A Quick 15 Minute Sell Or Be Sold Book Summary

In the book Sell or Be Sold, the author breaks down the techniques that help master the art of selling in any avenue. The Sell Or Be Sold Summary will teach you,

1. The successful essentials of selling in a bad economy.

2. Filling your sales pipeline with new business.

3. Staying positive, despite rejection. 

The book offers a lot of value in each point that he covers.

With the experience of a seasoned sales vet at the helm, Sell or be sold will change the way you perceive sales and life.

In this post, I will give you an in-depth Sell or Be Sold summary with Grant Cardone’s sales tips.

About The Author

Grant Cardone is a best-selling author, international speaker, sales trainer, and entrepreneur who has been a part of the real estate and automobile industry. He has been instrumental in helping small as well as Fortune 500 companies in growing their sales by making the necessary changes in the sales process. 

Cardone is the author of the best-seller ‘The 10X Rule and 5 other sales and business-related books, apart from’ Sell or Be Sold’. 

One Sentence Sell or Be Sold Summary 

Follow the tips and step-by-step selling strategies that can not only make you survive but thrive in any economy. 

Let’s move to the Sell or Be Sold summary.

Key Points Of The Sell Or Be Sold Book

1. You need to be sold 100% on your product and/or service

If your goal is to increase sales, then you need to sell the product or service to yourself first. This will help you build confidence and the way to approach your prospects.

2. Get out of the sales business and get into the people business

“People don’t care what you know until they know how much you care.” Sales will make you feel good when it comes to helping people. Connect your product or service to their needs.

3. Take Massive Action

You can never become a good salesperson until you take massive action. If you want to achieve your targets, give adequate time and energy.

4. Build your power base

It means building a network of people that includes your family, friends, and acquaintances. Add them to your initial distribution network and let them know what you are doing.

Sell Or Be Sold Summary

Following is a chapter by chapter Sell or be Sold summary with Grant Cardone’s sales tips:

Chapter 1: Selling – A Way of Life

Before we learn the art of selling, let us understand what is selling?

Selling is a prerequisite for life. Selling impacts every person on this planet. Your ability or inability to sell, persuade, negotiate, and convince others will affect every area of your life. It is not just a job, it is more about the way of life.

Selling: The action of persuading or influencing another to a course of action or acceptance of something.

Have you come across people who had brilliant ideas for their business, but they couldn’t sell them?

Selling is an essential skill in our day-to-day lives. We need to convince people and exchange ideas to accelerate our business curve. Therefore, we cannot escape from selling.

Grant Cardone, in Sell or Be Sold, explains an important observation throughout his career. He says that you won’t learn the most important skills needed in life in school. He learned more from seminars, audio programs, books, and talking to other successful business people as compared to formal education.

Chapter 2: Salespeople Make the World go Around

People who are good at sales are an important asset for any organization. 

Why do we count the sales team as an important asset and not others? 

Because the sales team is the main pillar, without which any business can fail. Salespeople drive entire economies. No matter what your ambitions are, you need to effectively communicate with others. The better you can communicate, the more people will agree with you.

Chapter 3: Professional or Amateur?

Even if selling isn’t your career, you should be a professional seller to get more out of life.

That means every individual, irrespective of the profession, must have the ability to sell.

Professional: A person engaged in a specified activity as his or her main paid occupation rather than as a pastime. 

Grant Cardone, in Sell or Be Sold says, 99 percent of all “professional” salespeople have only a slight idea of what selling is, much less how to actually determine and predict results.

Amateur: A person who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession, or one lacking in experience and competence in an art or science.

Before becoming a professional, you have to get clear on two things: 

1. Selling is critical to your survival regardless of your career

2. You must decide to become a professional and give up any idea that it’s something for others and not for you.

The person who knows what he’s doing and understands every nuance of his career is already enthusiastic. When you really, truly know something, you can predict outcomes. He who can predict outcomes has true confidence and freedom.

Chapter 4: The Greats

To become one of the greats in your field, you need to master the very first step. The most important one is to commit all the way!

Commit: To devote oneself completely to something.

How does a person commit?

Eliminate any other options and devote yourself to learning everything about the topic.

