A writer of novels, plays, poems, and short stories, author James Howard has shown he knows his way around a pen, but in this first non-fiction book he draws from his 30 years of experience in business and manufacturing. His work in industrial maintenance, management, purchasing, inventory management, and counter sales has brought him into a wide variety of sales people. Of his experiences he says, I am not a salesperson, nor have I ever been a salesperson. However, I believe that I have a strong history of sales experiences that make me uniquely qualified to write this little book. For I have been a customer. Allow me to explain. For many years I was employed, both as a worker and as a manager, of an in-house machinery repair shop in a large industrial facility. Over a million of dollars of parts and equipment flowed through our operation annually and hundreds of sales people called on us over the years. Some were professional and knowledgeable. Some were decent but could've used some improvement. But some, I'm sorry to say, were utterly hopeless. Every time I would conclude a visit by one of the latter I would inevitably say aloud, 'One day I'm going to write a book about salesmanship from the customer's perspective.' And here it is. Maybe my experiences can help hard working sales people, and maybe everyone can get a laugh along the way. As to the Quintessential Salesperson, there is one I regarded as the best in the trade and I frequently referred to him by that title. But frankly, there were others who were of the right stuff, too, so for my book the Quintessential Salesperson will be a conglomeration of them all. I would often confer with them regarding the events which prompted this book so in that sense the tips from the Quintessential Salesperson are from real salespeople, often verbatim. I hope these true stories make you smile... and make you think! So, come get a perspective from the other side of the desk with 10 Sales Tips. You'll be glad you did!