Sell or Be Sold Summary
Content
May 2012
Sell
or
Be
Sold
How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life
by Grant Cardone
A Universal Skill
Why You Need to Know How to Sell
Quick Overview
Grant Cardone’s Sell or Be Sold hits pay dirt at a time when too few jobs, too
many qualified applicants and too much stress spills over from business into
households of Americans eager to improve their lives.
“Your ability to persuade others determines by itself how well you will do in
all areas of your life,” Cardone writes. “While selling is a career for many, it’s a
requirement for all. You need to sell, negotiate, and persuade others in life to get
what you want.”
Whether you are gainfully employed in your dream career or an entrepreneurial
upstart, you must sell. Interviewing for jobs, internships or scholarships, that’s
sales. Dating and marriage? Sales. The problem is most of us, even some who call
sales a career, lack sales proficiency. We just get by.
Sell or Be Sold remedies that. Cardone outlines sales basics—personal power
bases, trust, confidence, conviction, and positive attitude. But he bolsters these
“must have” chapters by promoting massive action and ways to conquer fear,
emotions, filling the pipeline, closing, and negativity. These takeaways alone make
Sell or Be Sold worth a read.
Apply and Achieve
Sales is a people business. To be sure there are products involved that meet
tangible customer needs, but the less obvious, nuanced requirements of
potential customers can make or break a sales career.
If you’re struggling with personal negativity, your customers will feel that.
Don’t let negativity get in your way of sales success. A negativity diet is a
great way to raise your positivity factor. For the next 24 hours eliminate all
negative thoughts, ideas or talk from your life. Restart the clock each time you
succumb to a negative temptation. It’s harder than you think. By cutting out the
negativity calories, you will control your thoughts, actions, and thereby, your
sales success.
Page 1
Greenleaf Book Group Press
© 2012, Grant Cardone
ISBN: 9781608322565
258 pages, $24.95
SUCCESS Points
In this book you’ll learn:
• That belief plus action
equals results
• What people are really
paying you for
• How to use your time
more effectively
• To become one of the
greats, you have to practice,
not just play
• Your prospect is never the
problem—never!
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell or Be Sold
The way to increased sales and revenue is training, not just
for newbies but top achievers too. Like athletic training builds
muscle, sales and attitude training builds professional acumen
and confidence. Adopt a daily regimen of listening to positive
and educational audio programs for the commute. When you
control your thoughts and feed your mind positive, helpful
information, those negativity issues will fade and you will
become a happier, more confident person.
COMMIT AND BE DONE WITH IT!
I
s selling just a pastime to you, no different than watching
television? Do you lack experience and competence in
this field? Are you not clear about what you’re doing
while negotiating? Do you struggle to get your way
in life? Do you think there’s no way you could ever be a
salesperson? Do you have disdain for this thing called selling?
Do you hate rejection and even the idea of selling another?
If any of these questions describe how you feel about selling,
then we have some work to do.
I can show you how to become a professional, but first you
have to get clear on two things: (1) Selling is critical to your
survival regardless of your career, and (2) you must decide to
become a professional and give up any idea that it’s something
for others and not for you. You have to decide that you want to
start getting your way in life. Quit thinking that it’s up to fate
or the gods. It’s up to you. You will have to shift your thinking
to understand that your very life and every dream depend solely
on your ability to sell. If you aren’t getting your way, then quit
making excuses. Decide now to learn everything there is to
know about the only secret to success—sales.
While there are hundreds of millions of people who call
themselves salespeople, there are only a handful who are really
“the greats.” The difference between mediocrity and greatness
lies in being committed to the profession and being consumed
by the desire to be great and the dedication to learn the trade.
Doing too much will never
fail you, but doing too little
always will.
Page 2
When the economy crashes, “the greats” may experience
small dips in production, but they always survive, whereas the
amateurs lose their jobs. Great salespeople don’t have ceilings
on their earnings and they know their income depends solely
on their ability to get in front of customers, make themselves
known, get agreements, close sales, and reproduce those results
over and over again.
This inescapable truth is that to be truly great at anything,
you must devote yourself completely. Eliminate any and all
other options, learn everything about the topic, become a
fanatic, 100 percent absorbed, all in, a Super Freak! Stop
questioning and get in all the way.
Committing is as simple as picking a place to park your
car. Find a spot, pull in, and get out of the car. You don’t
keep looking for another space in which to park. Commit and
be done with it. When you make a firm decision, you quit
wondering, and then you follow through on your commitment
with actions.
