How To Sell Anything To Anybody by Joe Girard Search Amazon for other books by or about Joe Girard. Rating: Reviewed by: Douglas Malcolm

I bought this book some time ago, right after starting a new part-time job selling Internet access for a major Virginia company. It looked a little cheesy, what with the smiling guy in the grey pinstripes on the cover, and the title certainly seems to cross the line into hyperbole, but the tips in this book actually worked. Within a month of reading this and Close it Right, Right Now I was the top per-hour salesman at the company!

Joe Girard was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for 12 consecutive years as the world's top salesman for selling 1,425 cars in one year. He still holds the all time record for big ticket items, having sold an average six cars a day over his fifteen year career.

His book is quite well written, in an easy conversational tone. It gets his message across effectively. Despite holding a world record as a car salesman (a title which would make me suspicious at best), his policy is honesty. He even advocates knocking a few dollars off of a product price even if the customer doesn't request it, the goal of which is to perpetuate that "got a good deal" feeling in the customer.

Most of Joe's (somehow I just know he'd insist I call him Joe) book is geared toward what he calls "filling the ferris wheel" - keeping new customers coming to you day after day. I found it to be full of useful and practical ideas, even though I was selling a service, and not a physical, tangible product.

Perhaps most interesting was Joe's take on the most useful tool for a salesman. A business card. Apparently, he leaves them everywhere he goes. For example, with the tip at a restaurant. He claims to go through a box of 500 cards in a single "good week"! Amazing. I wonder if he uses recycled paper for those? Anyway, this is an easy read full of useful information. If your work involves sales, it would be a worthwhile book to add to your collection.