Don Mitchell, Amazon.com’s top reviewer of nonfiction books, provides this review of Heavy Hitter Selling.

"Superb for Complex Sales and Building Needed Relationships"

Steve Martin (no, not the comedian) has over twenty years of successful experience in large ticket software sales and sales training. Although his examples are drawn from his direct experience in that industry, those who sell IT systems, engineering services, IT outsourcing and other large ticket professional services will find his advice to be relevant.

Unlike many successful sales people, Mr. Martin draws on psychological theory in terms of how people communicate and receive information. His source is the fine work of Dr. Milton Erickson, one of the main inspirations for neuro-linguistic programming.

Where most books about complex sales (those where lots of people are involved and many stages) are good for spelling out what has to happen at each step, Heavy Hitter Selling extends beyond those observations to describe in detail what you need to say, how you need to say it and how you need to connect with those on your sales team, the customer's evaluation team and the ultimate decision influencers and decision makers. It was that extra element that makes this a unique book in my experience. I know of no NLP book that looks at complex, large ticket sales. So here, you can get both perspectives in one place.

That brings me to the book's main limitation. In some of the areas for describing how to interpret others' eye and body movements, Mr. Martin's conclusions differ from what I have seen described in other NLP books . . . and from the teachings I received during courses I took with Dr. Richard Bandler and Anthony Robbins in this area. I leave it to you to sort out, but I felt that the material in this book wasn't quite as good as what is available elsewhere on NLP and the subsequent enhancements that have been developed for selling. So if you don't know NLP, you should doublecheck the work here in other books and through your own experience.

To me the most brilliant part of this book is the description of how to identify and work with "coaches" at the potential customer's site who are willing to help you sell your product or service. That lesson is one that I have emphasized with everyone I have ever helped to learn how to sell consulting services. It is very difficult to succeed unless someone takes you by the hand who works for the customer company and helps you do things in the right way for that company. If you only read and apply that section, this book is a five star resource for you.

To test the overall effectiveness of the book, I took a developing client situation that I am working on and analyzed it using the perspectives in this book. I found that process to be very valuable. It made me realize an additional step I needed to take now, and gave me a more thorough understanding of how the relationship is developing with this potential client. I also realized that I had a much better chance of succeeding than I had originally thought, and I will now put a lot more emphasis on working with this potential client than I otherwise would have. My time from reading the book was well rewarded simply from these perspectives.

You can either make all of the mistakes yourself and learn the hard way . . . or you can learn from a master. I recommend the latter approach to enhancing your sales. Steve Martin can be that master for you if you work in areas of complex sales that I earlier described.

Look for the best opportunity, listen carefully, speak appropriately, and move in the ways that will open the way to understanding if you want to grasp selling success!