Remember, while there may be greener pastures, they’re
green because someone committed. Weeds grow in every field,
and if you don’t commit all the way, you’ll neglect it. When
you neglect it, you’ll start to dislike it, and then you’ll start
peering over the neighbor’s fence and thinking that what he
has is better. It’s only better because he committed. So commit
to your career, commit to learning about selling, commit to
your product, service, and employees. Commit to learning
everything you can and watch how much green your career will
produce for you.
Regardless of how long you have been doing this, if
you’re losing more than you’re winning, then you need
to realize you’re an amateur and it’s time to kick up your
commitment a notch and become someone who knows what
he’s doing! You say, “Man, you’re being harsh on me! I’m
just going through a cold spell right now.” Wrong! You’re
making excuses; the reality is your cold spell is due to your
own lack of understanding of your profession. You’ve been
sliding by on amateur skills, and those skills are showing
up in your results. Anyone can sell when everyone is
buying the product, but when there’s competition and the
economy tightens, amateurs start crying and professionals
continue to prosper.
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell or Be Sold
It’s Love, Not Price
When I can’t close a sale, I’ll always try to move the
buyer up to a more expensive product as the first solution
to price objection. If the customer will at least consider
it, I know I’m on a product he still has questions about.
This is called “closing with inventory.” I’ve had thousands
of customers tell me it’s too much money or over budget,
or they get that uncomfortable money look on their face.
They’re telling me it’s too much for that product or they’re
not sure it will resolve their problem. The buyer would
rather pay more and make the right decision than pay less
and make a mistake.
Your buyers are just like you—they spend money they
don’t have, they go over budget, they work hard for their
money, they’ve made good decisions and bad. Like you,
they want to avoid bad decisions and make good ones.
If people don’t buy from you, I assure you it’s almost
never about the money or the budget, but about
something you didn’t uncover. If it were all about price,
please explain why people stand in line for a $4 cup of
coffee when they could make an entire pot at home for
almost nothing. Why someone spends thousands on
season tickets when they could watch it on television.
Love, baby—love!
CONVICTION
You must be completely IN if you are to fully maximize the
opportunities before you. Do not even attempt selling to someone
else until you yourself are completely sold.
You must get rid of all negative considerations and believe that
it’s the right thing, the right product, and that it will benefit the
person you’re selling it to. It’s critical that you do everything
possible to convince yourself that your product must be purchased
and that it must be purchased from you at your pricing.
Become so thoroughly sold on your product that your
conviction is irresistible to others. This is not meant to suggest
that you lie to yourself, if that was even possible. I’ve personally
met thousands of high-producing salespeople over the years, and
never have I met a top producer who got to the top by deceiving
others. What I’m suggesting is that you take the time to sell
yourself before you try to sell someone else on how your product
is superior to others.
Page 3
Are you so sold on your product that you think it’s
detrimental and unethical not to convince someone to buy from
you? Get to that point and watch your production freak out!
When a customer doesn’t buy your product, do you actually
feel bad for him and lose sleep? If you were really sold, you
would feel like that. The person who is sold completely won’t
let people not buy, because that would be a violation of his own
integrity! Reach that level of being sold, and I assure you that
people will buy from you.
GIVE, GIVE, GIVE
Selling is the act of giving, not getting; serving, not selling.
Unfortunately, most people in sales are looking for their
commission and what they’re going to get out of the deal rather
than what they’re going to give, what their product really offers,
and how the client will benefit.
I believe that the true essence of selling is not just getting the
sale, but the sincere desire to help. I also believe that a spiritually
aware person will ultimately be a better salesperson than someone
who’s just interested in compensation.
I believe and have validated in my life that if you give enough in
life, life will give back to you. It’s the same in sales as it is in life. I
don’t mean giving the lowest price, or giving products and services
away for free, but giving the most attention, the most energy, the
best attitude, and the highest level of service.
Give, give, give is the assurance of sales, sales, sales. If your client
wants one option, give him three, six, or even twelve options.
A friend and her husband were leaving a restaurant in New
Orleans one evening, and as they walked out onto the street, a
haggard-looking man in a threadbare coat approached them. He
immediately asked the husband for permission to serenade his
Selling never ends, and it
includes everyone. Those who
can sell, persuade, and close
are the ones who survive the
best, regardless of the line
of work.
