Bull's-Eye Negotiating

Charles I. Wilson is a Toronto-based business consultant.

Real estate has provided some glorious highs and some depressing lows
both for those who have held it and for those who have made their living
selling it. In these two well-written and well-organized books, Marilyn
Jennings documents the program that has led to her remarkable success as
a professional real-estate salesperson who earns in excess of $700,000 a
year working only six months of the year, and has “accomplished this
without running a single newspaper advertisement, without ever sitting
at a public open house and seldom starting to work before lunch time.”


In Championship Selling, she describes her system, which consists of
three elements: an effective client-retention program, an active
referral system, and efficient time management. While not entirely new,
her approach is presented in a readable, punchy, and inspirational
fashion. Two chapters in particular—“The Buyer Interview” and
“Personal Promotion”—are must-reading for anyone seriously
interested in rising to the top of the profession. Jennings considers
personal promotion to have been the source of much of her success (e.g.,
the more than 200 “Mini-Rallies” she holds each year, and her
availability as a consultant).

Bull’s-Eye Negotiating is aimed at the real-estate industry, which,
in Jennings’s opinion, has done “a poor job of teaching salespeople
how to become good negotiators.” While every real-estate salesperson
should benefit from her experiences, the book will probably be of
greatest value to those who are new to the business. Her anecdotal style
and her role-playing approach to a range of situations make the volume
an indispensable teaching aid.