Unlike books that teach marketing principles and how to sell, this one focuses on the art rather than the science of selling. It's a loosely structured compilation of stories of how a variety of people in diverse industries, of various cultures, and with different educational backgrounds get customers to buy. Readers can learn proven sales techniques employed by some of the world's best salespeople, like the successful, self-taught Moroccan merchant Magid, who listens well and uses patience and psychology to assess customers and their motivations in order to close a sale. The message is this: there is no one right way to sell. From famous international infomercial pitchman Tony Sullivan, to Mrs. Shibata (top insurance salesperson at Japan's Dai-ichi Life), to the popular Dale Carnegie, to the unconventional sales trainer Jeffrey Gitomer, their unique personal styles and techniques are effective. Given that sales are such a vital function of business, Broughton highlights the absence of sales curricula at business schools and makes the case that sales education should be included in academia.--Kryszak, Cindy Copyright 2010 Booklist

Daily Telegraph journalist Broughton (Ahead of the Curve: Two Years At Harvard Business School, 2008) explains why that's a big problem. For the author, sales is where the rubber hits the road, where the deals are done. If a business can't sell its product, of course, it won't survive. More Americans are employed in sales than any other line of work. Not to be confused with marketing, the author's definition of sales goes from his sons' lemonade stand to the Dalai Lama representing the Tibetan people against Chinese repression. Broughton has met with top sellers around the world, traveling to Japan, Morocco and the United Kingdom in search of the keys to success in sales. In addition to his interview research, he examines academic studies, history, self-help literature, academic research on the psychology of selling and the character attributes of sales people. He explores the differences in theory and practice, and he draws from the history of the field, by way of P.T. Barnum and Joseph Duveen, who brought fine-art sales to the U.S. Broughton does not exclude the seamy underside--e.g., pharmaceutical companies recruiting college cheerleaders to "sell" their products to the country's doctors, who "buy more and prescribe more to please ex-cheerleaders than they do for salesmen who look like themselves"--but he supplies plenty of success stories, including Ted Turner, casino magnate Steve Wynn and former AOL executive Ted Leonsis. Entertaining, balanced and provocative.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Mention the word "sales," and generally there is one of two reactions: the first negative, with reasons embodied in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman; and the second positive, reflecting an understanding of how selling relates to life. Broughton was an international journalist who reported from more than 25 countries before entering Harvard Business School's MBA program. Noting that "selling is the horse that pulls the cart of business," he expected sales courses to be part of his curriculum. They were not, and he discovered "selling is an orphan in business academe." Considering that no payroll exists unless sales are made, from a business perspective selling is the foundation to success. Broughton delves further into this topic and concludes that "we are selling all the time," in life as well as in business. He supports this claim with numerous thought-provoking interviews with people the world over (well-known individuals as well as successful unknowns), discussing what selling has done for them both professionally and personally. This is not a "how-to-sell" book, but rather an enlightening exploration to help readers understand what selling means in life as well as in business. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduate students through professionals and general readers. D. N. Roesemann Texas State University

According to Broughton (former New York & Paris bureau chief, Daily Telegraph; Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School), "Sales surrounds us. Many of our choices in life come down to this: sell or be sold to." Describing sales as "nothing more than the purely human ordeal of rejection and acceptance," he explains that the book's object is to "sort through the paradoxes and difficulties of this most fascinating of professions." Broughton uses case studies and real-life examples to study the art of salesmanship, including stories about such various figures as a merchant from Morocco he met as a young man, infomercial pitchman Anthony Sullivan, Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff, and the author's Harvard Business School professor and Yankee Group founder Howard Anderson. Much of the material in the book comes from Broughton's interviews with salespeople, though he also refers to the philosophies of sales legends like Billy Mays, P.T. Barnum, and Mary Kay Ash. VERDICT A thought-provoking guide on the world of salesmanship from philosophy to practical case studies, this should fill a need for business students studying marketing and for those considering going into sales or just improving general salesmanship skills. Recommended.-Lucy T. Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Though we normally don't think of Nelson Mandela as a salesman, persuading white South Africans to end apartheid was one of the great sales campaigns in recent history. Journalist Delves Broughton (Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School) thinks salesmanship deserves more respect, though he freely admits that the few times he was called upon to sell, he hated it. Integral to any successful business, selling is seldom taught in business school, perhaps because M.B.A. programs prefer to paint a less brutal vision of business life. This exploration of the nature of salesmanship begins in Morocco, where Delves Broughton meets Majid, a world-renowned antiques dealer, who suggests that the art of the sale lies in patience and the ability to instantly read people. For infomercial-king Tony Sullivan, the art lies in the ability to tell an irresistible story, while Japan's top life insurance salesperson, Mrs. Shibata, credits her conviction that she's performing a valuable service. Like Malcolm Gladwell, Delves Broughton is drawn to success stories where natural talent takes second place to hard work, but he's also willing to explore the manipulative, deceptive aspects of the task, as well as the endless rejection salespeople must face. His enthusiasm and admiration for skilled practitioners of the art is contagious. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.