The field of books about sales and ‘how to’ sales guides is a cluttered one. With GET IN THE SALES GAME though, Susan “Sweet Sue” Kouchis has identified an interesting gap in the market: a book about how to refine your approach to sales to maximize your success at a time when the Coronavirus pandemic has shifted the goalposts for how we conduct business in all sorts of industries all around the world. It’s an intriguing premise, and there can be no doubt about Kouchis being well placed to share her knowledge and insights and tell this story. Her sales career is certainly a highly successful one, with a thirty-five year track record of big deals in the logistics industry with roles that have included local sales, global sales, national sales, sales manager, and sales director.
There’s some interesting ideas on how to use digital platforms, such as LinkedIn, to network and sell when Coronavirus has so limited face-to-face business. Kouchis shares her success with these methods, and walks the reader through the processes involved in one of the sections of the book that is most easily applicable to a sales professional. It’s also interesting to see that Kouchis attributes much of her success to simple things like eating well, exercising, and quality time with family and friends. To some it might come across as new age-y, or not relevant to the cut and thrust world of sales, but it’s refreshing to hear how these fundamental aspects of healthy living have had such a dramatic effect on her career and life. Almost above all else here, Kouchis advocates eating and living in the right way.
GET IN THE SALES is a very short book, coming in at around 50 pages or so. But this only further highlights some of the strange editorial decisions. Issues with the text include very little in the way of flow–rather it jumps around between ideas and themes, giving it the feel of a slightly random collection of blog posts or diary entries. It’s a shame too, because Kouchis clearly is supremely knowledgeable, a bonafide expert in her field. But her message doesn’t quite carry the punch it should due to these oversights. It should be mentioned though that Kouchis, to her immense credit, is donating all profits from the book to the Outreach Program, and their local affiliate, Feed6.
Susan Kouchis shares some interesting experiences from her remarkable sales career in GET IN THE SALES GAME, but their impact is diluted somewhat by odd editing and a scattergun approach.
~Joseph Sharratt for Indie Reader