FOREWORD

HOW TO BE GREAT AT THE STUFF YOU HATE

Nick Davies and I have four things in common:

• we both started our working lives in the school of hard knocks (he sold shoes, I sold soft drinks)
• we share a penchant for expensive shoes
• we like lawyers
• and we both now sell services

True, you may never have heard of me and yes, true again, I am a mate of Nick’s. But who cares? Because this book is about you. It’s about seizing the power of the good old-fashioned common sense most of you were born with, but have since unlearned.

As breaths of fresh air go, Nick’s book goes furthest. I have been selling for a third of a century and found it un-put-down-able. Even though it can be read in one sitting with ease, it is equally designed for “grazing” in spare moments – on a plane or on a train.

Where to start? Where better than the role of selling in our lives? Right up front we are reminded of a fundamental truth:

Let’s work backwards on that. A civilised, capitalist society cannot function without public services. Public services can’t function without the “tax-dollar”. And taxes wouldn’t exist without someone somewhere selling something.

Then there’s the structure of the book. It is one of its many merits. The process – no the art – of selling is broken down forensically into simple, practical steps. Steps which remind us how easy selling can be if only we follow common sense.

Nick is generous with his tips too, using humour, anecdote and example to bring them to life. The hard part, he says, is perseverance – having the dogged determination, self-confidence and optimism to keep going when others fade.

Nick has an inimitable style: chatty, engaging, amusing, pacey. And this is the real secret of the book’s success. It’s like a friendly, encouraging coach in your ear.

Gold-dust is sprinkled liberally throughout. You will discover that you should – indeed must – fall back in love with the phone. You’ll be shown the value of small-talk when networking. You will be given clear ground-rules covering when – and when not – to kiss! You will realise the importance of following up on meetings. You will find out how asking for business compares with courtship. And, finally, you’ll come face to face with the thing we fear most, silence, and the knack of knowing when to zip the lip.

Most crucially, we are reminded why we have twice as many ears as we have a mouth. And we find that the best listeners make the best sales people. To that end, whilst the book is already graced with nine useful quotations, I’d like to add a 10^th:

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” (Jimi Hendrix)

If selling is about making it easy for people to buy, with this book Nick Davies makes it a whole lot easier for you to make it easy for people to buy from you.

Simon Slater – Managing Director, Intelligent Office Consulting Services Limited.