How to REALLY Use LinkedIn. Jan Vermeiren. 2009. ISBN 9789081188630.  www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com  The author has done a very very good job with this book. I have used LinkedIn for several years and felt pretty competent with it, but this chap has identified so many tools and tips on using it I feel like a newby all over.  Such tips as keeping up with one tool for all your  social networks (Hellotxt),  using LinkedIn as a steroid fueled people finder,  job finder, to increase networking,  locating new suppliers or  partners, he pretty well covers them all.  His comments on using Groups is worht the price of the book alone. I installed the LinkedIN Outlook toolbar and was amazed at the capabilities now  in the tool, (especially good in keeping Outlook contact data up to date, goodby Plaxo!) The firefox toolbar also has some hidden gems wrto extracting contact info from websites.   If you job/career requires maintaining a good network, this is a must read and implement book.  Google finds information, LinkeIn finds people.

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Become the Squeaky Wheel. A credit and collections guide for everyone. Michelle Dunn. 2009. ISBN 0970664516.   I wish I had this book a year ago.  A soup to nuts plain spoken guide to getting paid.   She means it when she says there are 330 jam packed pages.  There is just a little of only-in-the-US related content, while the rest is just applicable to anywhere. The lady has 17 years experience in debt collection and it shows.  I would recommend this to any business person to read as preventative medicine.  You quickly learn how to get the right information upfront so that if you ever need to go after your money, you have all the tools needed.  I learned a lot, implemented her suggestions and enjoyed  the read.  You can get the book at www.michelledunn.com

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How Come Your Marketing Plans Aren’t Working? Malcolm McDonald. 2002. ISBN 074943726X.  The author is a well known Brit who has established a name for himself outside of the US.  This is part of an essential guide to series.  The work is clear and brilliant. Typical UK understatement that underscores an ability to get right into the meat of his thesis.  None of the I am so great because I have done all this US style of fluff to wade through before you find out that it is only about one good idea.  If you want a quick, dense short read on marketing strategy and what you absolutely must do, then this is the book.  Good for a long flight – but bring notepaper as you will be working right alongside with the book.

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Pop! Stand out in any crowd. Sam Horn. 2006. ISBN 0399532765.  I vote this my marketing book choice for Q1-Q2! This is a terrific read , but its way more than that. By showing you how to find and build on catchy ideas, Horn helps make you a more engaging writer.   To paraphrase her , if you are asking people to spend their time on your content, it is your responsibility to make it worth their while. If you follow her easy step by step chapters on the many ways to do this, you should dramatically improve your communication impact.   A short and easy read, it is still just stuffed with great ideas worth  a lifetimes worth of work stuck inside. Buy , read and re read this one, its a library keeper.

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The Complete Guide to Selling Yourself in Today’s Competitive Market. Thomas A. Freese. 2009. ISBN 9781891892660. I am a Thomas Freese fan.  His approach just makes so much sense.  IMHO if you combined Sharon Drew Morgen’s work with Freese’s, you would have a pretty complete and powerhouse sales approach. He discards the traditional sales approaches and leads you to a much smarter and better (for the client and yourself) way.  This is his fifth book , and I have read them all.  With this one he takes his methods to look at selling yourself in an interview, but if you follow his guides, you will become a better sales person overall. Check out his resources at www. qbsresearch.com

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Rocket Builders  are seeing an uptake in NA sales for the bulk of our clients.  They are beating their sales quotas quarter after quarter.  This is with sales funnels that are slimmer than in the past.  Prospects who are finding these clients today are more motivated to buy than ever before.  The purse strings for these products  have been loosened.  These are the same clients of ours who did not see a downturn in ’08 , because they have “must have”  products.

If your company is not seeing similar  results, this could be an indicator of a very serious problem in areas such as product differentiation, your value proposition and/or your sale forces market approach.  Ask yourself, in a marketplace full of a sea of eager sales people, what advantages do you have if you and your sales force look and talk just like  everyone else?    The solutions to this are often simple and straight forward to implement, but they are not obvious.  They are there, just for the asking.

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“Little Voice” mastery. How to win the war between your ears in 30 seconds or less. Blair Singer. 2008. ISBN 9780979577.  What is the Little Voice?  Every salesperson has one – its that voice that tells you to step back, take a break, don’t work so hard, things are tough, its hard to do, not today , not now , maybe later, just have to do this first…you all know what I am talking about.  Salespeople (successful ones) are able to control that voice with strategies to overcome it in order get out there and just do it.  This is a clearly written almost simple book , chock full of strategy and tactics to win the war of words.  One of the better ones I have run into and I would highly recommend it. You will learn how to :

• Maintain your power in any situation
• Stop the debilitating chatter in your brain so you can attract what you want now
• Uncover and realize your lifelong dreams
• Break through self-sabotaging habits
• Build powerful, lasting confidence
• Resurrect the hero inside of you
• Embody the 21 proven techniques to reprogramming the “Little Voice” in your brain in 30 seconds

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(promiscuity)

Virus Hunters of the CDC. Joseph B. McCormick & Susan Fisher-Hoch. 1996. ISBN 15703627777.  This is the real life story of two preeminent specialists in those nasty viruses that arise in Africa. Lassa fever, Ebola, (the hemorrhagics) as well as HIV. They are right on the front lines (now in Pakistan)  managing at great risk to do the tedious and detailed work needed to help save lives. The real crying shame of all this is the continued self serving corruption and tribalism that continues in Africa which prevents the known remedies to these “plagues” from being reffectvelt used.  I was also aghast to find that the combination of increased urbanism  and the misuse of Western medical technology (re-using disposable needles for injections etc0 has a direct relation to the increase in AIDs world wide. Very worthwhile book to take heed of.

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