Win-Win Sales Management: A Powerful New Approach For Increasing Sales From Your Team - By Pat Weymes Oak Tree Press, £19.95

Customers are suspicious of salesmen. The image of the oily bloke using well-worn but effective techniques to part the public from their cash for something they didn't want is as old as second-hand car industry.

The telephone call in the middle of your favourite programme, the anxious young man doing a survey that needs one more participant and the mound of junk mail on your hall floor or your e-mail after a holiday are all irritants which give selling a bad name.

But, according to Pat Weymes, it shouldn't be this way. He maintains that the "tired old techniques of manipulation and forced selling" are redundant.

Weymes's central philosophy is based on establishing a "mutually beneficial" relationship between the seller and the buyer. How to get there is what the book is all about.

Step number one is building a content but motivated sales force and this often involves changing the attitude of management as well as the workforce. Problems should not be allowed to fester but should be dealt with fairly and without prejudice. Clear goals and realistic targets should be set.

Step two is recruiting and hanging on to your top sellers once you've established the new environment. This also boils down to being fair from the outset; don't promise what you can't deliver and institute periodic reviews of your work as well as that of your staff.

Step three is dealing with the customer, the whole object of the exercise. Weymes advises companies to investigate why customers stopped buying and stresses the need for everybody in the organisation to understand the concept of customer care.

Weymes writes enthusiastically about his chosen field and the book is laid out in an informative and easy-to-read manner. And it does exactly what it says on the cover.

comidheach@irish-times.ie