Book SummaryThe Sales Bible, by Jeffrey Gitomer

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Sales Bible

The Sales Bible is Jeffrey Gitomer’s collection of sales strategies gathered from his 40 years of experience in the field. To Gitomer, selling is a science and a discipline, not an art—it’s a learnable, repeatable process that you follow to move another person to make a purchase. He writes that there are thousands of ways to sell and that you can choose the method that suits you best; however, your personal method should be grounded in a positive attitude, solid product knowledge, and excellent customer service.

(Shortform note: Gitomer says that anyone can learn to sell, but if you’re not technically in the field of sales, you may not think his advice applies to you. However, Daniel Pink, who writes about the intersection between business, creativity, and behavior, argues that everyone is selling something, so it’s important to learn how to do it. In To Sell Is Human, Pink writes that people spend 40 percent of their time at work in contemporary selling—influencing or convincing others to give up an intangible resource—so the skill is critical for professional success, regardless of your field.)

Gitomer began writing the first edition of The Sales Bible in 1993 and has since updated it...

The Sales Bible Summary Principle #1: Have a Positive Attitude

Gitomer writes that to become successful in sales, you should first cultivate a positive attitude. According to him, salespeople fail due to a number of reasons such as improper training or poor communication skills, but 50 percent fail due to something entirely within their control: a negative attitude. (Shortform note: Gitomer doesn’t cite research to support his claims about the reasons salespeople fail. However, some research does suggest that salespeople with an optimistic attitude perform 57 percent better than their pessimistic peers.)

What Having a Positive Attitude Means

Gitomer writes that you become what you think about, so having a positive attitude and believing that you will succeed leads to success. Conversely, focusing on negative thoughts like failure inevitably leads to failure. (Shortform note: Many others have written about the power of believing in something to make it come true—some call it the law of attraction, while others brand it as [“manifesting” or...

The Sales Bible Summary Principle #2: Set Goals

According to Gitomer, having a positive attitude allows you to overcome self-limiting beliefs and gives you the confidence to go after what you want. However, you can’t get what you want if you don’t know what you want. The second of Gitomer’s major principles that we’ll discuss builds on this, recommending that you define what success means to you and set a goal to achieve it—whether that means earning X dollars each month or winning an award for salesperson of the year. By clarifying your goals, you can then determine what to do to achieve them.

(Shortform note: Gitomer doesn’t go into detail about why it’s important to set goals. In Goals!, sales trainer Bryan Tracy writes that goals not only give you a clear direction but also help you stay focused, enable you to measure progress, and motivate you to keep going despite setbacks.)

How to Set Goals

Gitomer gives the following steps for setting...

The Sales Bible Summary Principle #3: Make the Best Impression

After clarifying your goals, the next step Gitomer recommends is to polish your selling skills. By putting plenty of effort into preparation, you can make the best impression on your prospects, which then increases your chances of making a sale and achieving your goals. (Shortform note: While Gitomer details several strategies for making the best impression, he doesn’t mention how much time you have to win people over. Entrepreneur Jordan Belfort says that you should make a good impression within the first four seconds of a conversation, or you’ll fail to close the sale.)

In particular, focus on these three strategies:

1) Become the Modern Salesperson

Gitomer writes that today’s most effective salespeople don’t act like salespeople. Instead they act more like consultants or advisers. As such, these non-salespeople salespeople have the following characteristics:

Extremely knowledgeable. They use their solid product knowledge—often gained from years of using the product themselves—to give customers good recommendations. They focus on what they can give customers rather than what they can get from...

The Sales Bible Summary Principle #4: Build and Maintain Relationships

Even with a positive attitude, articulated goals, and the tools to make a great first impression, you can’t be successful in sales without other people. Gitomer asserts that selling has less to do with your product or prices, and more to do with your relationships: People are more inclined to buy from someone they know, trust, and have a good relationship with. Being friends with your customers also makes the selling process easier for you—they’re happy to buy from you, are more forgiving if you make the occasional mistake, and are loyal to you, so you shut out the competition.

(Shortform note: The type of salesperson that Gitomer describes is a “relationship builder.” In The Challenger Sale, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson write that this is one of five types of salespeople, the others being the “hard worker,” the “lone wolf,” the “reactive problem-solver,” and the “challenger.” Contrary to Gitomer’s advice, Dixon and Adamson argue that the relationship builder is actually the least likely to succeed, while [the challenger consistently outperforms the...

The Sales Bible Summary Principle #5: Learn to Listen

An essential part of building and maintaining relationships is listening. In fact, Gitomer says that listening is probably the most important part of selling. Not only does it help you deal with customers’ complaints, as mentioned in the previous section, but listening also helps you understand customers’ reasons for buying (or not buying) and what kind of customers they are. This understanding then enables you to make a better sales pitch.

(Shortform note: The type of listening required in sales is active listening, which means giving your full attention to the speaker. This means paying attention so you can remember what the speaker says, understand, and respond. Aside from sending verbal signals to show you’re engaged, experts say you should also send non-verbal cues, such as making eye contact.)

However, many salespeople undervalue the importance of listening. Gitomer says that’s because they prejudge the other person, think they already know what the other person is...

The Sales Bible Summary Principle #6: Close the Sale

As discussed in the previous section, listening is an essential part of selling. By understanding what your customer is saying—or not saying—you can determine what to do to convince the customer to buy. Gitomer offers four strategies to close the sale:

1) Be Aware of Buying Cues

When customers are interested in what you’re offering but aren’t fully convinced to buy, they send out buying cues, or hints that they’re considering making a purchase. For example, a customer might ask for more information, inquire about promotions, or tell you about their experience with another supplier. Once you’re aware of these signals, Gitomer says that you should immediately move on to the next step. (Shortform note: Gitomer advises focusing solely on verbal cues; however, non-verbal buying cues can be just as important. Some examples of non-verbal cues are customers looking through your sales literature with interest, jotting down notes, or making computations.)

2) Ask for the Sale

Gitomer writes that asking for the sale is such a simple step, but many salespeople neglect to do it. As soon as you recognize...

Shortform Exercise: Formulate Your “Power Statement”

Use a strong opening statement to get prospects more interested in what you have to offer.

What product or service do you offer?

Shortform Exercise: Become the Modern Salesperson

Increase your product knowledge to better address customers’ concerns and increase your sales.

List every department in your company that handles a different aspect of your products and services (for example, product development, logistics, marketing).