If You’re Not First You’re Last: Sales Strategies to Dominate Your Market and Beat Your Competition by Grant Cardone book review

By Grant Cardone NY Times Best-Seller and serves as the playbook for boosting sales, increasing margins, and creating new opportunities no matter the economy.

You will find this and other book reviews from Grant Cardone and others Here

There are nineteen chapters with conclusion, afterword, glossary and index, and like the rest of Grant’s books, at the end of each chapter, there are excises to make sure you have comprehended the key concepts.

This book was written a few years after the 2008 housing and bank crisis and as such deals with strategies on how to cope in an economic recession.

The first chapter is about four categories of responses to economics downturns in the economy and the fourth choice is Grants choice on how to handle the outlook. So while other business contract and retreat, Grant suggests you advance and conquer, focusing all your resources to achieve this objective.

In (UK only) HardBack on Kindle on AudioBook

In the USA Hardback on  MP3

 

The next two chapters are about revitalising your personal power base and your past client base, this not necessarily about selling but about letting them know your still in the market to personal contacts and to your past customers, to keep you in mind if they need the product or service you have to offer.

The next chapter suggest that making personal visits to past clients makes all the difference to keeping you in their thoughts, next time they make a purchase for goods and or service you (and others) may sell, they will think of you first.

Next is converting the unsold, according to Grant, eighty percent of sales are done on the fifth call to businesses, so go back over your unsold clients and keep selling to them.

The next suggestion is multiplying sales through existing clients, referrals are so important, replacing clients with new prospects is vital, so don’t be afraid to ask for help, its part and parcel of relationships you need to build up your revenue cycle.

One of the most important chapters of the book is delivering at “wow” levels. Here Grant suggests most company sales people (no matter what the product, service or idea) end up with average sales pitch and service delivery to prospective clients. If people sell based on price alone, there is only one way it’s going to go and that is down.

 Grant suggests you can never create a “wow” experience based on price; it has to giving the best service delivery giving more monies worth through going the extra mile for the client. Remember “Wowed” clients are the best way to organically grow your customer base, through word of mouth, rather than deep discounts of price, diminishing it true value to the customer.

 

The importance of price, is a universal sales issue and even more so in times of economic decline. Here Grant suggests not to go down to the lowest price but build the value of the product, service or idea and then give the customer, prospect or client, the confidence in you, that you have the solution to their problems.

 Grant has a Rule “Money will find what people perceive as value; not the lowest price” Grant goes through five steps (you will have to buy the book or listen to the MP3 to find these) to increase value of the product, service or idea on page ninety four of this book.

In chapter nine Grant suggest that many sales people don’t pushed enough for the second sale, do this only after closing the first sales, activating the second sales will boost profits.

In chapter ten Grant talks about adding value to the sale or product but never lower price, adding value or promoting the unique selling point, without costing any additional money will increase revenue ( note this is not part of a second sale don’t confuse them) suggests Grant.

Grant goes on to say in chapter eleven, always be keen for business always “act hungry” even when you are not, keep gaining market share. Grant says you must keep your eye on the future in order to have one. So turn your hunger to a close.

Expanding your acceptable client profile, is next in chapter twelve, were Grant talks about why businesses in a contracting market should not just keep to the usual client profile, rather they should look at all parts of the segments of the market, in order to keep the sales revenue occurring in the future, don’t let your pride lose business opportunities.

Next is chapter thirteen, here Grant talks about effective Marketing Campaigns, it’s a mistake not to keep advertising suggest Grant, business should advance and conquer rather than retract from marketing campaigns, businesses should do more in times of downturn in the economy not less! In that campaign you also market yourself, you should always make yourself invaluable.

In chapter fourteen Grant talks about repackaging for increased profits, or how to resell whole products as individual portioned products to gain more sales. An example would be a video of a seminar, sold a s also a webinar and then the video can be turned in to an Mp3 audio product, turned into eBooks and even podcasts, that were of the video/ webinar of the seminar, can be sold as standalone products, all these new products from the same source re-purposed.

In chapter fifteen Grant deals with the power schedule, this is needed to keep you and your business focused and productive, says Grant. 

A disciplined schedule strategy is vital and the first part is the time you go to bed and the time you wake up must set and adhered as getting the right amount of sleep will give you energy for the next day.

Then schedule the rest of your time around the important parts of your business while always looking for opportunities, making sure fifty percent of your time is in front of clients making sales. Grant goes on to list other helpful examples and list his own schedule.

Next Grant talks about having an advance and conquer attitude, always, always, always have a positive optimistic attitude and gives nine tips on how to achieve this emphasizing  never to have a negative one. 

In chapter seventeen freedom financial plan, Grant says that people don’t know the language of money, and that you don’t necessarily need a collage degree , however you do know how to earn money, how to keep it without losing it and how to make it multiply. Grant gives advice on the subject, stating you must have financial (as well as business) goals. 

In chapter eighteen called the most important skill needed to advance and conquer, Grant suggests selling is the most vital component of business without income there will be no business and in order to generate sales, the sales force most have training and constant practice to keep up the skill.

In chapter nineteen Grant talks about an “Unreasonable Attitude” and having the right type of attitude in sales is something, Grant returns to, in all of his books; no sales equals no income. 

The last chapter of the “If you’re not first you’re last” sales to dominate your market and beat your competition is called “how to guarantee your position, in which Grant suggest that people take on board all the useful advice expressed in the book and apply it, taking action, be relentless, be unreasonable in your belief in what you can do and offer your clients, and advance and conquer your sales, be so valuable, being held in such high regard, that you will always have a place in the organisation.

In (UK only) HardBack on Kindle on AudioBook

In the USA Hardback on  MP3 

This book review and my book reviews of best selling author Grant Cardone and others, can be found Here