Street Smart Selling: How to Be a Sales Superstar, Milstein Daniel

In Street Smart Selling, Milstein lays out a detailed set of guidelines that will be useful for ambitious beginning salespeople, as well as for established professionals who wish, to paraphrase the books subtitle, become Sales Superstars.

Milsteins advice ranges from simple things, like how to make and use an effective daily to-do list, to how to develop a long-term career plan. He discusses things like the importance of getting referrals from satisfied customers, how to understand and best use social media like Facebook and LinkedIn, how to maintain lifelong customer relationships, how to make yourself stand out in a crowd, and even how to plan for the contingency of a career change.

There is even a section of specific suggestions for sales managers interested in building a stronger sales team, including establishing mentoring programs, recognizing and preventing burnout, and effective coaching.

Most of the book, however, is aimed at self-improvement for motivated individuals. Milstein credits his success to his own love for selling; The salespeople with the best attitudes are those who never lose their passion for sales. Passion helps you get through the ups and downs of sales. You can endure a career without passion, but you cannot be a long-term success unless you love what you do.

Be sure you know why you want to become a sales superstar. You have to understand what pushes you, whether it is financial/compensation, ego gratification, company recognition or something else. List your top two reasons now and then look at them again after three months. Whats changed?