocated for by other conmen.

It is unfashionable to use this word above, I know. Conman. You might have seldom read it yourself. But the conman is an old and celebrated figure in literature, from the hustlers described by Chaucer and Shakespeare, to Felix Krull, to the television evangelists who have somewhat receded in American popular culture. (I seem to recall that this group was by and large worn out by their coke whores and extra-marital affairs, or emerging realizations by themselves but more often their donors that they were in fact sociopathic predators), they are timeless and as dangerous now as they were on the streets of Babylon.

When Mr. Port is not implying that selling something is the same as anything else (I assure you it's better to be working at a Mercedes Benz dealership than hustling door-to-door gym memberships), he is busy upselling you through the newsletter he gets you to look at, or even within the book. I gave up when on page 29, he illustrates what you could "technically" be offering as a service:

"* A book that you can read on how to book yourself solid
* A coaching program that teaches you how to book yourself solid
* Live seminars that teach you how to book yourself solid
* A license to become a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach"

Really. That's a column inch of the book you're considering buying.

Sorry folks: we all might want edible bouquets or a puppet, but we need gasoline and groceries. This simple notion (wants vs. needs) is one of but many that Mr. Port doesn't acknowledge nor see as far more important than the firmness of your handshake or how much you love what you do. I know many successful people who are ambivalent or even dislike large aspects of what they do for a living.

The principles of sales and salesmanship are widely available, and the archetype of the amoral hustler selling water by the river (but we also include bacteria at no extra charge!) is almost as old the hills, but without the merit of a molehill.