Selling Things, a book review

SELLING THINGS

By Orison Swett Marden (1916)

A book review by Jim "Gymbeaux" Brown March 6 2018

FOR THE RECORD, read this book for the second time.  More amazing than the first time.  I can see so many of today's books on selling and success that others have written within the text of this one book.  I see quotes more recently attributed to others also within the text of this one book.  Keep in mind it was written over 100 years ago and is just as applicable today as it was then.  Could not possibly recommend it more for everyone in sales to read and as stated below, EVERYONE IS INVOLVED IN SALES OF SOME TYPE.  Keep in mind that it WAS written in 1916 and as such contains figures relating to income that today may seem small but it was 1916.

If I were a Real Estate Broker (again), I would take this book and incorporate a training program that would strongly suggest that EVERY agent read it just one chapter at a time and then convene a Mastermind Group of all the willing agents to discuss what the chapter contains.  It would take 29 weeks to go through each chapter but it would be extremely well worth the time and effort.  This is a great book!

SELLING THINGS, don’t be fooled by the title; please.  Everyone is involved in selling something at some time whether it is a product or service or an idea or just debating a subject – we are all selling almost every day of our lives.  So with that said, who would benefit from reading this book?  EVERYONE!  Seriously, everyone would benefit to some degree from Marden’s mindful approach to selling.

I have been involved in real estate sales for more than 33 years and have read well over 1000 books and articles and I can assure you that I had a hard time putting this book down.  There are only 29 chapters but every chapter deals with a very certain aspect of selling and how to become the best at selling your product, service or position.  If you are in sales, this book would prove to be immeasurable when it comes to your success as a sales person or for that matter a manager of sales people.  Every chapter would unto itself be a wonderful subject/topic for a weekly sales meeting of your sales force.  If I were back in the management arena, I would ask that every one of my sales people purchase the Kindle version for only 99 cents; it would be the wisest investment they would have ever made.  Then take a chapter a week.  Ask them to read it, write down their questions, their comments and their ideas and then use a weekly sales meeting to discuss what they had learned.  I can guarantee you it would be something.  No one could possibly read this book and NOT come away with a different attitude towards what they do for a living – sales. 

Marden wrote this in 1916, must have been one of the last books he wrote.  The topics he discusses still apply today, maybe even more so.  Chapter 26, while it describes sales people, could be used as a job description for a sales management position.  A MUST READ if you are in sales.