1. Become a fanatic.

2. Stop questioning and get in all the way

3. Committing is when you make a firm decision, you stop wondering. You start moving on your committed path.

According to the book,

Commitment = Results = Happiness

Most people never commit like fanatics, and thus they never become fantastic.

Even if you’re not a salesperson per se, start observing where you are not getting your way and start taking notes.

Chapter 5: The Most Important Sale

SELLING YOURSELF

Only to the degree you are sold can you sell. This is a critical and unavoidable fact that you can’t miss if you want to become great in life.

The bottom line is, you’re not sold if:

1. You’re not selling to some degree

2. The sales are slow

3. You’ve got some other excuse.

This one point is critical for greatness, and you cannot negotiate it in any way. You have to be convinced and believe in what you’re selling so strongly that you become unreasonable. That’s right: Unreasonable.

CONVICTION IS THE MAKE-OR-BREAK POINT

You can define the word “conviction” as a “belief you firmly hold.” It comes from the word “convince,” derived from the Latin word “convict,” meaning “to conquer.”

Conviction is the ability to stay so firm on your beliefs that you demonstrate to your buyer with such complete and utter certainty that no other choices appear to be available.

You can make a sale when your conviction and belief about something are stronger than another’s, at which point they give up some of their conviction. That’s the moment when the sale becomes possible.

Why is it that some people do things that others wouldn’t dream of doing?

It’s because they are sold on the idea that it needs to be done for some reason. To the degree that they are sold and become unreasonable in their quest, they will succeed.

Chapter 6: The Price Myth

IT’S ALMOST NEVER PRICE:

Most people believe that the only reason they lose sales is because of Price. However, that is not the case.

Price is not the buyer’s biggest concern. In fact, it is at the bottom of the list of reasons why people don’t buy.

1. If there is a price difference, the customer wants assurance that your product has advantages in excess of the cost difference.

2. Price is almost never the issue for buyers, even when they say it is.

3. While your prospect may be verbally objecting to price, other thoughts are most likely going through his mind. 

4. Is this the right product?

5. Is this the right proposal? Will this truly solve our problems?

6. Will my people use it? 

7. What will others think of me buying this?

8. Is this something I am going to really use and enjoy? 

9. Will this company really take care of me and service us? 

10. Am I better off buying something else?

11. Will something better come out next week? 

12. Do I know enough? 

13. Do we have all the information? 

14. Should we get an “X” instead? 

15. Should I join the country club? 

16. Am I better off with the money in the bank than investing it? 

17. Is this going to be a mistake like past decisions?

Price is not your problem—you are your problem! Customers do not stop sales. It is salespeople who stop sales from happening. You, not the customer, are the barrier to the closed deal.

Chapter 7: Your Buyer’s Money

THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF MONEY

Millions of people on this planet have the false idea that there’s some sort of money shortage. But the truth of the matter is, there’s more than enough money to go around. In fact, there’s a surplus of it.

Believe it or not, people love to spend money. And the more money they spend, the more they enjoy.

Second money is easier to get than the first money.

People will tell you, “Don’t get greedy; don’t complicate the close. Just finish it or you might blow the deal with your attempts to get the second money.”

Nonsense. That kind of thinking is for the little, mediocre salespeople of the world, not for you! Second money is for those who want to take their game and their income to the next level and want to do it in half the time.

Chapter 8: You Are in the People Business

THE PEOPLE BUSINESS, NOT THE “X” BUSINESS

1. Being superior in product knowledge but inferior regarding knowledge about people equals minimal results.

2. Selling is 80 percent people and 20 percent product.

COMMUNICATION = SALES

1. If you don’t get into communication with the buyer, you have no chance of ever making the sale.

2. To gain information means that your communication should include lots of questions. 

Chapter 9: The Magic of Agreement

ALWAYS AGREE WITH THE CUSTOMER

This is the single most important and the most violated rule in all of the selling! If you want an agreement, you’ve got to be agreeable with your customers.

HOW TO SOFTEN ANY BUYER

Let’s say a customer tells you he’s only got ten minutes and you know you can’t do your presentation in ten minutes. I’ve watched salespeople spend ten minutes talking about how they can’t do the presentation that quickly. A better alternative is to agree that ten minutes would be fine and go right into your presentation.

If you start building a relationship with the client with an agreement, you’ll have a chance to tell them about your product. Additionally, you’ll come across to the customer as understanding, easy to deal with, and professional. This is what we call relationship selling.

