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A business classic endorsed by Dale Carnegie, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling is for anyone whose job it is to sell. Whether you are selling houses or mutual funds, advertisements or ideas—or anything else—this book is for you.
When Frank Bettger was twenty-nine he was a failed insurance salesman. By the time he was forty he owned a country estate and could have retired. What are the selling secrets that turned Bettger’s life around from defeat to unparalleled success and fame as one of the highest paid salesmen in America?
The answer is inside How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. Bettger reveals his personal experiences and explains the foolproof principles that he developed and perfected. He shares instructive anecdotes and step-by-step guidelines on how to develop the style, spirit, and presence of a winning salesperson. No matter what you sell, you will be more efficient and profitable—and more valuable to your company—when you apply Bettger’s keen insights on:
• The power of enthusiasm
• How to conquer fear
• The key word for turning a skeptical client into an enthusiastic buyer
• The quickest way to win confidence
• Seven golden rules for closing a sale
Here are the vital secrets of salesmanship - no matter what you sell.
Dale Carnegie How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling will be helping salesmen, regardless of whether they are selling insurance, or shoes, or ships, or sealing wax, long after Frank Bettger has passed away.
Chapter 1
HOW ONE IDEA MULTIPLIED MY INCOME AND HAPPINESS
Shortly after I started out as a professional baseball player, I got one of the biggest shocks of my life. That was back in 1007. I was playing for Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the Tri-State League. I was young and ambitious — wanted to get to the top — and what happened? I was fired! My whole life might have been different if I hadn't gone to the manager and asked him why he fired me. In fact, I wouldn't have the rare privilege of writing this book if I hadn't asked him that question.
The manager said he fired me because I was lazy! Well, that was the last thing I expected him to say.
"You drag yourself around the field like a veteran who has been playing ball for twenty years," he told me. "Why do you act that way if you're not lazy?"
"Well, Bert," I said, "I'm so nervous, so scared, that I want to hide my fear from the crowd, and especially from the other players on the team. Besides, I hope that by taking it easy, I'll get rid of my nervousness."
"Frank," he said, "it will never work. That's the thing that is holding you down. Whatever you do after you leave here, for heaven's sake, wake yourself up, and put some life and enthusiasm into your work!"
I had been making $175 a month at Johnstown. After being fired there, I went down to Chester, Pennsylvania, in the Atlantic League, where they paid me only $25 a month. Well, I couldn't feel very enthusiastic on that kind of money, but I began to act enthusiastic. After I was there three days, an old ball player, Danny Meehan, came to me and said: "Frank, what in the world are you doing down here in a rank bush-league like this?"
"Well, Danny," I replied, "if I knew how to get a better job, I'd go anywhere."
A week later, Danny induced New Haven, Connecticut, to give me a trial. My first day in New Haven will always stand out in my memory as a great event in my life. No one knew me in that league, so I made a resolution that nobody would ever accuse me of being lazy. I made up my mind to establish the reputation of being the most enthusiastic ball player they'd ever seen in the New England League. I thought if I could establish such a reputation, then I'd have to live up to it.
From the minute I appeared on the field, I acted like a man electrified. I acted as though I were alive with a million batteries. I threw the ball around the diamond so fast and so hard that it almost knocked our infielders' hands apart. Once, apparently trapped, I slid into third base with so much energy and force that the third baseman fumbled the ball and I was able to score an important run. Yes, it was all a show, an act I was putting on. The thermometer that day was nearly 100$#176;. I wouldn't have been surprised if I had dropped over with a sunstroke the way I ran around the field.
Did it work? It worked like magic. Three things happened:
1. My enthusiasm almost entirely overcame my fear. In fact my nervousness began to work for me, and I played far better than I ever thought I was capable of playing. (If you are nervous be thankful. Don't hold it back. Turn it on. Let your nerves work for you.)
2. My enthusiasm affected the other players on the team, and they too became enthusiastic.
3. Instead of dropping with the heat, I felt better during the game and after it was over than I had ever felt before.
par
My biggest thrill came the following morning when I read in the New Haven newspaper: "This new player, Bettger, has a barrel of enthusiasm. He inspired our boys. They not only won the game, but looked better than at any time this season."
The newspapers began calling me "Pep" Bettger — the life of the team. I mailed the newspaper clippings to Bert Conn, manager of Johnstown. Can you imagine the expression on his face as he read about "Pep" Bettger, the dub he'd tied a can to three weeks before — for being lazy?
