The Giants of Sales: What Dale Carnegie, John Patterson, Elmer Wheeler, and Joe Girard Can Teach You about Real Sales Success

by Tom Sant

Book Overview

This invaluable guide introduces you to the techniques developed by four legendary sales giants, and offers concrete examples of how they still work in the 21st century.Sales theories come and go, but... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814472915
• ISBN13: 9780814472910
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: AMACOM/American Management Association
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 17 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

A "Pyramid of Success" for Sales

Sir Isaac Newton reputedly explained that if he could see further than others, it was because he "stood on the shoulders of giants." (Actually, centuries before him, Bernard of Chartres observed that "We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.") When John Wooden began to coach basketball at Dayton High School in Kentucky, he began to formulate principles for a "pyramid of success" for himself and the players he coached. Throughout Wooden's career, these principles focused much more on development of character and quality of life than they did on victories on the court, although his U.C.L.A. teams won 10 NCAA titles during his last 12 seasons, including 7 in a row from 1967 to 1973. His UCLA teams also had a record winning streak of 88 games, four perfect 30-0 seasons, and won 38 straight games in NCAA Tournaments. I mention all this by way of introducing the remarks that follow. Thanks to the author of this book, Tom Sant, his readers are able to stand on the shoulders of four "giants" in salesmanship: John Henry Patterson, Dale Carnegie, Elmer Wheeler, and Joe Girard. As did John Wooden, each thought of success in terms of a pyramid that has a broad base of participation and (yes) opportunity at the point of entry but a severely limited area at the summit. In fact, the favorite greeting of Zig Ziglar, another giant of sales, is "See you at the top!"(In fact, he likes the expression so much that he used it as a new title for one of his books, Biscuits, Fleas, and Pump Handles.) Sant examines the career of each of the four men, then explains what he thinks can be learned from their quite different approaches to sales...and to life. For example, Sant credits Patterson (1867-1947) with being the first -- or at least among the first -- to institutionalize the process of selling as a standardized system. As a result, by all of them following his brother Crane's four step process, CEO Patterson and his sales force enabled their company, National Cash Register, to continue to growth profitably throughout the Great Depression in the 1930s. Sant characterizes Carnegie (1888-1955) as "the apostle of influence" because Carnegie's original "six ways to make people like you" continue to guide and inform sales planning and initiatives more than 50 years after his death. According to Sant, Elmer Wheeler claimed there were no magic words but understood "the magic of words" which he formulated in his original five "Wheelerpoints" (e.g. "Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle!"). As for Joe Girard (1928-present), he used various strategies and tactics for "priming the pump" to become (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) "the world's greatest salesman. Sant devotes considerable attention to how Girard developed his "Law of 250" (i.e. "Most people have about 250 other people in their lives who are important enough to invite to a wedding or to a funeral") which serves as the basis of his continuous cultivation of past, current, and prospect

Page-turning combination of advice and biographies

Books about selling are seldom considered page turners, but this work by persuasion expert Tom Sant is a rare exception. Sant tells the captivating stories of four sales giants: John Henry Patterson, Dale Carnegie, Elmer Wheeler and Joe Girard, and describes their profound impact on the way products and services are bought and sold. Their sea changes in the once-quiet waters of the sales profession still make waves. Each sales pioneer spawned a new approach to selling. Sant explores their methods, discusses why they worked so well, and gives you step-by-step advice about applying these strategies to your sales practice. If you want to learn from the masters, instead of the self-appointed sales guru of the month, We feel there is no better place to start. Those who are interested in history - as well as in sales techniques - will find this a fascinating read.

The Giants of Sales Book Review

I highly recommend investing in "The Giants of Sales" by Tom Sant. This book is a rare collection of both the inspiration and the key elements of what made Carnegie, Patterson, Wheeler, and Girard so influential in helping good salespeople become great. Tom Sant does an outstanding job of showing us in a concise way how to learn from four of the best experts that helped turned sales into a genuine profession. I would highly recommend having this book be part of your foundational sales library. Shawn Green, PhD Director of the Aurora University Sales Institute Vernon Haase Chaired Professor of Business Aurora University Aurora, IL

The best sales tips in one place

How often can you gain such wonderful insights into the GREAT sales minds in one book. Tom Sant brings his extensive experience to enhance the value of this wonderful read!

On These Giants Shoulders

As a consultant and sales trainer, I am very familiar with the people Tom writes about in his book. I have studied and successfully used their works to help my clients. Now, Tom has taken the best of the best and put it together in one succinct book. His approach is clear, unbiased and inclusive. Not only does he review the contribution of the giants of sales, he offers chapters on how you can make their approaches work for you. The book is both a primer on these people and totally practical for today's sales professionals. Everyone in sales should read it.