STREET SMART SELLING

A top salesman shares his success strategies in this compact, nicely crafted volume.

Milstein (17 Cents & a Dream, 2013, etc.) is a leading loan officer and CEO of Gold Star Mortgage Financial Group, a national mortgage lending company. He attributes much of his success to his sales ability, and in this breezy book, he lays out his formula for achieving superstar-salesperson status. The book is clearly designed with the busy salesperson in mind; it has short chapters, plenty of bulleted points and clever cartoon illustrations to break up the text. The work is also liberally dosed with “Sales Pro Tips.” For some readers, these snippets of helpful advice may prove to be most valuable. “If no formal measurement for sales success exists for your industry, create your own,” writes Milstein in one tip called “Build Your Yardstick.” In another, he advises a bold idea: “[B]e a proactive mystery shopper by contacting the competition directly. You can ask them how they are different.” The sidebar “25+2 Ways to Enhance Your Sales Performance” could well become an experienced salesperson’s cheat sheet for how to rise above the rest. The tips themselves are probably reason enough for any salesperson, experienced or not, to add Street Smart Selling to a must-read list. The text is no less inviting, although weaving sales-war stories together with how-to advice isn’t new. Once in a while, readers may get the feeling Milstein is shilling for his company. He writes, for instance, about Gold Star’s hiring and training program and, later, about its methods for making new customers feel welcome. Still, the potentially self-congratulatory examples aren’t without their relevance. Given the overabundance of books on selling, it is exceedingly difficult to say something new; while Milstein’s effort does not entirely break through the morass, salespeople will likely appreciate the authentic battle-tested advice offered by such a skilled professional.

Conversational, easy to consume and well-packaged, with an infectious passion for selling that makes for an enjoyable, uplifting read.