Leon Hardwick

    GLOBAL SALES ANIMAL

    NO SLIDES. NO SUITS. NO SECOND CHANCES.

    Trials, turbulence and two million air miles. What it really means to sell on the global front lines, by Leon Hardwick.

    PASSENGER
    You
    GATE
    Chapter 0
    FROM
    Your desk
    TO
    The front lines

    £35 · Paperback + free PDF

    Blue isometric cover illustration with a plane, stadium, airport and city streets
    YEH A GLOBAL SALES ANIMAL, MATE.

    A former VP of mine. Thick northern accent. Usually after a particularly gruelling deal. Half joke, half recognition of the instinct, grit and madness it takes to sell on a global stage.

    2,000,000

    AIR MILES

    Sales doesn't happen in spreadsheets. It happens in airport lounges at 2 AM.

    CHAPTER 0

    BLOOD, SMOKE, AND SILENCE

    Before you master the craft, the travel, the quotas, the close, you need to survive the madness.

    CARACAS

    Where demos meet riots

    A corporate bonding exercise at a football match. Then riot police, rubber bullets and a lost shoe. Next morning: the boardroom pitch.

    ISTANBUL

    The taxi that tried to kill me

    Three of us. One taxi. A driver working three phones. Then the glovebox bursts into flame on a bridge.

    MOSCOW

    Lessons in leverage

    Minus eight. Three black Mercedes. One sentence: 'You pay him. One hundred dollars.'

    SO... YOU STILL WANT THIS?

    You will be jetlagged, laughed at, bribed, praised, ignored, seduced, threatened and, if you're lucky, respected.

    FIVE STORIES FROM THE ROAD

    01

    Caracas

    02

    Istanbul

    03

    Moscow

    04

    Saudi Arabia

    05

    So... you still want this?

    What you'll take away

    THE GAME STARTS IN THE ROOM.

    Not with your product. In the rules you don't know and the power structures no one tells you about.

    NEVER LET THEM SEE YOUR EXHAUSTION.

    The golden rule of global business, learnt mid-negotiation in Hong Kong.

    ADAPT OR GO HOME.

    Adaptability, absurdity and awareness. The kind you can't learn in a classroom.

    Inside the book

    1. 0Blood, Smoke, and Silence
    2. 1Taking Off
    3. 2The Art of Packing
    4. 3Cultures and Customs
    5. 4The Business of Travel
    6. 5The Glamour and the Grit
    7. 6Personal Growth on the Road
    8. 7Anecdotes from the Sky
    9. 8The Journey's End

    From the back cover

    If you've spent time in the trenches of international sales, you'll probably recognise yourself in these pages. If you haven't, well, this is what it really looks like. The brilliant, brutal and completely unpredictable world of global sales.
    Leon Hardwick

    About the author

    Leon Hardwick has started, grown, bought, sold and shut down companies over 25 years in B2B tech and sales. From office junior to CEO, two million miles of business travel across 40 countries.

    GLOBAL. GRITTY. GLORIOUS.

    Being a global sales animal isn't just a job. It's a way of life.