Make It Happen Before Lunch: 50 Cut-to-the-Chase Strategies for Getting the Business Results You Want

Stephan is so great at giving practical advice and action steps for being successful in sales and business. I really like that he pushes you outside of your comfort zone and uses his own experiences as examples. I also think he is very ethical in the way he has done business personally. If I remember one story in this book correctly, he was at one point broke and didn't know where his next paycheck was coming from when he kept dialing and made a sale. Wonderful example! I also have read Cold Calling Techniques That Really Work, and Telesales.

Super book.

Sales are the lifeblood of any company. Sales are closely tied to financial statements. Sales success usually means financial success.As the title suggests, Schiffman has what he calls 50 rules. I agree with almost all of them but some of them I feel more passionate about.Rule number 35 is spent at least 75% of your time gathering information. One of the things I've learned in both sales and negotiation is that the person with the information has the advantage. The Internet makes information gathering extremely easy. There's no reason not to lose on this one.Rule number 24 is make calls for an hour a day. One thing I have often seen in developing company says they simply don't spend enough time making sales calls. Without spending the time clearly the sales will never happen. And although he suggest making calls for an hour a day, I think double or triple or quadruple makes more sense.I was interested to see rule 30 was to live off peak this is one of the rules I use all the time. Like some of his other rules, sales are tied to good time management.One thing I like about the book is that each one of the 50 rules basically stands on their own. This means the book can be read gradually over a long period of time and the benefits will still be derived. The book is concise and easy to read and I would recommend to anybody who wants to increase their sales.

Make the Sale Happen Before Lunch - helps a sales person hone his craft with doing the basics better. Useful comments for me: Move at least one deal forward each day People live their life two weeks at a time The power of the story The greatest practice players become the greatest players Know when to move on Find out what makes sense to the buyer No Rolodex is up to date Make 15 cold/prospect calls every dayHe has one of the better sets of tips with leaving voice mail -As he says, you should spend your time 40% prospecting, 20% presenting, 20% on product knowledge and 15% on professional development.

Professionals need to resharpen their tools every so often, and Schiffman's book is a good way for a sales professional to reharpen their's. The book is a concise, enjoyable and easy read that takes 50 rules, and breaks them down into three parts - core ideas for achievement, or "the right stuff"; tools for making things happen in your business relationships; and keeping your focus over time. For the sales pro, this is a great way to get back to the basics.

This is one of my favorite motivational books - easy to read in small steps - each chapter filled with ideas that will immediately give you at least a few specific actions that will move you forward in growing your business.

Most salespeople know just what to do when they get in front of a decision maker who has a need. But most salespeople spend too little time with new decision makers. The salespeople either put too little effort into prospecting, or stay focused on cold leads much too long. Stephan Schiffman takes dead aim at that problem and provides ways to motivate you to take an more energetic approach, to implement a system to help you get there, and to keep you perservering until results occur.Although there was much good advice in the book, I thought that his descriptions of the psychology of exploring over the telephone setting up a face-to-face meeting was masterful. The book deserves five stars for that section alone!Basically, he wants you to realize that every objection to having a meeting that you will ever get will come in one of only about a dozen forms. If you think about these objections, you can create a response for each that leads naturally back to your question, 'Are you free to meet with me at 2 p.m. on Wednesday?' He provides a number of useful examples that he uses in his training business to help stimulate your imagination.I also thought that his advice to leave voice mails where you offer to tell the prospect something important about a well-known company (that happens to be your customer and has agreed to be a reference) is likely to make it easier to make the initial telephone contact.Depending on the type of customer you deal with, you may need to soften or harden the method he describes, but the basic concept of being focused on getting the meeting first is a very good one. By asking people to commit to action, you tell whether you are creating a live relationship or not. If not, ask 'why not?' and learn something. The book basically turns what most think of as rejection into progress. I thought that was a great way to turn around stalled thinking about selling.After you have finished the book, ask yourself what other requirements you have in order to make progress in what is important to you. Then consider whether you are making enough progress in those areas. If not, create a system and set of self-motivations to assist you in implementing that system. You should be able to make vastly more progress as a result.

Make It Happen Before Lunch is a must read for anyone who wants to learn the "tricks of the selling trade." I've read loads of business books, but rarely have I read a book that gives you "how-tos" that I couldn't wait to try out. And, try out I did! Best of all, everything I tried worked "as promised." Everyone on our executive team has read the book (some of us have read it twice). I plan to keep it handy and re-read it at least once a month until I've tried every helpful hint. I'd have given the book six stars if I could have.

This is a must read for basic sales practices and principles . I read the first 37 pages…and realized I used to do the things required and was successful and it was time to do them again!