Within ten days, enthusiasm took me from $25 a month to $185 a month — it increased my income by 700 per cent. Let me ???epeat — nothing but the determination to net enthusiastic increased my income 700 per cent in ten days! I got this stupendous increase in salary not because I could throw a ball better — or catch or hit better, not because I had any more ability as a ball player. I didn't know any more about baseball than I did before.
Two years later — two years from the time I had been hoping to get $25 a month in that little Chester outfit, I was playing third base for the St. Louis Cardinals and had multiplied my income by thirty times. What did it? Enthusiasm alone did it; nothing but enthusiasm.
Two years after that, while playing a game in Chicago against the Chicago Cubs, I had a bad accident. Picking up a swinging bunt while on a full run, I attempted to throw in the opposite direction. Something snapped in my arm. That accident forced me to give up baseball. This seemed like a great tragedy to me at the time, but I now look back on it as one of the most fortunate events of my life.
I returned home, and for the next two years made my living riding around the streets of Philadelphia on a bicycle. I was a collector for an installmeat furniture concern; one dollar down and the balance in "uneasy" weekly payments, After two dismal years of collecting installments, I decided to try selling insurance with the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company.
The next ten months were the longest and most disheartening months of my life.
A dismal failure at selling life insurance, I finally concluded that I was never cut out to be a salesman, and began answering want ads for a job as a shipping clerk. I realized, however, that no matter what work I tried to do, I had to overcome a strange fear-complex that possessed me, so I joined one of Dale Carnegie's courses in public speaking. One night, Mr. Carnegie stopped me in the middle of a talk.
"Mr. Bettger," he said. "Just a moment...just a moment. Are you interested in what you are saying?"
"Yes...of course I am," I replied.
"Well, then," said Mr. Carnegie, "why don't you talk with a little enthusiasm? How do you expect your audience to be interested if you don't put some life and animation into what you say?"
Dale Carnegie then gave our class a stirring talk on the power of enthusiasm. He got so excited during his Talk, he threw a chair up against the wall and broke off one of its legs.
Before I went to bed that night, I sat for an hour thinking. My thoughts went back to my baseball days at Johnstown and New Haven. For the first time, I realized that the very fault which had threatened to wreck my career in baseball was now threatening to wreck my career as a salesman.
The decision I made that night was the turning point of my life. That decision was to stay in the insurance business and put the same enthusiasm into selling that I had put into playing baseball when I joined the New Haven team.
I shall never forget the first call I made the next day. It was my first "crashing through" session. I made up my mind that I was going to show my prospect the most enthusiastic salesman he'd ever seen in his life. As I pounded my fist with excitement, I expected every minute to have the man stop me and ask if there was anything wrong with me, but he didn't.
At one stage of the interview, I noticed he raised himself to a more erect position and opened his eyes wider, but he never stopped me, except to ask questions. Did he throw me out? No, he bought! This man, Al Emmons, a grain merchant in the Bourse Building, Philadelphia, soon became one of my good friends and best boosters.
From that day on, I began to sell. The Magic of Enthusiasm began to work for me in business, just as it had in baseball.
I would not want to give anybody the impression that I think enthusiasm consists of fist-pounding...but if fist-pounding is what you need to arouse yourself inside, then I am overwhelmingly for it. I know this: When I force myself to act enthusiastic, I soon feel enthusiastic.
During my thirty-two years of selling, I have seen enthusiasm double and treble the income of dozens of salesmen, and I have seen the lack of it cause hundreds of salesmen to fail.
I firmly believe enthusiasm is by far the biggest single factor in successful selling. For example, I know a man who is an authority on insurance — he could even write a book on the subject — and yet he can't make a decent living selling it. Why? Largely because of his lack of enthusiasm.
I know another salesman who didn't know one-tenth as much about insurance, yet he made a fortune selling it, and retired in twenty years. His name is Stanley Gettis. He now lives in Miami Beach, Florida. The reason for his outstanding success was not knowledge — it was enthusiasm.
Can you acquire enthusiasm — or must you be born with it? Certainly you can acquire it! Stanley Gettis acquired it. He became a human dynamo. How? Just by forcing himself each day to act enthusiastic. As a part of his plan, Stanley Gettis repeated a poem almost every morning for twenty years. He found that repeating it helped him generate enthusiasm for the day. I found this poem so inspiring that I had it printed on a card and gave away hundreds of them. It was written by Herbert Kauffman and has a good title...
VICTORY
You are the man who used to boast
That you'd achieve the uttermost,
Some day.