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
wife. Reluctantly, the husband agreed and the man got down on his
knees before her right on the sidewalk and began singing. She said
that the incredible voice and heartfelt passion was powerful enough
to blow the glass out of every window on the block. The man went
on singing for two minutes, pouring his heart and soul into that
song and giving them every fiber of his being. When he finished,
they were speechless. Her husband handed the guy $100. With tears
of gratitude, the man thanked them, then ran down the street to
a beat-up car where his wife and children were waiting. The only
thing that the guy had to offer was his voice, and he knew that if he
didn’t give it right then and there, his family wasn’t going to eat that
night. My friend’s husband, a career salesman, said that he’d been so
impressed by the man’s intention to give that he hardly felt $100 was
enough for what he received. That man on the street poured his soul
into his song with the give, give, give attitude, not knowing if the
couple would tip him at all. Regardless, for those two brief minutes,
he belonged entirely and completely to them.
Traits of a
Great Salesperson
1. Is willing to be told no
2. Asks for the order regardless
3. Listens selectively
4. Stays sold on his or her own story
5. Asks questions
6. Gets answers to questions
7.
Knows that price is not the issue
8. Is willing to pressure and persist
9. Believes in selling as a good thing
10. Trains and prepares constantly
Give all of you to a prospect, not just a part of you. Give all of
your attention, all of your energy, all of your suggestions, all of
your information, and then find some more of you to give! Exceed
expectations and go all the way with him and then a bit further. As
a customer or client, I don’t want to ask a salesperson for something.
I want him to offer it. I want him to predict what I need and offer it.
I want to be provided with everything that will help me to make a
Page 4
decision. This shows me he wants to take care of me, is thinking like
me, and is predicting my expectations and surpassing them all at the
same time. Deal closed!
MASSIVE ACTION
When it comes to getting big results and becoming wildly
successful, you have to take action in that direction in massive
quantities. There’s no way around it.
I love action, and the more, the better! I love getting things done,
and I bet you do, too! I love the satisfaction of accomplishing a task.
I’m happiest when I’m producing and creating. I love working in my
yard more than I like lying on my sofa.
The amount of success you have is limited by the amount of
action you take. Stay away from people who tell you to stop
working so hard and suggest you should relax and take it easy.
You can never take enough action in life; you can only take too
little. Too much action will never get you into trouble. In fact,
taking action is the way to get out of trouble.
It’s been said that there are three kinds of action in life:
1. The right action
2. The wrong action
3. No action (which will always result in nothing)
And in my world there’s a fourth kind of action:
4. Massive action! That’s the one I live by!
Massive action is by far the most successful tool I’ve had in my
life. It has resulted in more success for me than anything else I’ve
done. When someone asks me what one thing has made the most
difference in my life, this is it—massive action.
I watch salespeople make a few phone calls, send out a few
pieces of mail, then stop to take a coffee break and gossip. They sit
down and chatter about how business is slow and how the phone
and prospecting don’t get results.
If you worked the phone the way I do, you’d know that
the phone does not work; it’s the person on the phone who’s
working. I never sit down to make one phone call. Never!
If it’s appointments you want, take massive action until
your concern is no longer whether or not you’ll get enough
appointments, but how you can possibly handle all of the
appointments you have.
In the sales arena, massive action is like the stairway
to heaven, where the sales gods praise you with trophies,
trips, rewards, and the guarantee of new levels of income!
Your fellow salespeople, however, may praise you only with
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell
BookorTitle
Be Sold
The Ten Commandments
of Sales
1: Be Proud and Be Positive.
2: Dress for Sales Success.
change one thing and you don’t. The more you practice handling
objections, the more natural you’ll sound. It’s like the grandmother
who makes fudge without even looking at the recipe. She has done
it so many times over the years that she doesn’t need to read over
the list of ingredients anymore. She just knows what to do—and
her fudge comes out perfect every time. It’s the same thing with
handling objections and closing deals.
3: See the Sale—see the customer owning the product.
4: B
e Sold on Your Offer—own the product you sell, be
sold on it.
5: K
now Your Value Proposition—what is of most value
to your customer?
6: A
lways Agree With Your Client—acknowledge, don’t
handle the client.
7: S
uper Freak Demonstration—give value in excess of
money spent.
8: Be Time Efficient—do as much selling in the shortest
period of time possible.
9: Assume the Close—make it difficult to say no by not
asking a question, by just moving forward.
10: Always Persist in the Close—attempt the close and
persist enough times to get the sale.
criticism, tell you that you’re working too hard, and give you free
advice like “Slow down—smell the roses.” Disregard them and
consider their suppressive comments to be a sign that you are on the
right track.