THE MAGIC WORDS

If you want people to agree with your viewpoint, all you’ve got to do is agree with their position, agree with their opinions, and step into their shoes for a moment.

Chapter 10: Establishing Trust

SHOW, DON’T TELL

1. Distrust in the sales cycle is not the buyer’s problem, but yours!

2. If the buyer doesn’t trust you or your presentation, the information that you’re offering will be minimized and challenged.

CREDIBILITY = INCREASED SALES

1. A lack of trust will cost you sales!

2. Distrust will cost you credibility, and lost credibility will add time. This will reduce your chances of making the sale.

3. Great salespeople understand the buyer’s distrust, accept full responsibility for it, and never take it personally.

TIPS ON USING WRITTEN AND VISUAL INFORMATION TO CLOSE

1. Never sell with words. Always show documentation.

2. Never negotiate with words. Write your negotiations down on paper.

3. Never ask for the close with words. Use a buyer’s order.

4. Never make verbal promises. Put all of your assurances in writing.

5. The more data you provide, the better. Don’t be afraid to use a lot of data.

6. Keep your information current.

7. Have your written information available and easy to access.

8. Use third-party data as much as possible.

9. The more you’re able to access the data in real-time, the better. Real-time data is preferable to prepared data.

10. Use computer-generated data whenever possible.

11. Access the internet to pull the data up in front of the customer and he can see that it hasn’t been contrived or manipulated.

Chapter 11: Give, Give, Give

THE MAGIC OF GIVING

1. Selling is the act of giving, not getting; serving, not selling.

2. The true essence of selling is not just getting the sale, but the sincere desire to help.

LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH

1. Show each customer how important they are to you and how they’re the most important person in your universe.

2. Make your total commitment to that one opportunity, that one customer, and let him know that!

Chapter 12: Hard Sell

THE FORMULA FOR HARD SELL

There are only two things that can get you to the point of being a true professional hard-sell closer:

1. You must believe that what you’re offering is the right thing for the prospect.

2. You should be closing no matter what happens.

Chapter 13: Massive Action

TAKE MASSIVE ACTION

1. When it comes to taking action, never think in terms of balance; always think in terms of massive amounts of action.

2. To get results, you have to take action!

3. The amount of success depends on the amount of action you take.

4. To become the president in your field, you will have to be out of balance, totally focused,  dedicated, and follow up with tremendous amounts of action.

THE 10X RULE

1. If you want that one thing, take massive action equal to at least ten times in order to achieve it.

2. Put your attention to ensure that you don’t become passive.

Chapter 14: The Power Base

WORK YOUR POWER BASE

1. Everyone has a base of power in their life where things are familiar and known

2. The easiest sale you’ll ever make in your life is the one for those people who already know you, trust you, and want to help you.

3. Your power base comprises the people who will be happy to hear from you and want to know what you’re up to.

Chapter 15: Time

USE EVERY MOMENT TO SELL

1. He who makes the most of his time will accomplish the most.

2. Change your mind about time and decide that you have plenty of it. Become a master of the clock, not a slave to it.

LUNCH OUT = SALES UP!

1. Use your lunchtime to meet clients and don’t waste this opportunity by hanging out with friends and other employees.

2. Lunch is about business and opportunity. It’s not about food, friends, and family.

3. Lunch is an occasion to create contacts and show appreciation for past customers! Utilize it and work this one-hour gold mine. 

4. Make the most of every day by knocking out the wasted time and cleverly scheduling your valuable time!

Chapter 16: Attitude

A GREAT ATTITUDE IS WORTH MORE THAN A GREAT PRODUCT

1. A positive attitude is a thousand times more important than the product itself.

2. A person will spend a small amount of his income on the necessities of life and blow his entire paycheck on entertainment. Why? Because he wants to feel good!

3. Never let anyone convince you that people won’t pay more for a great attitude and great service.

4. TREAT ’EM LIKE MILLIONAIRES

Chapter 17: The Biggest Sale of my Life

1. Buyers don’t buy until someone sells!

2. Attitude is senior to product

3. Selling is the ultimate fuel of every economy in the world.

Chapter 18: The Perfect Sales Process

The best sales processes are shorter rather than longer.

