I decided to look for another book in the One Minute series: The One Minute Sales Person -more sales in less time with less stress- after I published in march 2009 a short book review of a bestseller The One Minute Manager (Blanchard & Johnson, 1983) which has sold over 13 million copies.
Despite that the original publication is from 1984, there are little or no book reviews available of this book. In this article however I will try to provide you with a short overview, without giving away all the great information packed into just 110 pages (so you will need to read it yourself). 🙂
The One Minute Sales Person
However when you start reading The One Minute $ales Person you directly recognize similar concepts and a similar framework that I experienced while reading The One Minute Manager. Especially the great one-liners through out the book are remarkable. Some characteristic examples are:
- “People hate to be sold, but they love to buy”
- “You don’t make the sale, they do”
As you might experience these one-liners are powerful and make you think about yourself and your behavior. Combined with a relatively simple and easy to understand framework, The One Minute $ales Person provides a lot of value and information, but foremost it is interesting and fun to read.
One Minute Sales Person Game Plan
The core essence of The One Minute $ales Person can be summarized in the so called “One Minute $ales Person’s Game Plan” which is represented below.
A larger version in PDF-format can be downloaded, on the condition that you “Share it with others” like the writers of both the books preach !
As you can see in The One Minute $ales Person’s Game Plan consists of two columns: (1) Selling to others, and (2) Selling to myself. Here you can see the perfect intergration and synergy with The One Minute Manager book, since the right Selling to myself column covers The One Minute Manager’s Game Plan, however a slightly adapted to the “sales setting”. Compare for yourself !!
Also in the left Selling to others column you can see that it consists of a simple structure with relative small or simple things that take only a minute or less. However the distinguishing facts are often small details that foster into personal excellence or a competitive edge. The One Minute $ales Person is full of those details that can help you in real life no matter what you are selling !!
Concluding thoughts and wrap-up
One of my conclusions with The One Minute Manager Book was: “Excellent books don’t have to be long !” and this conclusion is more than valid for The One Minute $ales Person as well !!
I really like the concept of the book, the journey of a salesperson who is eager and looking for new ways to futher develop himself towards excellence. Don’t underestimate the impact of the very powerfull one-liners that really make you think about yourself, the people who you are trying to sell and the involved behavior. So The One Minute $ales Person book has quite some psychological impact as well.
Remarkable and available troughout the book are the reallife examples, that help you even more memorize theory and establish links with business practice. Furthermore I really like the integration of The One Minute Manager- and The One Minute $ales Person frameworks/game plans. In fact two books are packed into one book. 🙂
Finally this book made me realize, despite it might be obvious, why some sales people fail or even worse generate a bad reputation for sales people.
“No matter what your job is -CEO, teacher, parent or manager- we are all salespeople, working to convince others that we have to offer tgem us something they want. Since this book’s original publication in 1984, many things have changed, but the invaluable information in The One Minute $alesperson remains solid gold” Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager
If you are working in sales or not, “The One Minute $ales Person” is a very valuable book, that may help you raising the bar in your personal development. If it does don’t forget the condition that you “Share it with others”
Any tips for another good book that can help create a personal competitive edge ?
A table with other interesting book reviews published on this blog can be found here on this page.
About Spencer Johnson
“Spencer Johnson is known for his 1998 motivational book, titled: “Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life.” It has stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list, and has remained on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover nonfiction list. Johnson received a B.A. degree in psychology from the University of Southern California in 1963, and his M.D. from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Johnson also wrote the book “Yes” or “No”: The Guide to Better Decisions (1992), which has been translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Korean and German . He co-authored the One Minute Manager series of books with management writer Ken Blanchard. His latest book, which can make you happy and successful is The Present.
About Larry Wilson
“Larry Wilson is well known as the first and best “trainer of sales trainers”. He will always e the pioneer of helping sales people learn to perform at their full potential.” (Johnsons S. & Wilson L., 1984, The One Minute $ales Person -more sales in less time with less stress- , p. 110)
“Management consultant Ken Blanchard has described Larry Wilson’s presence as “powerful, dynamic, and wise.” Larry lives up to these words every time he meets with a client—whether leadership teams, middle managers, or the entire workforce.” ( http://www.larrywilson.com/ )