Don’t quit until you get new problems—like taxes, cars, homes,
and where to go on vacation.
CLOSING IS LIKE A RECIPE
Closing has been taught as though it is a sales technique, but
it is only an extension of selling and is, in actuality, a completely
different art.
Selling is identifying needs, selecting the right solution, and then
demonstrating how your product or service solves the problem.
Closing is getting the buyer to take action and agree to exchange
something of value for what it is you offer.
Closing takes certain ingredients combined in a certain order and
put into the oven at a certain temperature for a certain amount of
time. Do it exactly per the recipe and you get what you anticipated;
Page 5
No person will ever gain true power
and stature in the world without the
ability to persuade others.
You need to practice handling objections and stalls so that you
can persist intelligently through resistance.
• Videotape yourself and perfect your techniques.
• Write down all of the objections you hear.
• Team up with an associate, then drill and practice.
For years, every morning I’d team up with another salesperson
and we’d practice every situation we could possibly encounter that
day. That training turned me into a lethal individual at closing deals.
Closing is an art, and anyone can learn it. Closing requires a
tremendous arsenal of techniques, transitions, responses, counters,
and strategies.
CAREER FOR MANY, REQUIREMENT
FOR ALL
Your ability to persuade others determines by itself how well you
will do in all areas of your life. While selling is a career for many,
it’s a requirement for all. You need to sell, negotiate, and persuade
others in life to get what you want. How well you do that will
determine what kind of life you will have and how many people you
can influence.
Become a student of selling. Don’t treat it like something distasteful
that you have to do or you’ll hire others to do. Selling is the ultimate
fuel of every economy in the world. Without people selling ideas,
concepts, and products, the world would never improve. If you want
to make a difference on this planet, learn how to sell. If you want to
make sure your worthy ideas get known to the world, you’ll have
to sell. If you want your way in life, if you want your company to do
well, if you want your family to prosper, learn to sell and I guarantee
that you will prosper in ways other people considered impossible.
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell
BookorTitle
Be Sold
Action Steps
Get more out of this SUCCESS Book
Summary by applying what you’ve
learned to your life. Here are a
few thoughts and questions to get
you started.
1. Are your communication skills an asset or liability?
Videotape or record your sales presentations. Learn
from your mistakes.
2. Enthusiasm is great, but no replacement for knowing.
Commit to selling. Read, study, role-play, train, and
master it.
3. Sales slump? Find out what’s changed. Are you no
longer sold on the product, company or services? Is
false information conflicting with your beliefs?
4. The next time a prospect claims price is an obstacle,
offer a more expensive option. This will determine if it’s
legitimate or if the buyer has unanswered questions.
5. Second money is easier to get than the first. List three
up-sales you can offer clients to complement the
products/services you sell.
About the Author
In his 25-year career, international sales expert,
trainer and speaker Grant Cardone has taught
hundreds of thousands of people how to increase
sales effectiveness and marketplace value. His
reach extends worldwide to include entrepreneurs,
nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies.
Cardone is a frequent contributor to mainstream
6. Agree with your customer and increase sales! Drill and
practice this because people are inclined to disagree
in order to satisfy their gluttonous craving to be right.
That doesn’t close sales.
media programs like Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC
7. Always, always, always write down what you’ve said,
offered, proposed, promised, implied, and suggested.
Anytime you’re going for the close, insist on putting it
in writing.
If You’re Not First, You’re Last, and The 10X Rule.
and CNN. He is also the star of the reality TV show
TurnAround King. In addition to Sell or Be Sold,
Cardone is the author of The Closer’s Survival Guide,
Cardone is CEO of two training and consulting
companies, owns a real estate investment and
development firm with $100 million in real estate
holdings, and recently launched a state-of-the-art,
Recommended Reading
interactive, virtual sales training center.
If you enjoyed this summary of Sell or Be Sold, you
may also want to check out:
Women Don’t Ask by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Uncensored Sales Strategies by Sydney Biddle Barrows
and Dan S. Kennedy
Page 6
© 2012 SUCCESS Media. All rights reserved. Materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part
in any form without prior written permission. Published by SUCCESS Media, 200 Swisher Rd.,
Lake Dallas, TX 75065, USA. SUCCESS.com.
Summarized by permission of the publisher, Greenleaf Book Group Press. Sell or Be Sold by Grant
Cardone. © 2012 by Grant Cardone.
