A Summary of The One Minute Salesperson by Spencer Johnson

As a sales coach and author, I always advise anyone interested in becoming a high-performing artist to “read more.” I often find that this advice is not as easy to follow as it sounds; We all have other commitments that make it difficult to spend time opening a book. But when it comes to Spencer Johnson’s “The One Minute Salesperson,” he has no excuse: the book is just 100 pages long.

In addition to being a speed read, it has an entertaining story, revolving around a young salesman who decides to track down the mythical colleague who is said to be a master of sales. Along the way, he learns an important lesson from this other man: that we’ve all been selling our entire lives, whether we know it or not.

Think about that for a moment: When you were a kid, you convinced your parents to let you have ice cream or to stay awake a little after bedtime. You’ve sold out to your friends in your favorite band or restaurant, and probably more than a few people for all the reasons they should consider dating you. The impact of Spencer Johnson’s message here is profound: We are all natural salespeople, in one way or another, we just have to let our natural abilities come to the fore.

The second key lesson the young salesperson learns is that imagining a successful outcome is an important step in achieving it. In other words, if you can see success in your mind, then you are well on your way to achieving it.

That idea is a constant theme in my own books, as well as many of the best sellers in the sales category. There is a good reason for this: It works. You will constantly find that the best in every field, from sales to medicine to athletics, all have a habit of imagining themselves succeeding. After that, they just have to follow the pattern that they have created in their minds.

And finally, the third important point that Dr. Johnson leaves readers with is that in order for a salesperson to turn his daily grind job into a pleasure, he must learn to step out of his own perspective. In other words, they need to see the world through their customers’ shoes.

As with the other points, this is something that should be reminded from time to time to any salesperson who is serious about becoming a high-performance salesperson. People don’t buy for our reasons, but for theirs. As soon as we know what they really want, we can help them find it … and shouldn’t that always be our goal as marketers?

The One Minute Salesperson by Spencer Johnson is a fantastic read for any salesperson, sales manager, or professional who needs to bring new accounts and income to a business. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I encourage you to spend an hour or two on this sales classic.