Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom is based upon the study of prominent Heavy Hitters throughout the ages. The Heavy Hitters included in this book are people of great influence who had a tremendous impact on our world. We will seek to understand how they rose to prominence, won their battles, and persuaded people to follow them. We want to learn from their successes and failures in order to become wiser ourselves.

While Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom includes comments from a diverse group of history’s greatest Heavy Hitters, we will study six leaders in greater detail to understand the skills they used to change the course of human history. What can salespeople learn from Sun Tzu, Napoleon Bonaparte, and George Patton? Why would studying the words of Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Ronald Reagan be important? Since learning by example is the most effective way to learn, we want to study role models that provide the best examples of strategy, persuasion, and common sense.

More than twenty-five hundred years ago, Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War, the most important book on war philosophy ever published. The premise of The Art of War is that successful warfare is based upon having better information than the enemy by using spies, possessing the knowledge of when to fight, and attacking the enemy where he is weakest and least expects it. Each of these mantras is equally applicable to sales.

Both U.S. Army General George C. Patton and former emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte were lifelong students of war. Both were devotees of the psychology of warfare. Each was a voracious reader of military history and had an encyclopedic knowledge of warfare. At the age of sixteen, Napoleon commanded a French army artillery garrison. By the age of twenty-seven he commanded an entire army, and a few years later he had conquered Europe.

Nearly 125 years after Napoleon’s death, General Patton would fight his way across France during World War II. Patton was described by Russian leader Joseph Stalin as the United States’ best general. When a German senior officer was captured, he said, “General Patton is the most feared general on all fronts. The tactics of the general are daring and unpredictable. General Patton is always the main topic of conversation. Where is he? When will he attack? Where? How? With what?”

I’d like to forewarn you that the sales strategy section includes detailed analysis of battles from a cross section of mankind’s worst wars. These battlefield descriptions are more than just interesting anecdotes about military history. It’s important to review the specific circumstances--who had the advantage, how the attack was planned, and when and where they fought--in order to understand who won and why. As you read them, pay particular attention to who was the underdog, why they were at a disadvantage, and how the momentum of the battle was changed because all of the facets of warfare that determine the victor and vanquished are directly applicable to salespeople who must invade new accounts or fend off competitors’ attacks.

Unlike in a real war, salespeople fight with words, and in part II we will study three of the world’s most persuasive people of all time: Buddha, Ronald Reagan, and Jesus Christ. At the age of twenty-nine in 594 BC, Siddhartha Gautama gave up his life of luxury to become a monk known as Buddha. He would spend the rest of his life learning the path to enlightenment by understanding the nature of reality and the importance of mental orientation through liberating one’s spirit. Buddha’s teachings were passed down from generation to generation in over five thousand volumes. Today, these teachings influence the daily lives of more than half a billion practicing Buddhists.

Another prominent persuader who impacted the world as we know it today was Ronald Reagan. In 2004, Ronald Reagan was named by an independent pollster as the third greatest American president of all time, behind Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. It’s not surprising that he was ranked behind these two national heroes. However, what made this president truly unique was his ability to communicate and persuade. In fact, Reagan is known in the annals of history as “the Great Communicator.” Not only was he able to convince ordinary Americans that he was one of them, but equally important, the eloquent orator was able to influence adversarial lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The fact that one-third of the six billion people on the planet follow the teachings of Jesus Christ is profound proof of the impact of his words. Obviously, his legacy continues to affect people all around the world daily. In addition, six billion copies of the Bible have been printed, making it the best-selling book of all time.

Since the premise of this book is modeling the most influential people of all time, we want mentors who have experienced a wide range of communication challenges, dealt with very skeptical audiences, and changed people’s opinions under the most difficult circumstances. Jesus Christ clearly fits these requirements.

The communication methods of Buddha, Reagan, and Christ are well worth studying today by those who must speak for a living and persuade others to believe in them. While thousands of books have been written from a theological and political perspective about these men, we are more interested in how and why they said something, rather than what they actually said. Therefore, we want to study and understand the purpose, content, and structure of their language to help us learn how to become more persuasive.