You merely wished a show,
To demonstrate how much you know
And prove the distance you can go....
Another year we've just passed through.
What new ideas came to you?
How many big things did you do?
Time...left twelve fresh months in your care
How many of them did you share
With opportunity and dare
Again where you so often missed?
We do not find you on the list of Makers Good.
Explain the fact!
Ah no, 'twas not the chance you lacked!
As usual — you failed to act!
Why don't you memorize this poem, and repeat it daily. It may do for you what it did for Stanley Gettis.
Once I read a statement made by Walter P. Chrysler. I was so impressed by it, I carried it in my pocket for a week. I'll bet I read it over forty times, until I knew it by heart, I wish every salesman would memorize it. Walter Chrysler, when asked to give the secret of success, listed the various qualities, such as ability, capacity, energy, but added that the real secret was enthusiasm. "Yes, more than enthusiasm," said Chrysler, "I would say excitement. I like to see men get excited. When they get excited, they get customers excited, and we get business."
Enthusiasm is by far the highest paid quality on earth, probably because it is one of the rarest; yet it is one of the most contagious. H you are enthusiastic, your listener is very likely to become enthusiastic, even though you may present your ideas poorly. Without enthusiasm, your sales talk is about as dead as last year's turkey.
Enthusiasm isn't merely an outward expression. Once you begin to acquire it, enthusiasm works constantly within you. You may be sitting quietly in your home..an idea occurs to you...that idea begins to develop...finally, you become consumed with enthusiasm...nothing can stop you.
It will help you overcome fear, become more successful in business, make more money, enjoy a healthier, richer and happier life.
When can you begin? Right now. Just say to yourself, "This is one thing I can do."
How can you begin? There is just one rule:
To become enthusiastic — act enthusiastic.
Put this rule into action for thirty days and be prepared to see astonishing results. It may easily revolutionize your entire life.
Stand up on your hind legs each morning, and repeat with powerful gestures and all the enuthusiasm you can generate, these words:
Force yourself to act enthusiastic, and you'll become enthusiastic!
I urge you to reread many times this chapter by Frank Bettger, and to make a high and holy resolve than you will double the amount of enthusiasm that you have been putting into your work and into your life. If you carry out that resolve, you will probably double your income and double your happiness.