Grant Cardone in Sell or Be Sold book says that to determine if your current selling process could be problematic for your clients, ask these three questions:

 (1) Do you experience lower-than-average profits per transaction?

 (2) Is the length of time to contract the source of customer complaints?

 (3) Are you getting customers resisting your process?

The sales processes are built in the following order:

(1) Customer

(2) Salesperson

(3) Management 

Here are the most crucial five steps that you must encounter in every sales situation (whether it be in person, on the phone, or over the Internet):

1. Greet

2. Determine Wants and Needs

3. Select Product and Present/Build Value

4. Make Proposal

5. Close the Transaction or Buyer Exits

Chapter 19: Success in Selling

Treat success as your duty, obligation, and responsibility, not as a choice or as a job!

ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS

1. Are you fulfilling your potential? (Be honest.)

2. Do you approach success as a duty and obligation?

3. Would more success be bad for you?

4. Is your entire family on one plan for the creation of success?

Your problem will not be sales as a profession. It will be that you haven’t made a commitment to SUCCESS as your obligation and duty.

To demand consistent sales success, you have to:

1. Decide you are ultimately responsible for the sale.

2. Make it your duty, obligation, and responsibility to make the sale.

3. Take massive amounts of action, followed by more action until you make a sale!

4. Accept no excuses, reasons, or logic, and figure out how to make it work!

5. Prepare yourself daily to handle all obstacles, stalls, reasons, and barriers you will encounter a client.

Chapter 20: Sales-Training Tips

For an effective training program, the certain measures that are taken care of are:-

1. Train daily! The material salespeople should read, listen to, or watch should be focused on selling situations, not just motivational ones.

2. Sales training is approached with the goal to increase production immediately.

3. Sales training are delivered in very short and interactive segments

4. Training must be measurable and rewarded. Training that is not measurable, like any process or best practice, will fail.

5. Effective sales-training programs should focus 80 percent of the training content, time, and energy on the TOP people in an organization, not the new ones.

6. Sales training should be a part of your day and should be accessible continually throughout the day.

Chapter 21: Create a Social Media Presence

In Sell or Be Sold, Grant Cardome says that social media is a way for you to connect, prospect, and make yourself known to those who may have an interest in what you represent.

Social tools like Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and thousands of blogging sites with endless agendas have magnified the voices of your clients and potential prospects for your business.

Some ideas about how you can manage negative social media:

1. Treat your social media reputation like your personal reputation.

2. Handle ALL negative posts as opportunities. All complaints, bashing, and customer dissatisfactions are opportunities and not problems

3. Handle immediately. The sooner you handle the complaint, the easier it handles.

Chapter 22: Quick Tips to Conquer the Biggest Challenges in Selling

Rejection is not a sales issue. It is part of the human condition and an experience or illusion created by the person experiencing it.

This is a major complaint from salespeople: They are surrounded by a negative environment. If people can’t bring solutions and improvements and all they offer is negativity, then they are enemies to you, the company, and even themselves.

DISCIPLINE: The single most important factor to any success is the ability to show up day after day and do the right things.

Products are changing so fast today it is almost impossible to keep up. If you aren’t committed, you are going to get crushed, and the product knowledge will only be one of your excuses.

Staying committed and creative is key, and even more important is you staying interested and not forgetting about your clients.

This brings us to the end of our Sell or be Sold summary.

Who Should Read This Book?

Though salespeople are avid readers of this book, Sell or be Sold is meant for anyone who wants to succeed in life. The book explores the concepts of selling without which one cannot succeed. As you saw in our Sell or be Sold summary, there is a burst of energy in the book that the author usually brings to his work. Get the book here.

Why Do I Recommend This Book?

Sell or be Sold teaches strategies that you need to reach where you want to in life. From persuading prospects to building trust, it helps distinguish yourself from mediocrity. Overall, the book provides a new outlook towards selling. If you are busy our Sell or be Sold summary is always there for you.

Implement What You Learned From This Sell Or Be Sold Summary

To conclude, we believe the book Sell or Be Sold should be used as a refresher, as a list of leading points that help spot the best sales strategies. As you have seen in this Sell or Be Sold summary, the book offers a lot of value in each one of the points that it touches in the sales process. Therefore, we highly recommend reading the book and learning the beautiful art of selling things.

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