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell
or
Be
Sold
How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life
by Grant Cardone
A Universal Skill
Why You Need to Know How to Sell
Quick Overview
Grant Cardone’s Sell or Be Sold hits pay dirt at a time when too few jobs, too
many qualified applicants and too much stress spills over from business into
households of Americans eager to improve their lives.
“Your ability to persuade others determines by itself how well you will do in
all areas of your life,” Cardone writes. “While selling is a career for many, it’s a
requirement for all. You need to sell, negotiate, and persuade others in life to get
what you want.”
Whether you are gainfully employed in your dream career or an entrepreneurial
upstart, you must sell. Interviewing for jobs, internships or scholarships, that’s
sales. Dating and marriage? Sales. The problem is most of us, even some who call
sales a career, lack sales proficiency. We just get by.
Sell or Be Sold remedies that. Cardone outlines sales basics—personal power
bases, trust, confidence, conviction, and positive attitude. But he bolsters these
“must have” chapters by promoting massive action and ways to conquer fear,
emotions, filling the pipeline, closing, and negativity. These takeaways alone make
Sell or Be Sold worth a read.
Apply and Achieve
Sales is a people business. To be sure there are products involved that meet
tangible customer needs, but the less obvious, nuanced requirements of
potential customers can make or break a sales career.
If you’re struggling with personal negativity, your customers will feel that.
Don’t let negativity get in your way of sales success. A negativity diet is a
great way to raise your positivity factor. For the next 24 hours eliminate all
negative thoughts, ideas or talk from your life. Restart the clock each time you
succumb to a negative temptation. It’s harder than you think. By cutting out the
negativity calories, you will control your thoughts, actions, and thereby, your
sales success.
Page 1
Greenleaf Book Group Press
© 2012, Grant Cardone
ISBN: 9781608322565
258 pages, $24.95
SUCCESS Points
In this book you’ll learn:
• That belief plus action
equals results
• What people are really
paying you for
• How to use your time
more effectively
• To become one of the
greats, you have to practice,
not just play
• Your prospect is never the
problem—never!
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell or Be Sold
The way to increased sales and revenue is training, not just
for newbies but top achievers too. Like athletic training builds
muscle, sales and attitude training builds professional acumen
and confidence. Adopt a daily regimen of listening to positive
and educational audio programs for the commute. When you
control your thoughts and feed your mind positive, helpful
information, those negativity issues will fade and you will
become a happier, more confident person.
COMMIT AND BE DONE WITH IT!
I
s selling just a pastime to you, no different than watching
television? Do you lack experience and competence in
this field? Are you not clear about what you’re doing
while negotiating? Do you struggle to get your way
in life? Do you think there’s no way you could ever be a
salesperson? Do you have disdain for this thing called selling?
Do you hate rejection and even the idea of selling another?
If any of these questions describe how you feel about selling,
then we have some work to do.
I can show you how to become a professional, but first you
have to get clear on two things: (1) Selling is critical to your
survival regardless of your career, and (2) you must decide to
become a professional and give up any idea that it’s something
for others and not for you. You have to decide that you want to
start getting your way in life. Quit thinking that it’s up to fate
or the gods. It’s up to you. You will have to shift your thinking
to understand that your very life and every dream depend solely
on your ability to sell. If you aren’t getting your way, then quit
making excuses. Decide now to learn everything there is to
know about the only secret to success—sales.
While there are hundreds of millions of people who call
themselves salespeople, there are only a handful who are really
“the greats.” The difference between mediocrity and greatness
lies in being committed to the profession and being consumed
by the desire to be great and the dedication to learn the trade.
Doing too much will never
fail you, but doing too little
always will.
Page 2
When the economy crashes, “the greats” may experience
small dips in production, but they always survive, whereas the
amateurs lose their jobs. Great salespeople don’t have ceilings
on their earnings and they know their income depends solely
on their ability to get in front of customers, make themselves
known, get agreements, close sales, and reproduce those results
over and over again.
This inescapable truth is that to be truly great at anything,
you must devote yourself completely. Eliminate any and all
other options, learn everything about the topic, become a
fanatic, 100 percent absorbed, all in, a Super Freak! Stop
questioning and get in all the way.
Committing is as simple as picking a place to park your
car. Find a spot, pull in, and get out of the car. You don’t
keep looking for another space in which to park. Commit and
be done with it. When you make a firm decision, you quit
wondering, and then you follow through on your commitment
with actions.
