Customer Reviews

Rich Dad Advisor's Series®: SalesDogs: You Do Not Have to Be an Attack Dog to Be Successful in Sales

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki, so I thought this book would be insightful, given it is published as part of the RIch Dad Poor Dad series of books. I was wrong. Singer tries to explain sales using the metaphor of different dog breeds to describe five different 'types' of sales person's selling style. While I'm sure Singer is excellent at what he does, his knowledge of sales is lost because the overcooked metaphors and analogies strain the credibility of the message. 150 pages of general talk about Golden Retrievers and Pit Bulls and Chihuahuas and Top Dogs was just too much for me to extract anything useful given the amount of mental work that would be required to translate everything into real sales terms. And the connection to "Rich Dad Poor Dad" consists of less than one page. Avoid this clunker.

I haven't yet begun a career in sales, but I am going to begin tis summer. In preparation I have been reading books that I think will help me. So some of the ideas he talks about were harder for me to relate to, but he explains everything really well. The first part of the book, identifying which breed you are, was the most difficult for me to figure out, because I haven't tried to sell anything yet. But the rest of the book, I enjoyed immensely. My sales manager has been talking to me about dealing with rejection and objections, and Singer goes into great detail about how to deal with both. Additionally, Singer stresses the importance of a positive outlook.

Some of this book was over my head, but I plan to read it again at the end of the summer. Even though some of it was hard for me to relate to, he did a great job explaining what it takes to be a successful salesman. He also does a great job of building anticipation for a career in sales. The book is well written and easy to read.

I was first captivated by the title of this book and then was drawn in
more deeply by the no-nonsense approach I read throughout.

I actually laughed outloud about some of the Myths about
Selling which are argued (humorously -- I might add) with
facts.

Ahhh, I have heard this one COUNTLESS times before:

"What does selling have to do with building businesses,
managing people, raising money and investing?"

Rich Dad's answer -- "EVERYTHING!"

I also appreciate the section on who your most important sales
contract is with... YOURSELF... as you are your own harshest
critic, your own most difficult client and your own
personal objection and rejection machine -- all wrapped up
in ONE body!

The Five Sales Dog types are outlined more fully in the book
but even in their titles you may begin to recognize yourself
AND your staff (if you are a manager.)

Pit Bull - stereotypical, aggressive sales person

Golden Retriever - bundles of love customer service is everything
BEGS for the PRIVILEGE of selling to YOU, my fav customer!

Poodle -- Intellectual and high strung with the focus on looking good....

Chihuahua -- Don't be fooled by their small stature, they have TEETH!

Basset hound -- they look like they will roll over and take anything, what
they are really doing is building long term, loyal relationships.

and then... there are the BIG DOGS.....

The Sales People who want the biggest stage, the brightest lights,
the packed crowds and the FAST TRACK DEALS. They will put them
together, get the signature and for goodness sakes, get someone
else to follow up.....

The book goes on to teach the reader how to leverage their own
Sales Dog style to make the most of the bottom line.

With this book you can learn a LOT and enjoy the lessons as
you go. Its all delivered in the Rich Dad style PLUS yes, there
is even a free audio download available.....

A sure winner -- "The Dog's Have it!"

This is a good PR book for small and medium business owners, especially retailing, e.g. flower shop, grocery shop, etc¡K

As a business owner, you may have to do many messy stuff that they just stop you from thinking ways for your shops to make more money. This book will really touch your nerve, ¡§Ops¡KI should have thought of this long time before, why I cannot think of it?¡ E.g. invite media to have a shop visit of your candy shop; contact reporter for the latest promotion that you shop is running; promoting your product in newsgroup; organize a ¡§one-day¡ tour with a community organization for seniors if you are engaging in travel business, etc.

PR beginners would appreciate this book very much as it provides tips for practicing PR that some other PR books may overlook. E.g. tips for dealing with media, and preparing speech, etc. This is actually a PR handbook with blanks for you to fill in so that you can participate in the book and find your own way to do PR with its guidance.

I like the 12-week plan at the end of the book as it even prepares a matrix for you to fill in your PR plan in 12-week. It pushes people to take action right after finishing the book.

This is a great book. I am new in Direct Sales and this has helped me tremendously. I now know how to target prospective clients and identify their natural tendencies. This helps me out on how to sell to certain 'breeds' of clients and how to close them. This is GREAT!!! Thanks Blair Singer.

I probably read 100 or more books each year, including a significant number of business and sales books. I enjoyed some of Robert Kiyosaki's other advisor books, but this one really [is bad].

It is full of vague analogies to whatever kind of "dog" you are -the point that you do not have to be aggressive to be in sales is also foolish and false. You can certainly bring your own personality to sales or any other profession, and you SHOULD, but all this psychobabble about "being your own dog" or whatever is just that - silly psychobabbly designed to seperate you from your money and put it in an author's pocket who really has nothing useful to say.

If you really want to learn something about selling that you can actually USE, read Zig Ziglar's "Sales 101" or Donald Moine's "Ultimate Selling Power".

I have read this book in its original incarnation. Apparently the Rich Dad's publishing is going after several good books and reprinting them.

This book does an interesting job of breaking down salesmen into various dog analogies. From French poodles to dalmations and even golden retrievers the author carries the theme throughout the book.

In his bid to develop sales archetypes his work comes off a little shallow. Mr. Singer even concedes that a good salesman is a combination of archetypes and will find themselves having to strech their natural archetypes to fit the sales situation they are in.

It's a good read, I just don't know how appropriate it is for a sales book to be in the "Rich Dad's" series.

Well written with some interesting theories and ideas. But there is nothing here that will help you do your job better, serve your clients and customers better or most importantly go to the bank more often. Some of the ideas and analysis about personality types may be useful to sales managers, but that's about it. If you're looking for good nuts and bolts stuff that you can put to use tomorrow look into Schiffman or Sandler.

I am a person that was (is) in sales and am not a manager. This book can be helpful for those new to sales, and help them find or become more aware of the style that works best for them. Some of the pooches described in this book I've worked with, such as the Poodle and Golden Retriever, for example. A person can also innately have some of the elements of more than one or each pooch.

The most important thing I like from this book was the fact that there is no one particular style or character trait to be successful in sales. In certain industries with certain products and clients one breed will in general be more conducive to positive results than others. But the main point is that there is no perfect way (i.e., the Pit Bull) to achieve your goals. Each person is an individual and they can recognize and improve their natural strengths they posses as well as import a couple of characteristics from other breeds of pooch.

Another great book that notes the disadvantages of the Pit Bull is "Low Profile Selling," by Tom Hopkins. He uses the metaphor "Act like a lamb, sell like a Lion."

Sales Dogs is the most common information on the personality types a sales team will have. The book is geared more toward management of a sales team. Blair Singer took basic sales management and tried to make it interesting by talking about dogs. This would be a good book for a first-year college course on sales management (same material from a first-year sales management textbook). For someone brand new to sales this would be a good start.