According to author and trainer Ron Willingham’s latest book, Integrity Selling for the 21st Century: How to Sell the Way People Want to Buy (Doubleday/Currency, 2003, $22.95), selling has nothing to do with pushing unwanted goods or services on an unwilling customer. As a matter of fact, Willingham argues that selling isn’t what people typically think it is. And success in sales doesn’t come from where people typically think it does.

Willingham, who founded Integrity Systems Inc., a sales-training firm that has trained more than 2 million people over the past 40 years, is uniquely positioned to spurn the traditional concepts of successful sales: pitch the product based on features and overwhelm the prospect. Through his experiences with legions of salespeople, Willingham has developed a concept of selling that has nothing to do with how masterfully you can negotiate a contract and everything to do with how in sync your organization and selling style are with your core values. “Selling success is more an issue of who you are than what you know,” he writes. And salespeople with strong ethics and values, who have a positive self-concept, will reach the top.

In Willingham’s world Integrity with a capital “I” means more than honesty or doing the right thing. It means having the courage of your convictions, a core commitment to helping people, a willingness to go the extra mile and, most important, the desire to listen to what the customer really needs and wants. It also includes the ability to act on that information for the good of the customer, who deserves a beneficial solution.

Integrity Selling, the process taught in Willingham’s course and outlined in the book, is based on a customer-needs philosophy and teaches salespeople how to become more successful. But before turning to the customer, Willingham asks readers to first focus on themselves, addressing their internal beliefs and values as well as their character, all with the intent of increasing their trustworthiness, confidence and motivation. He writes “those individuals with strong ethics and values, and positive concepts of self, are the ones who will end up on top.”

The second part of the book looks at customers and how to more successfully identify and meet their needs at a very deep level. Through the presentation of a six-step selling process, as well as discussions of language and human needs and behaviors, Willingham equips salespeople to “sell the way customers want to buy.”

Some suggestions and topics address the fundamentals, making this a valuable starting point for newcomers to the sales profession. Willingham’s breadth and depth of experience shines through the pages and offers valuable nuggets of time-tested sales wisdom. Even high-performing salespeople can find fresh insights and ideas that can profitably change the way they approach customers. Of particular value, Willingham offers insights into how salespeople’s internal view of themselves impacts their ability to sell. While this may seem outside the realm of traditional selling skills, it is nevertheless the basis of all sales, because self-confidence is the vital ingredient that fuels all success.

Selling isn’t just a job, says Willingham. Instead, he writes, “selling with integrity provides purpose for salespeople. It helps us enjoy a more professional and meaningful life.” And this book will show you how to get there.