The Box. Marc Levinson. How the Shipping Container Made the World
Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. 2006.ISBN 0691123241. Today is
the 50th anniversary of the first use of shipping containers. It was
many years of battle and wearing down vested interests until the
container started to make a real impact. But, like all standards, once
achieved, it changed so much more than ever expected. The book is a
delightful work on this growth. If your product requires the adoption of
a standard, this is well worth the read. For Canadians, we should really
take note. China would not be were it is today without the gigantic
container ports they had the foresight to build. This book will help you
understand why Prince Rupert really has a shot at getting some
significant traffic if their container port goes ahead. These super
large container vessels only make money when they are moving, so
shaving off a day of transport by calling into Rupert is a really big
deal. But this is a game were you go big or go home. You can not just
put your toe in the water if you want the big ships to call. For Africa
the continued lack of investment in major port facilities will further
drive their economies in the wrong direction, no matter how cheap the
labor is. Good easy read.

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.

Marketing Led Sales Driven. Ajay K Sirsi. How Successful Businesses Use
the Power of Marketing Plans and Sales Execution to Win in the
Marketplace. 2006. ISBN 141202178. I discovered this book while
researching the question,” What is the effective linkage between
marketing and sales that gives a company the best shot in the market?”
This book’s abstract came up and it was very interesting. The book may
be thin (155pp) and easy to read, but it packs a big wallop.

If you really want to start to improve the effectiveness of your
marketing and sales efforts this is an excellent but terse guide. In
applying similar ideas (plus others) in a recent program
implementation, we were able to increase our cold call prospect to
qualified lead ratio to over 80% in a very short time. These numbers
are unheard of in our space. This has direct impact on sales cycles,
cost of sales and quarterly revenues. One word of advice, this approach
puts big expectations on your marketing person’s capability, but it
works. Only a few marketing types I have met look at the world this way.
Yet they were the incredibly successful ones. Definite addition to your
library, at a shocking price.

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.

The Giants of Sales. Tom Sant. 2006. ISBN 0814472915. What Dale
Carnegie, John Patterson, Elmer Wheeler and Joe Girard Can Teach You
About Real Sales Success.

This book proves to me that there is nothing new, you just have not read
about it yet! If you are to read just one book on selling ever, this is
the book. It reports on Carnegie, Patterson (started NCR, trained
Thomas Watson), Wheeler (Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak), Girard
(World’s Greatest Salesman). Then Sant goes one better by analyzing
the roots and concepts in the bulk of the selling processes that are
around today. (I think he reads more sales books than me!) This allows
the reader to understand the similarities and differences in the various
approaches you will run into. An easy almost gripping read, this is a
library keeper. Best sales book of the year (so far).

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.