Remember, while there may be greener pastures, they’re
green because someone committed. Weeds grow in every field,
and if you don’t commit all the way, you’ll neglect it. When
you neglect it, you’ll start to dislike it, and then you’ll start
peering over the neighbor’s fence and thinking that what he
has is better. It’s only better because he committed. So commit
to your career, commit to learning about selling, commit to
your product, service, and employees. Commit to learning
everything you can and watch how much green your career will
produce for you.
Regardless of how long you have been doing this, if
you’re losing more than you’re winning, then you need
to realize you’re an amateur and it’s time to kick up your
commitment a notch and become someone who knows what
he’s doing! You say, “Man, you’re being harsh on me! I’m
just going through a cold spell right now.” Wrong! You’re
making excuses; the reality is your cold spell is due to your
own lack of understanding of your profession. You’ve been
sliding by on amateur skills, and those skills are showing
up in your results. Anyone can sell when everyone is
buying the product, but when there’s competition and the
economy tightens, amateurs start crying and professionals
continue to prosper.
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell or Be Sold
It’s Love, Not Price
When I can’t close a sale, I’ll always try to move the
buyer up to a more expensive product as the first solution
to price objection. If the customer will at least consider
it, I know I’m on a product he still has questions about.
This is called “closing with inventory.” I’ve had thousands
of customers tell me it’s too much money or over budget,
or they get that uncomfortable money look on their face.
They’re telling me it’s too much for that product or they’re
not sure it will resolve their problem. The buyer would
rather pay more and make the right decision than pay less
and make a mistake.
Your buyers are just like you—they spend money they
don’t have, they go over budget, they work hard for their
money, they’ve made good decisions and bad. Like you,
they want to avoid bad decisions and make good ones.
If people don’t buy from you, I assure you it’s almost
never about the money or the budget, but about
something you didn’t uncover. If it were all about price,
please explain why people stand in line for a $4 cup of
coffee when they could make an entire pot at home for
almost nothing. Why someone spends thousands on
season tickets when they could watch it on television.
Love, baby—love!
CONVICTION
You must be completely IN if you are to fully maximize the
opportunities before you. Do not even attempt selling to someone
else until you yourself are completely sold.
You must get rid of all negative considerations and believe that
it’s the right thing, the right product, and that it will benefit the
person you’re selling it to. It’s critical that you do everything
possible to convince yourself that your product must be purchased
and that it must be purchased from you at your pricing.
Become so thoroughly sold on your product that your
conviction is irresistible to others. This is not meant to suggest
that you lie to yourself, if that was even possible. I’ve personally
met thousands of high-producing salespeople over the years, and
never have I met a top producer who got to the top by deceiving
others. What I’m suggesting is that you take the time to sell
yourself before you try to sell someone else on how your product
is superior to others.
Page 3
Are you so sold on your product that you think it’s
detrimental and unethical not to convince someone to buy from
you? Get to that point and watch your production freak out!
When a customer doesn’t buy your product, do you actually
feel bad for him and lose sleep? If you were really sold, you
would feel like that. The person who is sold completely won’t
let people not buy, because that would be a violation of his own
integrity! Reach that level of being sold, and I assure you that
people will buy from you.
GIVE, GIVE, GIVE
Selling is the act of giving, not getting; serving, not selling.
Unfortunately, most people in sales are looking for their
commission and what they’re going to get out of the deal rather
than what they’re going to give, what their product really offers,
and how the client will benefit.
I believe that the true essence of selling is not just getting the
sale, but the sincere desire to help. I also believe that a spiritually
aware person will ultimately be a better salesperson than someone
who’s just interested in compensation.
I believe and have validated in my life that if you give enough in
life, life will give back to you. It’s the same in sales as it is in life. I
don’t mean giving the lowest price, or giving products and services
away for free, but giving the most attention, the most energy, the
best attitude, and the highest level of service.
Give, give, give is the assurance of sales, sales, sales. If your client
wants one option, give him three, six, or even twelve options.
A friend and her husband were leaving a restaurant in New
Orleans one evening, and as they walked out onto the street, a
haggard-looking man in a threadbare coat approached them. He
immediately asked the husband for permission to serenade his
Selling never ends, and it
includes everyone. Those who
can sell, persuade, and close
are the ones who survive the
best, regardless of the line
of work.
