Picnic at the Iron Curtain. Susan Viets. 2012. ISBN 9780987966407.  This book is useful to observers of Putin’s present day efforts to rebuild the Russian empire.  The author was a newbie journalist who set up shop in the Ukraine just before the Russian federation under Gorbachev imploded and all those new countries set up shop in the Balkans and the Ukraine. It is fascinating to read these reports of her visits to all the surrounding areas as they echo the reverse of what is happening today.  Great book for a two to three hour flight. As a journalist the author knows how to write good copy.

The Virtual Executive. How to act like a CEO online and offline. D.A. Benton. 2012. ISBN 9780071787154. Call  the author the Emily Post of the internet world. This is a useful text as the author chose to be a virtual executive long before it became trendy. So the book is just loaded with useful guides and checklists for good behavior.  As I learned there is no excuse for bad manners and it is still true.  Those users of video conferencing/hangouts would do well to review this book.

The New Rules of Lead Generation. Proven strategies to maximize marketing roi. David T. Scott. 2013. ISBN 9780814432617.  The author is certainly very experienced in this role and topic.   His point of view is measurement and so he gives a great baseline education for applying measurement to the suite of marketing tools available.   He says this book is for companies that have whole teams to execute on sales and marketing and I tend to agree.  Most small companies  are really resource constrained.   That said, his first five chapters are some of the best setup for any marketing team I have found so far. He brings a refreshing and pragmatic view to how sales and marketing should work together.   He has a little something for everyone on these chapters and the ideas work.  In his ending chapters he talks about some good tools, however this is the only flaw in the book as time is not kind to this type of example as some of the tools discussed are no longer available.  I enjoyed how he differentiates between the high value  marketing generated leads and lesser value sales generated leads.  Good cross country air flight read – Easy to read style as well.

Related articles

• The New Rules of Lead Generation Book Review (business2community.com)

I’m  A Stranger Here Myself and The Mother Tongue, Both by Bill Bryson These eBooks were a treat. .

I’m a Stranger… is a collection of weekly columns Bryson wrote for an English newspaper on his return to America after 20 years. It is so dry and hilarious that I guarantee a delightful read.   He points out ( but kindly)  the glaring inconsistencies in living in the US which a resident would not see.

The Mother Tongue is a short history of how English came to be and how it is still and always will be changing. An easy read it belies the intense scholarship Bryson put into it.  I admit to an interest in where words come from and why they seem to stray from their original meaning.  Every now and then he points  out how a Canadian would say something, and he is right.  The quotes form many “famous” people is especially interesting and often humorous. It seems many US Presidents do not fair too well in this department!

Agile Selling . Getting up to speed quickly in today’s’ ever-changing sales world. Jill Konrath. 2014. ISBN 9781591847250. The latest work from Jill Konrath. She has done the sales world another valuable service by offering a great take on today’s selling. She makes strong statements about the buyers of today and why you need to find out about and acknowledge the buyers journey if you want to succeed at sales. The major benefit from this book is her desire to give sales people the tools to be more agile, to  learn more quickly and effectively in order to succeed.  From rookie to serious sales leader, you need to buy and read this book.

Buying Customers. Bradley J. Sugars.  2012. ISBN 9780692017210. The author seems a prolific writer in the area of business coaching.  This book is an easy read , yet it contains enough nuggets of real value to make it worth the read.  It is especially useful if you are an accidental marketing or sales person, coming into these disciplines with little formal training.  I found that although it was extremely and immediately valuable in B2C sales,  there is some very good material for B2B. His website is www.actioncoach.com.  And he takes his own medicine on his website .

Invent It. Sell It, Bank It! Lori Greiner. 2014. ISBN 9780804176439.   If you have a million dollar invention idea that you want to make a reality then this is a book for you.  One of the Sharks on Shark Tank, the author gives you the straight goods on making stuff and  selling it.  She has created over 400 products and generated %500 m in revenue to boot. (And its mostly on QVS.  Easy to read with lots of secrets laid out for you to take in.  Especially important if you are going to make things ( like you would in a MakerSpace).  I liked the book and found that it adds to good value to this space.

The Innovative Sale. Unleash your creativity for better customer solutions and extraordinary results.   Mark Donnolo. 2014. ISBN 139780814433478.  The author makes a clear and compelling case to place creativity inside your sales organization. Peppered with numerous real world examples, there is something for the high performing sales pro through to the sales leader in this book.  It is current with numerous references to the buyers process driving your sales process.  I appreciated his careful explaining of how to and how not to do this process of change.  His website is the only disappointment as it lacks any  compelling free content to drive attraction and traffic.   A must have book for the sales leader with a large sales team.