Book Cover

People don’t like to be sold, but they do like shopping with friends.

# Review

Serhant is one of the top real estate agents in NYC and consequently one of the top salespersons in the world. I’m trying to get better at sales so I picked up this book to learn from Serhant’s sales techniques. In this book Serhant describes his sales background and progress, from someone who is shy and unable to rent out small apartments, to someone who is comfortable juggling and closing multiple multi million dollar deals at once.

The book is very colloquial so it’ll be accessible by almost anyone. I like how Serhant does not approach his success from a pretentious perspective, and instead opts for a relatable angle. In fact, after reading this book, sales is much less daunting and much more approachable. In the book Serhant illustrates many of his sales principles with quirky anecdotes, from meeting a very sketchy buyer in Europe to his hyper disciplined daily schedule (waking up at 4AM). My key takeaways are:

• Sales is about talking and connecting with people; there’s no way around it. Serhant talks about all the places he has serendipitously met clients, from grocery store lines to fancy gyms. In fact, Serhant chats with people in the gym so much that he actually goes to multiple gyms (and to also work out). Serhant also recommends taking improv classes to be more comfortable at dealing with awkward conversations.

• Being relentless is necessary to be successful at sales. Ryan is constantly doing something that pushes the ball forward, be it sending out emails or calling clients. I like the idea of constantly keeping multiple balls in the air at once. The more balls that one can juggle without dropping any, the more deals one can eventually close.

• Serhant also describes many sales frameworks, such as the seven emotional stages that customers go through for a large purchase (excitement, frustration, fear, disappointment, acceptance, happiness, relief). Serhant also describes frameworks to help people sell better. One of them is the Push, Pull, Persist framework for moving the deal forward; Push is guiding the client towards the right direction, Pull is taking away the deal to bring urgency, and Persist is consistently nudging the client (once a day). Another model is the Follow up, Follow through, and Follow back; Follow up is keeping consistent communications with clients (with value), Follow through is actually doing what you promise (sending listings/info consistently if the client asks for it), and Follow back is reaching out after the deal has closed or even if the deal fell apart (happy birthday emails).

One thing I really appreciate about the book is Serhant’s views on the emotional and human side of selling, which I find is often overlooked. On top of sales advice, Serhant also gives general life advice, such as the importance of doing important things first and recognizing fences (can be climbed over) versus walls (must move away from). I personally found the non-sales advice to be generic but I did enjoy the anecdotes.

# Conclusion

A very good book for a novice salesman like me, but seasoned salespeople may find it basic.

# Overall rating: 8.1

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