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
wife. Reluctantly, the husband agreed and the man got down on his
knees before her right on the sidewalk and began singing. She said
that the incredible voice and heartfelt passion was powerful enough
to blow the glass out of every window on the block. The man went
on singing for two minutes, pouring his heart and soul into that
song and giving them every fiber of his being. When he finished,
they were speechless. Her husband handed the guy $100. With tears
of gratitude, the man thanked them, then ran down the street to
a beat-up car where his wife and children were waiting. The only
thing that the guy had to offer was his voice, and he knew that if he
didn’t give it right then and there, his family wasn’t going to eat that
night. My friend’s husband, a career salesman, said that he’d been so
impressed by the man’s intention to give that he hardly felt $100 was
enough for what he received. That man on the street poured his soul
into his song with the give, give, give attitude, not knowing if the
couple would tip him at all. Regardless, for those two brief minutes,
he belonged entirely and completely to them.
Traits of a
Great Salesperson
1. Is willing to be told no
2. Asks for the order regardless
3. Listens selectively
4. Stays sold on his or her own story
5. Asks questions
6. Gets answers to questions
7.
Knows that price is not the issue
8. Is willing to pressure and persist
9. Believes in selling as a good thing
10. Trains and prepares constantly
Give all of you to a prospect, not just a part of you. Give all of
your attention, all of your energy, all of your suggestions, all of
your information, and then find some more of you to give! Exceed
expectations and go all the way with him and then a bit further. As
a customer or client, I don’t want to ask a salesperson for something.
I want him to offer it. I want him to predict what I need and offer it.
I want to be provided with everything that will help me to make a
Page 4
decision. This shows me he wants to take care of me, is thinking like
me, and is predicting my expectations and surpassing them all at the
same time. Deal closed!
MASSIVE ACTION
When it comes to getting big results and becoming wildly
successful, you have to take action in that direction in massive
quantities. There’s no way around it.
I love action, and the more, the better! I love getting things done,
and I bet you do, too! I love the satisfaction of accomplishing a task.
I’m happiest when I’m producing and creating. I love working in my
yard more than I like lying on my sofa.
The amount of success you have is limited by the amount of
action you take. Stay away from people who tell you to stop
working so hard and suggest you should relax and take it easy.
You can never take enough action in life; you can only take too
little. Too much action will never get you into trouble. In fact,
taking action is the way to get out of trouble.
It’s been said that there are three kinds of action in life:
1. The right action
2. The wrong action
3. No action (which will always result in nothing)
And in my world there’s a fourth kind of action:
4. Massive action! That’s the one I live by!
Massive action is by far the most successful tool I’ve had in my
life. It has resulted in more success for me than anything else I’ve
done. When someone asks me what one thing has made the most
difference in my life, this is it—massive action.
I watch salespeople make a few phone calls, send out a few
pieces of mail, then stop to take a coffee break and gossip. They sit
down and chatter about how business is slow and how the phone
and prospecting don’t get results.
If you worked the phone the way I do, you’d know that
the phone does not work; it’s the person on the phone who’s
working. I never sit down to make one phone call. Never!
If it’s appointments you want, take massive action until
your concern is no longer whether or not you’ll get enough
appointments, but how you can possibly handle all of the
appointments you have.
In the sales arena, massive action is like the stairway
to heaven, where the sales gods praise you with trophies,
trips, rewards, and the guarantee of new levels of income!
Your fellow salespeople, however, may praise you only with
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell
BookorTitle
Be Sold
The Ten Commandments
of Sales
1: Be Proud and Be Positive.
2: Dress for Sales Success.
change one thing and you don’t. The more you practice handling
objections, the more natural you’ll sound. It’s like the grandmother
who makes fudge without even looking at the recipe. She has done
it so many times over the years that she doesn’t need to read over
the list of ingredients anymore. She just knows what to do—and
her fudge comes out perfect every time. It’s the same thing with
handling objections and closing deals.
3: See the Sale—see the customer owning the product.
4: B
e Sold on Your Offer—own the product you sell, be
sold on it.
5: K
now Your Value Proposition—what is of most value
to your customer?
6: A
lways Agree With Your Client—acknowledge, don’t
handle the client.
7: S
uper Freak Demonstration—give value in excess of
money spent.
8: Be Time Efficient—do as much selling in the shortest
period of time possible.
9: Assume the Close—make it difficult to say no by not
asking a question, by just moving forward.
10: Always Persist in the Close—attempt the close and
persist enough times to get the sale.
criticism, tell you that you’re working too hard, and give you free
advice like “Slow down—smell the roses.” Disregard them and
consider their suppressive comments to be a sign that you are on the
right track.
