There have been many great books written on the subject of sales, however most of these books are either “How to” books or “Motivational/Self Help books. As a professional salesperson, sales trainer, sales manager, founder and CEO of my own companies, I’ve learned over many years the more effective yet subtle ways of training sales people. “Selling the Wheel…” was written to entertain while it trains. The combination of reading an enjoyable story while at the same time learning a valuable lesson helps make the lesson more “bearable” as well as enjoyable.
The profession of sales is just that, a “profession”. As a profession, like all other professions, there are basic rules to apply. As a sales trainer I’ve witnessed fantastic results with sales people that simply knew and followed the basics. The basics taught in this story are known as “The Sales Cycle”. The Sales Cycle is a sequence of actions that must be followed religiously in order for a sale to be brought to fruition.
The story begins with a young struggling salesman, named Johnny, fortuitously meeting a successful older salesman, named Chance. Parts of Johnny’s story reflect some of my own personal experiences as a young, inexperienced salesman. Chance takes Johnny under his wing and begins to mentor him on what it takes to be successful in sales. As a part of the mentoring process, Chance shares a story with Johnny, a story that’s been passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation of salesperson. The story Chance shares is the main body of our story, the story within the story, and that is the “Story of Ug….”
About “Ug” the Caveman
“Ug is a caveman from a long ago place known as The Valley of the Sun. Ug is also an inventor who accidentally invents the wheel. Knowing that this great new invention could revolutionize the world as we know it, Ug decides with the help of some of his companions to take his new invention to other nearby villages in an effort to create commerce by trading his new invention for other goods. Ug takes his efforts first to the Village of Grump- where he encounters resistance not only to his offer, but also to the presence of himself and his men. Upon returning to his own village, without having made a trade with the Village of Grump, Ug, also an inventor of new words coins a new phrase to describe the grump villagers- and hence came the term, “grumpy”.
Ug realizes that something is missing in his efforts to trade wheels for other goods. He consults with the village elder, a wise old fellow named Al, and realizes that his failures at the Village of Grump came about from a lack of knowledge of how to properly greet the people of that village. From there, the first step of the sales cycle is discovered by Ug, that one must “Properly Greet Others”. The story continues with many such discoveries by Ug.
Faced with failure and the deteriorating morale of his own men, Ug gives them a speech. In Ug’s speech the men hear an enthusiasm and drive in Ug’s words and tone of voice like no other they’d ever heard. Ug’s words were spiritually uplifting while he touted the tremendous benefits of this new “motive” power provided by this tremendous innovation (the wheel). As Ug is able to greatly lift the spirits of his men with his speech about the great motive power and innovation Ug realizes that there is no word yet that describes this type of speech. He runs through its components in his mind- motive and innovation, motive, innovation- MOTIVATION!!! And, hence, a new word is born. The story is filled with many other words and terms that Ug happens upon.
The rest of the book finds Ug, chapter by chapter discovering each step of the sales cycle. In the end, Ug has the revelation that perhaps an even greater invention than the wheel itself is the process of sales, the Sales Cycle. Like the wheel, Ug realizes, sales is a cycle that starts at one point and makes a revolution all the way back to the beginning again.
The story is designed for the reading pleasure and education of new sales people and seasoned professionals. Because of the pure entertainment value and lessons to be learned from this book it may will have mass appeal to readers beyond just a sales audience. The appeal will be to readers of nearly all ages and will include salespeople, corporate executives, entrepreneurs and students. The reader will derive great pleasure from the story, and learn great lessons about what it takes to be successful in sales and learn the sales cycle- a key basic for all salespeople to master.
