Power Base Selling. Jim Holden. 1992. ISBN 0471327336. Secrets of an Ivy
League Street Fighter. A no nonsense classic in enterprise B2B sales.
Holden has two other books on his website
http://www.holdenintl.com/publications.aspx.

This is the playbook for not only different strategies to get in, secure and win an account, but how to salvage or savage a sale going to a competitor. I recognized that some of these tactics had been used against me. Learned a great lesson on how to inoculate your client against competitors seeking to wrest the business from you. He shows you how to locate The Fox in companies, the behind the scenes power player who can introduce you to the internal politics of the company. A “pure” sales book likening the salesguy to solo warrior chief. A very good book, simple, easy to read and absolutely full of terrific guidance. Should be part of every sales guys road library and read often

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.

My gift to you? More books you may want to read!

Lists of best books in 2006.

Advertising Age
http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006640.html

Stephen Kings picks
http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006638.html

Strategy & Business (my favorite)
http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006636.html

Brand Autopsy
http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2006/12/2006_brand_auto.htm
l

Globe and Mail
http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006628.html

Kirkus Review
http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006627.html

Reg Nordman – Managing Partner
Check out our Rocket Readings at

http://rocketbuilders.blogspot.com/

Bringing Precision to Sales and Marketing

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.

Brain Tattoos. Karen Post. 2005. ISBN 0814472346. Creating Unique Brands
That Stick In Your Customers Minds. The Lady calls herself the Branding
Diva, writes monthly for Fast Company and has a wealth of info on her
website http://www.brandingdiva.com/pressroom.html
The book is an easy read, chock full of ideas, examples and truths about
how to be better at branding. Very well researched and laid out, it
becomes a useful tool in the sales and marketing kitbag. My takeaway,
none of us, really appreciate the amount of detail required to ensure
the “stickiness” of our brand. Once again, its not rocket science, but a
matter of meticulous execution in all areas. Published by AMACOM –
American Management Association (www.amaconbooks.com).

They have very good working books,which are often remaindered.

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.

Mavericks at Work. Wm. Taylor & Polly LaBarre.2006. ISBN 9780060779610.
Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win. Great easy read by two
seasoned Fast Company journalists. A range of topics are covered well :
Strategy, HR, OpenSource, Shared values. Companies include Pixar,
Southwest Airlines, IBM. Yahoo. Whole Foods, DPR Construction, Jones
Soda, Cirque du Soleil, Cranium, Starbucks, eBay, Disney. They looked
at examples in pretty well every sector you can think of and found
something different to write about. Lessons learned, many. Example,
hire the greatest, even slow the company growth to wait for the best and
they are not necessarily “stars’ as we would think of them. For every
hire , ensure that the infrastructure is there for them to do their
best. Voted one of the Best Books for 2006. If you want to be one of
the winners, this is a book for you to read.

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.

The Starfish and the Spider. Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. 2006. ISBN 1591841437. The unstoppable Power of leaderless organizations. To kill a spider you cut off its head. If you cut a starfish it just grows new bits, there is no head. So starfish cos are like ebay, Skype, eMule, Apache, AA, GE, Toyota not GM, Al Qaeda, ALF and more. I learned why the music industry created more starfish by shutting down Napster and why Bush is doomed with Iraq and the Dept of Homeland Security. If you work in this world like we do, not a surprising point of view, but insightful none the less. Parts of it remind me of the two commentators role in “Enders Game”. Easy read, well done and flows quickly. Two younger bright guys wrote this. This book has appeared on several best of ’06 book lists and it deserves to be there.

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.

The Power of Nice. Linda Thaler & Robin Koval. 2006. ISBN 0385518927.
How to conquer the business world with kindness. A book like Sanders
The L Factor, but very short, very readable and very useful. Short plane
ride book. Lots of examples where the choice to be nice paid off big
time for these two, maybe not right away (they wrote Bang! a few years
ago) . Great book to give to nice people. Good lessons here. File this
on under life lessons. Give it to your children (like Letters from a
Businessman to his Son – a classic).

By the way also just finished the autobiography of Michael Caine, So
Whats it all About.
Well written in a story style good airplane book and just a lot of fun
(quite an old book actually)

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.

No More Cold Calling. Joanne S. Black. 2006. ISBN 0446577790. A logical
extension of today’s changing selling process is the idea of 100%
referral business prospecting. A referral has almost zero cost of sales
with about a 50% chance of closing. The author lays out a very clear
model and method of implementing it. One must know what your Ideal
customer looks like and be able to clearly articulate it to the
potential referrer. Also you will need to have demonstrated true value
for the person doing the referral (so that is just good business). A
good point is that you are looking for just one or two referrals – do
not be greedy and if they work out, you can come back. Let the referring
party know what occurred and send thanks. Very useful book, easy read,
with clear guidelines for sales people and sales managers. This is not
easy, but a definite payoff for the careful reader. One for your
library.

Book reviews for the business side of the technology industry.