Don’t quit until you get new problems—like taxes, cars, homes,
and where to go on vacation.
CLOSING IS LIKE A RECIPE
Closing has been taught as though it is a sales technique, but
it is only an extension of selling and is, in actuality, a completely
different art.
Selling is identifying needs, selecting the right solution, and then
demonstrating how your product or service solves the problem.
Closing is getting the buyer to take action and agree to exchange
something of value for what it is you offer.
Closing takes certain ingredients combined in a certain order and
put into the oven at a certain temperature for a certain amount of
time. Do it exactly per the recipe and you get what you anticipated;
Page 5
No person will ever gain true power
and stature in the world without the
ability to persuade others.
You need to practice handling objections and stalls so that you
can persist intelligently through resistance.
• Videotape yourself and perfect your techniques.
• Write down all of the objections you hear.
• Team up with an associate, then drill and practice.
For years, every morning I’d team up with another salesperson
and we’d practice every situation we could possibly encounter that
day. That training turned me into a lethal individual at closing deals.
Closing is an art, and anyone can learn it. Closing requires a
tremendous arsenal of techniques, transitions, responses, counters,
and strategies.
CAREER FOR MANY, REQUIREMENT
FOR ALL
Your ability to persuade others determines by itself how well you
will do in all areas of your life. While selling is a career for many,
it’s a requirement for all. You need to sell, negotiate, and persuade
others in life to get what you want. How well you do that will
determine what kind of life you will have and how many people you
can influence.
Become a student of selling. Don’t treat it like something distasteful
that you have to do or you’ll hire others to do. Selling is the ultimate
fuel of every economy in the world. Without people selling ideas,
concepts, and products, the world would never improve. If you want
to make a difference on this planet, learn how to sell. If you want to
make sure your worthy ideas get known to the world, you’ll have
to sell. If you want your way in life, if you want your company to do
well, if you want your family to prosper, learn to sell and I guarantee
that you will prosper in ways other people considered impossible.
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
Sell
BookorTitle
Be Sold
Action Steps
Get more out of this SUCCESS Book
Summary by applying what you’ve
learned to your life. Here are a
few thoughts and questions to get
you started.
1. Are your communication skills an asset or liability?
Videotape or record your sales presentations. Learn
from your mistakes.
2. Enthusiasm is great, but no replacement for knowing.
Commit to selling. Read, study, role-play, train, and
master it.
3. Sales slump? Find out what’s changed. Are you no
longer sold on the product, company or services? Is
false information conflicting with your beliefs?
4. The next time a prospect claims price is an obstacle,
offer a more expensive option. This will determine if it’s
legitimate or if the buyer has unanswered questions.
5. Second money is easier to get than the first. List three
up-sales you can offer clients to complement the
products/services you sell.
About the Author
In his 25-year career, international sales expert,
trainer and speaker Grant Cardone has taught
hundreds of thousands of people how to increase
sales effectiveness and marketplace value. His
reach extends worldwide to include entrepreneurs,
nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies.
Cardone is a frequent contributor to mainstream
6. Agree with your customer and increase sales! Drill and
practice this because people are inclined to disagree
in order to satisfy their gluttonous craving to be right.
That doesn’t close sales.
media programs like Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC
7. Always, always, always write down what you’ve said,
offered, proposed, promised, implied, and suggested.
Anytime you’re going for the close, insist on putting it
in writing.
If You’re Not First, You’re Last, and The 10X Rule.
and CNN. He is also the star of the reality TV show
TurnAround King. In addition to Sell or Be Sold,
Cardone is the author of The Closer’s Survival Guide,
Cardone is CEO of two training and consulting
companies, owns a real estate investment and
development firm with $100 million in real estate
holdings, and recently launched a state-of-the-art,
Recommended Reading
interactive, virtual sales training center.
If you enjoyed this summary of Sell or Be Sold, you
may also want to check out:
Women Don’t Ask by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Uncensored Sales Strategies by Sydney Biddle Barrows
and Dan S. Kennedy
Page 6
© 2012 SUCCESS Media. All rights reserved. Materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part
in any form without prior written permission. Published by SUCCESS Media, 200 Swisher Rd.,
Lake Dallas, TX 75065, USA. SUCCESS.com.
Summarized by permission of the publisher, Greenleaf Book Group Press. Sell or Be Sold by Grant
Cardone. © 2012 by Grant Cardone.
SUCCESS.com SUCCESS book Summaries
