Sell or Be Sold(2)
As I wrote these books, I learned a great deal about what people could actually use, what was working, and, because of the input from people reading my books, I learned what they needed help with.
Sell to Survive has never been sold in a bookstore, yet it reached the top 1 percent of all self-published books by word of mouth alone. I have personally received comments and questions from thousands of people because of this book. As many of these readers have stated, this book turned their sales careers around completely. Others who did not consider themselves in sales suggested that this book allowed them to see where they had been missing it in their career with their goals to expand their businesses.
I believe Sell to Survive to be the most important book written on selling in the last fifty years and vital to every person who is interested in making their dreams a reality. We have taken that book and reworked it, added material, updated it, and retitled it: Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life.
Enjoy,
Grant Cardone
CHAPTER ONE
SELLING—A WAY OF LIFE
SELLING IS A PREREQUISITE FOR LIFE
Selling impacts every person on this planet. Your ability or inability to sell, persuade, negotiate, and convince others will affect every area of your life and will determine how well you survive.
No matter what your title or position is in life, or what your role is in a company or on a team, you will at some point have to convince others of something.
Selling is used every day by every person on this planet. No one is excluded. Selling is not just a job or a career; selling is essential to the survival and well-being of every living individual. Your ability to do well in life depends on your ability to sell others on the things in which you believe! You need to know how to negotiate and how to get agreement from others. The ability to get others to like you, work with you, and want to please you determines how well you will survive. Selling is not just a job—selling is a way of life!
Selling (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary): The action of persuading or influencing another to a course of action or to the acceptance of something.
Who does this not affect?
When I say “selling,” I’m talking about anything having to do with convincing, persuading, negotiating, or just getting your way. This could include debating, getting along with others, exchanging goods or services, convincing a girl to go out with you, buying or selling a home, convincing the bank to give you a loan, starting your own business, persuading others to support your ideas, or getting a customer to buy a product from you.
It is said that the number one reason a business or an individual fails is undercapitalization. Not so! The truth is, businesses fail first and foremost because their ideas weren’t sold quickly enough and in quantities great enough, and therefore they ran out of money. No business owner can build a business without understanding this critical element called selling! Think of any action in life, and I assure you that there’s someone at one end or the other trying to influence the outcome.
An example: A golfer has a six-foot putt. He putts the ball and then does everything he can to persuade that ball to go into the hole. He talks to it, he pleads with it, he makes motions with his hands, and he might even whisper a little prayer that the ball will drop. All the while, his opponent stands across from him and does the exact opposite. This example demonstrates that every one of us is always trying to influence a certain outcome.
The degree to which you can influence the outcome of events in your life is the determining factor of your success. Those individuals who don’t want to trust their fate to pleading, wishing, praying, and hoping must learn to persuade, convince, and negotiate successfully.
No matter who you are or what you do, you’re selling something. It doesn’t matter whether or not you call yourself a salesperson because you’re either selling something or someone is selling you. Either way, one of the parties is going to influence the outcome, and it will either be you getting your way or the other guy getting his way.
A sale is made in every exchange of ideas or communication—there are no exceptions. Deny it if you will, but that won’t change the facts. You’re a salesperson, and you’re one every single day of your life. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, I assure you that you’re trying to get your way. The fact that you don’t have the title “salesperson” or that you aren’t being paid a commission is only a technical issue. You’re still a salesperson—and commissions come in many forms.
THE COMMISSION
Speaking of commissions: Every time you get your way, you’ve just been paid a commission. Not all payments are monetary. Some of the greatest achievements I’ve had in my life had nothing to do with money. Recognition for a job well done is a commission. A raise or a promotion at work is a commission. Gaining new friends is an incredible commission. Getting votes for a project you’re pushing forward is a commission.