Dale Carnegie
Copyright © 1947 by Prentice Hall Press
CONTENTS
Introduction by Dale Carnegie — What I Think of This Book
Author's Preface — How I Happened to Write This Book
PART ONE
THESE IDEAS LIFTED ME OUT OF THE RANKS OF FAILURE
CHAPTER
1. How One Idea Multiplied My Income and Happiness
2. This Idea Put Me Back Into Selling After I Had Quit
3. One Thing I Did That Helped Me Destroy the Biggest Enemy I Ever Had to Face
4. The Only Way I Could Get Myself Organized
Summary — Part One
PART TWO
FORMULA FOR SUCCESS IN SELLING
5. How I Learned the Most Important Secret of Salesmanship
6. Hitting the Bull's Eye
7. A $250,000 Sale in 15 Minutes
8. Analysis of the Basic Principles Used in Making That Sale
9. How Asking Questions Increased the Effectiveness of My Sales Interviews
10. How I Learned to Find the Most Important Reason Why a Man Should Buy
11. The Most Important Word I Have Found in Selling Has Only Three Letters
12. How I Find the Hidden Objection
13. The Forgotten Art That Is Magic in Selling
Summary — Part Two
PART THREE
SIX WAYS TO WIN AND HOLD THE CONFIDENCE OF OTHERS
14. The Biggest Lesson I Ever Learned About Creating Confidence
15. A Valuable Lesson I Learned About Creating Confidence From a Great Physician
16. The Quickest Way I Ever Discovered to Win Confidence
17. How to Get Kicked Out
18. I Found This an Infallible Way to Gain a Man's Confidence
19. How to Look Your Best
Summary — Part Three
PART FOUR
HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU
20. An Idea I Learned From Lincoln Helped Me Make Friends
21. I Became More Welcome Everywhere When I Did This
22. How I Learned to Remember Names and Faces
23. The Biggest Reason Why Salesmen Lose Business
24. This Interview Taught Me How to Overcome My Fear of Approaching Big Men
Summary — Part Four
PART FIVE
STEPS IN SALE
25. The Sale Before the Sale
26. The Secret of Making Appointments
27. How I Learned to Outsmart Secretaries and Switchboard Operators
28. An Idea That Helped Me Get Into the "Major Leagues"
29. How to Let the Customer Help You Make the Sale
30. How I Find New Customers and Make Old Ones Enthusiastic Boosters
31. Seven Rules I Use in Closing the Sale
32. An Amazing Closing Technique I Learned from a Master Salesman
Summary — Part Five
PART SIX
DON'T BE AFRAID TO FAIL
33. Don't Be Afraid to Fail!
34. Benjamin Franklin's Secret of Success and What It Did for Me
35. Let's You and I Have a Heart to Heart Talk
Chapter 1 HOW ONE IDEA MULTIPLIED MY INCOME AND HAPPINESS Shortly after I started out as a professional baseball player, I got one of the biggest shocks of my life. That was back in 1007. I was playing for Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the Tri-State League. I was young and ambitious -- wanted to get to the top -- and what happened? I was fired! My whole life might have been different if I hadn't gone to the manager and asked him why he fired me. In fact, I wouldn't have the rare privilege of writing this book if I hadn't asked him that question. The manager said he fired me because I was lazy! Well, that was the last thing I expected him to say. "You drag yourself around the field like a veteran who has been playing ball for twenty years," he told me. "Why do you act that way if you're not lazy?" "Well, Bert," I said, "I'm so nervous, so scared, that I want to hide my fear from the crowd, and especially from the other players on the team. Besides, I hope that by taking it easy, I'll get rid of my nervousness." "Frank," he said, "it will never work. That's the thing that is holding you down. Whatever you do after you leave here, for heaven's sake, wake yourself up, and put some life and enthusiasm into your work!" I had been making $175 a month at Johnstown. After being fired there, I went down to Chester, Pennsylvania, in the Atlantic League, where they paid me only $25 a month. Well, I couldn't feel very enthusiastic on that kind of money, but I began to act enthusiastic. After I was there three days, an old ball player, Danny Meehan, came to me and said: "Frank, what in the world are you doing down here in a rank bush-league like this?" "Well, Danny," I replied, "if I knew how to get a better job, I'd go anywhere." A week later, Danny induced New Haven, Connecticut, to give me a trial. My first day in New Haven will always stand out in my memory as a great event in my life. No one knew me in that league, so I made a resolution that nobody would ever accuse me of being lazy. I made up my mind to establish the reputation of being the most enthusiastic ball player they'd ever seen in the New England League. I thought if I could establish such a reputation, then I'd have to live up to it. From the minute I appeared on the field, I acted like a man electrified. I acted as though I were alive with a million batteries. I threw the ball around the diamond so fast and so hard that it almost knocked our infielders' hands apart. Once, apparently trapped, I slid into third base with so much energy and force that the third baseman fumbled the ball and I was able to score an important run. Yes, it was all a show, an act I was putting on. The thermometer that day was nearly 100$#176;. I wouldn't have been surprised if I had dropped over with a sunstroke the way I ran around the field. Did it work? It worked like magic. Three things happened: 1. My enthusiasm almost entirely overcame my fear. In fact my nervousness began to work for me, and I played far better than I ever thought I was capable of playing. (If you are nervous be thankful. Don't hold it back. Turn it on. Let your nerves work for you.) 2. My enthusiasm affected the other players on the team, and they too became enthusiastic. 3. Instead of dropping with the heat, I felt better during the game and after it was over than I had ever felt before. My biggest thrill came the following morning when I read in the New Haven newspaper: "This new player, Bettger, has a barrel of enthusiasm. He inspired our boys. They not only won the game, but looked better than at any time this season." The newspapers began calling me "Pep" Bettger -- the life of the team. I mailed the newspaper clippings to Bert Conn, manager of Johnstown. Can you imagine the expression on his face as he read about "Pep" Bettger, the dub he'd tied a can to three weeks before -- for being lazy? Within ten days, enthusiasm took me from $25 a month to $185 a month -- it increased my income by 700 per cent. Let me ???epeat -- nothing but the determination to net enthusiastic increased my income 700 per cent in ten days! I got this stupendous increase in salary not because I could throw a ball better -- or catch or hit better, not because I had any more ability as a ball player. I didn't know any more about baseball than I did before. Two years later -- two years from the time I had been hoping to get $25 a month in that little Chester outfit, I was playing third base for the St. Louis Cardinals and had multiplied my income by thirty times. What did it? Enthusiasm alone did it; nothing but enthusiasm. Two years after that, while playing a game in Chicago