SALES--THE FAST TRACK FOR WOMEN

A potpourri of topics--some enlightening, some blather--about the emergence of the professional/industrial saleswoman. Siegel spends a great deal of time establishing that women were discriminated against in the sales field until just recently, but are now holding their own and getting more successful by the minute. Typical earnings, she stresses, range from $25,000 to $75,000 a year, with a handful of women making as much as the top CEOs. In fact, CEOs are quoted at length here--from the head of IBM (lauded both for its selling expertise and for its openness to women) to the publisher of Black Enterprise magazine--to prove that the time is now for the self-starting woman, whether ex-housewife or ex-teacher. Like others who have written on this subject, Siegel notes that women's traditional ""nurturing"" qualities are especially attuned to selling; they have the ability to listen empathically, to put others' needs ahead of their own. (Other necessary qualities include motivation and self-esteem.) One chapter details the sales ""secrets"" which many might expect to predominate: ""diagnosing"" the customer's needs, presenting the product's benefits, encountering and overcoming objections, and asking for (""closing"") the sale. Other topics thrown in are the risks and rewards of a sales career (hard work and rejection, but independence and a measure of control over one's earnings); how to choose a job (ex-nurses, for example, are naturals for medical or pharmaceutical sales); and time organization (very little concrete information). The heart of the book, however, is the success stories of the various saleswomen--so this will best serve those seeking inspiration, not a nuts-and-bolts primer.