Review of Literature

Scott and Mark,

Here is the first draft of my lit review. I would like some good feedback so I can get a good grade on this proposal. I have included the bibliography below as well.

Sales training programs have been very popular for decades. Dale Carnegie’s classic books including How to Win Friends and Influence People (Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People, 1981) and The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking (Carnegie, The Quick & Easy Way to Effective Speaking: Modern Techniques For Dynamic Communication, 1962) were geared towards the business audiences, particular sales people to be more influential and persuasive.

Sales skills are essential for the business world. Many technician’s start their own business because they like what they do and want to do it on their own, however they do not usually have the right skills or knowledge to create effective business systems such as sales (Gerber, 1995).

Robert Kiyosaki in his popular book Rich Dad Poor Dad (Kiyosaki & Lechter, 1997) emphasized the importance of knowing sales skills throughout his entrepreneur stories and especially in a conversation he had with a reporter. This reporter had an advanced degree in writing and asked Mr. Kiyosaki how to become a best-selling author. He responded by telling her she needed to learn how to sell to be a best-selling author. She thought she was above this and that good writing would be enough. He told her that she was a much better writer than him, but that she would never be a best-selling author unless she first learned how to sell.

Most sales program have between 7-10 steps. These steps are generally very similar while some combine some steps. Research has shown that there is no specific set of persuasive or influential skills that work with every type of customer (McFarland, Challagalla, & Shervani, 2006). Effective sales people know how to adapt their presentation to different types of customers. However, the steps in these programs give general steps on how to approach customers while the applications of these steps change as you meet different customers.

These steps generally include: prospecting, know your customer, building rapport, setting appointments, asking effective questions, building value, overcoming objections, closing the sale, and effective follow up. (Holmes, 2007) (Hopkins, 2005) (Shook, The Perfect Sales Presentation, 1986)

It is generally agreed that the most important sales skills is closing the sale. Entire books (Ziglar, 1985) have been written on the subject with various techniques, and no sales training or book has not devoted a good portion of its contents to this critical skill.

An effective sale and close will influence to a specific behavior. In the classic book on leadership and change, Influencer by VitalSmarts (Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, & Switzler, 2008), the authors research how master influencers make effective change come about using multiple sources of influence. They highlight effective leaders such as Muhamed Yunus with the Grameen Foundation and Mimi Silbert with Delancey Street enterprises and how they influenced large groups of people to do incredible things. The book shows how the strategies of these master influencers to create such change by focusing on a specific behavior to influence. These behaviors, which they call Vital Behaviors, are the key and specific behaviors they are trying to influence to create maximum influence. Closing a sale is influencing a vital behavior.

Some sales training programs focus on motivating sales people to work harder or overcome the fear of rejection. Sales people are guaranteed to face a large number of rejections as they give presentations, assuming they are doing any presentations. Effective sales people will find ways to increase their self-esteem or confidence so that they are less phased by rejections (Peck, 1978). We see that all sales people become more confident and get more sales immediately after they make a sale (Tracy, 2004). This phenomenon shows that internal feelings of confidence have a very large impact on the number of sales made. It is for this reason that many training programs help people overcome their internal fears.

Bibliography

Carnegie, D. (1962). The Quick & Easy Way to Effective Speaking: Modern Techniques For Dynamic Communication. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Carnegie, D. (1981). How to Win Friends & Influence People. Simon & Schuster.

Gerber, M. E. (1995). The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. HarperCollins.

Holmes, C. (2007). Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies. New York: Penguin Group, Inc.

Hopkins, T. (2005). How to Master the Art of Selling. Business Plus.

Jim, R. (2003). The Art of Exceptional Living. Simon & Schuster Audio.

Kiyosaki, R. T., & Lechter, S. L. (1997). Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-- That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not! New York: Warner Books.

McFarland, R., Challagalla, G., & Shervani, T. (2006). Inluence Tactics for Effective Adaptive Selling. Journal of Marketing, 70(4), 103-117.

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2008). Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Peck, M. S. (1978). The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional value and Spiritual Growth. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Shook, R. L. (1986). The Perfect Sales Presentation. New York: Bantam Books, Inc.

Shook, R. L. (2003). Hardball Selling: How to Turn the Pressure On Without Turning the Customer Off. Sourcebooks, Inc.

Tracy, B. (2004). The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Ziglar, Z. (1985). Secrets of Closing the Sale. Berkley Trade.