against the Chicago Cubs, I had a bad accident. Picking up a swinging bunt while on a full run, I attempted to throw in the opposite direction. Something snapped in my arm. That accident forced me to give up baseball. This seemed like a great tragedy to me at the time, but I now look back on it as one of the most fortunate events of my life. I returned home, and for the next two years made my living riding around the streets of Philadelphia on a bicycle. I was a collector for an installmeat furniture concern; one dollar down and the balance in "uneasy" weekly payments, After two dismal years of collecting installments, I decided to try selling insurance with the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company. The next ten months were the longest and most disheartening months of my life. A dismal failure at selling life insurance, I finally concluded that I was never cut out to be a salesman, and began answering want ads for a job as a shipping clerk. I realized, however, that no matter what work I tried to do, I had to overcome a strange fear-complex that possessed me, so I joined one of Dale Carnegie's courses in public speaking. One night, Mr. Carnegie stopped me in the middle of a talk. "Mr. Bettger," he said. "Just a moment...just a moment. Are you interested in what you are saying?" "Yes...of course I am," I replied. "Well, then," said Mr. Carnegie, "why don't you talk with a little enthusiasm? How do you expect your audience to be interested if you don't put some life and animation into what you say?" Dale Carnegie then gave our class a stirring talk on the power of enthusiasm. He got so excited during his Talk, he threw a chair up against the wall and broke off one of its legs. Before I went to bed that night, I sat for an hour thinking. My thoughts went back to my baseball days at Johnstown and New Haven. For the first time, I realized that the very fault which had threatened to wreck my career in baseball was now threatening to wreck my career as a salesman. The decision I made that night was the turning point of my life. That decision was to stay in the insurance business and put the same enthusiasm into selling that I had put into playing baseball when I joined the New Haven team. I shall never forget the first call I made the next day. It was my first "crashing through" session. I made up my mind that I was going to show my prospect the most enthusiastic salesman he'd ever seen in his life. As I pounded my fist with excitement, I expected every minute to have the man stop me and ask if there was anything wrong with me, but he didn't. At one stage of the interview, I noticed he raised himself to a more erect position and opened his eyes wider, but he never stopped me, except to ask questions. Did he throw me out? No, he bought! This man, Al Emmons, a grain merchant in the Bourse Building, Philadelphia, soon became one of my good friends and best boosters. From that day on, I began to sell. The Magic of Enthusiasm began to work for me in business, just as it had in baseball. I would not want to give anybody the impression that I think enthusiasm consists of fist-pounding...but if fist-pounding is what you need to arouse yourself inside, then I am overwhelmingly for it. I know this: When I force myself to act enthusiastic, I soon feel enthusiastic. During my thirty-two years of selling, I have seen enthusiasm double and treble the income of dozens of salesmen, and I have seen the lack of it cause hundreds of salesmen to fail. I firmly believe enthusiasm is by far the biggest single factor in successful selling. For example, I know a man who is an authority on insurance -- he could even write a book on the subject -- and yet he can't make a decent living selling it. Why? Largely because of his lack of enthusiasm. I know another salesman who didn't know one-tenth as much about insurance, yet he made a fortune selling it, and retired in twenty years. His name is Stanley Gettis. He now lives in Miami Beach, Florida. The reason for his outstanding success was not knowledge -- it was enthusiasm. Can you acquire enthusiasm -- or must you be born with it? Certainly you can acquire it! Stanley Gettis acquired it. He became a human dynamo. How? Just by forcing himself each day to act enthusiastic. As a part of his plan, Stanley Gettis repeated a poem almost every morning for twenty years. He found that repeating it helped him generate enthusiasm for the day. I found this poem so inspiring that I had it printed on a card and gave away hundreds of them. It was written by Herbert Kauffman and has a good title... VICTORY You are the man who used to boast You merely wished a show, Another year we've just passed through. Time...left twelve fresh months in your care We do not find you on the list of Makers Good. Why don't you memorize this poem, and repeat it daily. It may do for you what it did for Stanley Gettis. Once I read a statement made by Walter P. Chrysler. I was so impressed by it, I carried it in my pocket for a week. I'll bet I read it over forty times, until I knew it by heart, I wish every salesman would memorize it. Walter Chrysler, when asked to give the secret of success, listed the various qualities, such as ability, capacity, energy, but added that the real secret was enthusiasm. "Yes, more than enthusiasm," said Chrysler, "I would say excitement. I like to see men get excited. When they get excited, they get customers excited, and we get business." Enthusiasm is by far the highest paid quality on earth, probably because it is one of the rarest; yet it is one of the most contagious. H you are enthusiastic, your listener is very likely to become enthusiastic, even though you may present your ideas poorly. Without enthusiasm, your sales talk is about as dead as last year's turkey. Enthusiasm isn't merely an outward expression. Once you begin to acquire it, enthusiasm works constantly within you. You may be sitting quietly in your home..an idea occurs to you...that idea begins to develop...finally, you become consumed with enthusiasm...nothing can stop you. It will help you overcome fear, become more successful in business, make more money, enjoy a healthier, richer and happier life. When can you begin? Right now. Just say to yourself, "This is one thing I can do." How can you begin? There is just one rule: To become enthusiastic -- act enthusiastic. Put this rule into action for thirty days and be prepared to see astonishing results. It may easily revolutionize your entire life. Stand up on your hind legs each morning, and repeat with powerful gestures and all the enuthusiasm you can generate, these words: Force yourself to act enthusiastic, and you'll become enthusiastic! I urge you to reread many times this chapter by Frank Bettger, and to make a high and holy resolve than you will double the amount of enthusiasm that you have been putting into your work and into your life. If you carry out that resolve, you will probably double your income and double your happiness. Copyright © 1947 by Prentice Hall Press
That you'd achieve the uttermost,
Some day.
