Power to Sell isn't your conventional book on sales. Eric Gjerdevig doesn't talk about making more prospect calls or refining your closing techniques. It focuses on what he believes is a far more critical set of skills; the uniquely human abilities to build trust, better understanding, and authentically serve your customers. It's about how to differentiate yourself based on how you sell versus what you sell. An underlying concept is that technology is exponentially advancing but not every impact has been positive. Things such as social anxiety are on the rise and others such as trust and empathy are declining; what role has technology played in these trends?

At the end of the day, businesses are financially motivated to invest in technology that lowers their costs. Regardless of the economic uncertainty impacting the working-class fighting advances in technology is futile. We need to let technology do what technology can do so humans can do what ONLY humans can do. This means we must concentrate our efforts on developing and mastering our uniquely human skills, the skills that machines are unable to replicate and are essential to every human. Power to Sell is focused on skills that go far beyond those of selling; they are the skills of building trust, human relationships, and persuasion. These skills are the closest thing to superpowers that we have, and their value is unmeasurable. These skills will help you succeed as a sales professional, leader, entrepreneur, or just about any job where human interaction and trust is required.

About the Author

Eric Gjerdevig started his professional career at Great Plains Software in 1998. He worked at Great Plains, and then Microsoft, until he left in 2005 to form a start-up, Summit Group Software. Summit Group Software was an award-winning technology consulting firm. After 13 years of leading this employee-owned business, Summit Group was acquired in January 2018. Eric was elected to the West Fargo City Commission in June of 2018 and started as a Lecturer at North Dakota State University in August of 2018. He now teaches fulltime on the topics of professional selling and sales/marketing technology. He has also served on the board of directors of multiple area nonprofit organizations.

On a personal level, Eric enjoys spending time with his wife Sara, their children, and granddaughter. He enjoys hunting, fishing, cross-country skiing, and traveling.