Tony DePaul, who was born in Chestnut Hill and still lives here today, has to be one of the most prolific authors in the community. He has written 10 novels, which are all set in or near Chestnut Hill, but his 11th book is as different from the others as lightning is from a lightning bug. Just released, “Ingenuity” is his first work of nonfiction.

“Ingenuity,” published by New Plains Press, is chockablock with advice for salespeople on how to succeed. Sections include “Savvy Selling,” “Analytics of Sales Activities,” “Managing and Motivating Salespeople,” and “Winning is the Only Thing.”

According to the book, “There is no room for mediocrity in this story. To reach the top level of sales, you must think creatively and have the courage to try new tactics. Ultimately, you are the key to your sales success. Not the product. Not the company. Not the price. YOU alone determine if you grow to be number ONE. Open your mind to learning unique ideas and creative methods that will help you thrive and prosper...”

An obvious question: What qualifies Tony DePaul to offer this kind of advice?

Answer: DePaul rose from a 90–cents–an–hour stock boy to a multi–award–winning sales leader and CEO. Now retired from a career as a salesman, Tony won awards and set records whenever a company gave him something to sell, despite the fact that he never took a business course in his life.

DePaul, who served on the Chestnut Hill Community Association board in the late 1990s, is short in stature, but big in personality. He went to work for the Burroughs Corp. selling business machines in 1968 and before too long became the number–five salesman out of 250. “Eighty percent of selling is people skills,” he said. After three years with Burroughs, DePaul was recruited by Automatic Data Processing (ADP), where he was the number–one salesman every year.

“I wrote this new book because I wanted to help salespeople succeed,” DePaul told the Local last week. “So many are inadequately trained. They sell on features and price rather than benefits and value.”

Despite his success in sales, DePaul’s first love was always writing, and he longed to get away from the protective scaffolding of corporate life. “I always squeezed in writing whenever I could. I could write a book just about growing up on Gorgas Lane for 15 years,” said DePaul, who graduated from Cardinal Dougherty High School, where he won a National Merit Scholarship to La Salle College.

He later earned a teaching assistant position at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He taught two classes there while earning a master’s degree in English literature. In 1967, he came home to Philadelphia because his wife, Angela, was homesick. She was from Germantown, one of six children in the family, who also went to Cardinal Dougherty.

“I came back home with a used Chevy, one wife, one child on the way and $25 in my pocket,” said DePaul, who later was divorced after 42 years of marriage. (DePaul’s second marriage ended after seven years.)

DePaul, who speaks fluent Italian, retired at 59 and since then has done lots of writing, consulting and traveling. He is already working on book number 12, “Dumb Luck,” a work of creative nonfiction with nine vignettes about companies where he worked.

“The title is a takeoff on the old saying that dumb luck beats careful planning,” he said. “It will be full of the ironies and vagaries of the business world. The intended audience for the book is companies with outside sales forces.

“I admit I have lost deals on price, but I have won more than I lost by selling on value. My position was to sell differentiated benefits that offered benefits worth investing in. To be a top salesman, you need the ingenuity to show your difference vs. the competition. The greatest competitor is no decision. If you do not offer a compelling proposition, you will not get the sale, no matter what the price. To sell the book, I am sending a copy with a brief cover letter to top executives of companies with outside sales forces such as ADP, Canon, Cintas and so on.”

Joe Morgan, vice-president of sales at Chevin Systems, a local fleet management software company, said about the new book, “Everything Tony shares about sales, he lived. I fondly remember working for Tony at Automatic Data Processing in the 1970s. Everything he shares about the process, the encouragement, how he helps other sales professionals to improve and succeed is all true.”

DePaul’s books can be purchased through amazon.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.