A thirty-year-old mother of two, Marion Luna Brem had just been given a death sentence: terminal cancer. She had no job. No health insurance. Her marriage would collapse under the stress of her treatment. And her most pressing concern: How do I pay next month’s rent? Her first major “sale” was landing a job as a car salesman. Within two months she had become salesperson of the month and by the end of her first year, salesperson of the year. Four and a half years after selling her first car, Brem bought her own dealership, and in the next decade went on to open additional dealerships and businesses. She beat her cancer, too. In Women Make the Best Salesmen , Brem reveals the top sales strategies she discovered, refined, and applied to build hermultimillion dollar enterprise. But, as she points out, we are all "salesmen" – whether we interviewing for a job or operating a register at a department store, trying to get our children into a special program or looking for a lifelong companion. And women, with their natural social skills and acute emotional antennae, have natural advantages both sexes can learn from. Filled with unconventional wisdom and real-life lessons, Women Make the Best Salesmen is the essential guide to the art of selling yourself. "She'd not only beaten cancer but risen up the ranks from salesman to CEO . . . Brem's book offers insights into her rise to the top." — Newsweek “Brem covers everything from dealing with difficult people, to making your workplace more appealing to customers, to speaking another person's 'language,' to closing a deal." — Chicago Tribune A thirty-year-old mother of two, Marion Luna Brem had just been given a death sentence: terminal cancer. She had no job. No health insurance. Her marriage would collapse under the stress of her treatment. And her most pressing concern: How do I pay next month's rent? Her first major "sale" was landing a job as a car salesman. Within two months she had become salesperson of the month and by the end of her first year, salesperson of the year. Four and a half years after selling her first car, Brem bought her own dealership, and in the next decade went on to open additional dealerships and businesses. She beat her cancer, too. In "Women Make the Best Salesmen, Brem reveals the top sales strategies she discovered, refined, and applied to build hermultimillion dollar enterprise. But, as she points out, we are all "salesmen" - whether we interviewing for a job or operating a register at a department store, trying to get our children into a special program or looking for a lifelong companion. And women, with their natural social skills and acute emotional antennae, have natural advantages both sexes can learn from. Filled with unconventional wisdom and real-life lessons, "Women Make the Best Salesmen is the essential guide to the art of selling yourself. MARION LUNA BREM was Inc. magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year, holds an Avon Women of Enterprise Award, was inducted into the International Automotive Hall of Fame, and was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine. She is the author of The 7 Greatest Truths About Highly Successful Women and lives in Corpus Christi, Texas. Chapter 1 How Selling Saved My Life (and Can Energize Yours) Car salesmen. I admit it--they're often thought of as skirt-chasing, joke-telling, back-slapping, cigar-smoking deal makers. Why, then, at the age of thirty-two, did I, a wife, mother of two young sons, and a suburban homemaker, decide to join their ranks? I had no choice. I had just completed a six-month dose of commode-hugging chemotherapy. That horrible ordeal had followed back-to-back surgeries for two different cancers, cervical and breast. Having a hysterectomy and a mastectomy within weeks of each other, and then having all my hair fall out as a result of chemo, had a devastating impact on my feminine psyche. I felt like less than a whole woman--and an extremely poor one at that. I had no health insurance and no savings. Then things got worse. The grueling stress brought about the end of my marriage. And my prognosis wasn't good. The doctors gave me two to five years to live. In a very short time I had lost so much. Most important of all, my self-esteem. I had no job, no husband, no medical coverage, and few of the resources necessary to build a career. Moreover, I had my two boys, Brannon, age twelve, and Travis, seven, to raise. They needed me. But how could I support and care for them when I had such little work experience? "You've always been good with people. Why don't you try sales?" my best friend, Susan, told me; she had been by my side throughout the whole ordeal. Seven years earlier, I had fantasized about the possibility. I had taken a job as a switchboard operator at a high-volume car dealership in Dallas. For a stay-at-home mom, the job provided just the supplemental income we needed to move int