f you're an ISO or merchant level salesperson (MLS), you've probably dreamed of landing a whale of a merchant account, the big one, the million dollar deal. And now here's a book to help you do it.

If you're a seasoned sales professional who's been trying too long to land that million dollar deal, by now you might think that some things are simply out of reach, right? Wrong.

So what's the secret?

With her book, "The Million Dollar Sale," Patricia Gardner promises to illustrate how to "find and cultivate million dollar deals in just two sales calls" and ideally, within a 30-day period.

Sound impossible? Gardner says it's not. All that is necessary is some experience and the use of a secret weapon.

Gardner's career in sales began in 1973 selling Xerox copiers to schools in Philadelphia. She was one of the first saleswomen hired at the company. By the mid 1990s, she was selling enterprise solutions to large scale IT departments of Fortune 500 companies.

In providing her instruction, Gardner makes some assumptions about you as a reader. One is that you have at least some sales experience.

So if you are new to the sales profession, part one, which includes the book's first four chapters, offers a course in the fundamentals of sales.

In this section she covers the importance of knowing your product or service; knowing the competition; identifying vertical markets; building a team to go after these markets; and finding leads.

If you've been selling long enough that you can write your own version of part one, then go directly to part two, she advises.

In part two Gardner reveals and discusses in depth her secret weapon for closing the million dollar sale. She calls it a "codebreaker." A codebreaker is someone outside your organization who is already writing millions of dollars in business with your potential client.

There are three types of codebreakers: external (a sales rep from a non-competing company); internal (a rep from your company selling a different product or service or selling in a different territory); or a customer (someone satisfied with your services that has a relationship with a decision maker at a non-competing company).

"Partnering with an established vendor on a specific project is the surest path to the first big deal with a new client," she writes.

Gardner discusses how to find codebreakers, how to work with them, and the types of projects you and the codebreaker can work on together.

Even with plenty of sales experience and a codebreaker partner, she says it's important to change your way of thinking about the sales process. Salespeople who feel like they are up against a wall trying to meet a quota or bring in new accounts have the tendency to think they need to work harder and push themselves more; make 10 or 15 more calls, for instance.

Don't think, "How much harder do I have to push?" Gardner says, but instead think, 'How do I scale the wall that I'm up against?'

This will take you from a sales-oriented sales process to more of a thought-oriented process, which is one of the key aspects in finding and closing "quota-busting" deals, she says.

Gardner creates the impression that she serves as your guide in this process. She presents her ideas clearly, and each chapter is broken out into shorter sections that are easy to read and even skim, if you're short on time.

At the end of each chapter she provides a checklist to help you track your progress in using this new method of selling. The lists can also serve as a quick point of reference for you in the future.

In part three she describes, in detail, what you and the codebreaker should expect in the first and second sales calls. She discusses everything from how to prepare, who should take the lead and when, how to handle potential surprises, and selling up.

If you're a sales manager, there's information in the book to benefit you, too. Gardner advises managers to "take a hard look at your sales culture" and to use her book as a road map for improving the way you do things in your sales organization.

This is all valuable insight from someone who's been selling for more than three decades. In fact, Gardner took what she's learned over the years and now runs Maximum Sales Inc., a consulting business for sales organizations.

She is also a public speaker and has been featured in "The Wall Street Journal," "Selling Magazine," "Entrepreneur," "Sales Management Report," and "Selling Power Magazine."

For more information about her company and "The Million Dollar Sale," visit www.maximumsales.com .

"The Million Dollar Sale"
How to Get to the Top Decision Makers and Close the Big Sale

By Patricia H. Gardner with Timothy Haas
McGraw-Hill, New York 2004
ISBN: 0-07-144519-6
Paperback, 179 pages, $16.95
Available on www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com