To demonstrate how much you know
And prove the distance you can go....
What new ideas came to you?
How many big things did you do?
How many of them did you share
With opportunity and dare
Again where you so often missed?
Explain the fact!
Ah no, 'twas not the chance you lacked!
As usual -- you failed to act!
Dale Carnegie
This is the first book that I have rated 5 stars across the board. It was written based on the early 1900's but just goes to show you the basics of business, promotion, and selling have not changed and are all valid today. Bettger gives creative incites, idea's and visualizations to teach the content. He has beautifully written this educational book as a story, which is a major key in keeping the readers attention. I recommend this book for anyone in business or works in a relationship based business. William Avon, LUTCF - WilliamAvon.com
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Fri Jan 06 00:00:00 EST 2006
This was the first book I have read on sales and sales techniques and I was thoroughly impressed. Bettger presents timeless techniques that will work for anyone in sales, who's not afraid to try. He gives examples of all his techniques and how he put them to use for himself and the results that each turned out. I learned so much from this book that I am very excited to put to use in my profession. I Reccomend this to anyone who wants to improve their sales numbers immediately.
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Posted Wed Oct 08 00:00:00 EDT 2003
When a book receives hearty endorsements from Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale, it is hard to question its merit. What amazes me about this book is how gracefully it has aged. Even though this book was published in 1947, it is based on timeless principles that are just as effective today as the day they were written. The language that Frank Bettger uses has travelled the years quite nicely; many books from this era contain long-lost expressions and dated language that make them less relatable -- not so here. Only the dollar figures used in the real life examples give the age of the book away. Bettger's friendly, conversational style makes this an easy read. This book works because it is principle-based and backed up with real life illustrations covering both the 'what to do' and 'what not to do' ends of the spectrum. Truly a classic, the applications in this book go beyond sales to have a positive effect on all aspects of your life. Larry Hehn, Author of Get the Prize: Nine Keys for a Life of Victory
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Posted Sun Feb 25 00:00:00 EST 2001
Get this book - it will help you immensly. I have just finished it and I plan to read it over and over again. It will become the standard by which you judge all other self help selling books. Oh yeah, buy a new highlighter - you'll need it.
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Posted Thu Aug 24 00:00:00 EDT 2000
Rather than simply giving you information, Bettger tells you his story and how he learned what he learned. He tells you what he did and how it worked. This book comes from an era before slick and hype. Bettger is straightforward, honest, and sincerely trying to help the reader, and if you're a salesman, I think this book should be part of your core library. Bettger doesn't worry about superficial techniques for closing the sale. As any really successful salesman knows, you have to be honest and sincere to be great at selling, and that's where this book comes from. You'll get deep principles rather than manipulative tricks. I'm the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, and I'm an expert on what works and what doesn't. The principles in Bettger's book work, not just in selling, but in life.
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Overview
A business classic endorsed by Dale Carnegie, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling is for anyone whose job it is to sell. Whether you are selling houses or mutual funds, advertisements or ideas—or anything else—this book is for you.
When Frank Bettger was twenty-nine he was a failed insurance salesman. By the time he was forty he owned a country estate and could have retired. What are the selling secrets that turned Bettger’s life around from defeat to ...