Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again. Selecting candidates who are absolutely driven to succeed.  Dr Christopher Croner & Richard Abraham. 2014.  ISBN 9780974199610. I admit it,  I am an engineer and during my career I have been drawn to logic and  measurement tools that help in the sales and marketing process.  I have always rejected that it is an Art and you can rely on your gut for making hiring decisions. And  finally here is a book that provides insight and tools  to address the hiring process, backed up by significant research.   The A performers have drive ( a combination of competitiveness, a need for recognition and optimism) . These authors have sussed out how to identify the indicators of drive and incorporate it  into your hiring process.  A tool for every sales manager and entrepreneur to read and have handy. This is an excellent addition to the sales managers toolkit.  But you have to use it. I appreciate that it is short and snappily written so that any sales manager can get up to speed quickly.  Best advocacy of the importance of an industrial psychologist I have read.

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• 3 Main Characteristics to Look for When Hiring Inside Sales People (business2community.com)
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When Buyers Say No. Essential Strategies for Keeping a Sale Moving Forward  Tom Hopkins & Ben Katt.2014. ISBN 9781455550593.  The authors are very seasoned sales trainers and it shows in the text.  The first chapter sets quite a task ahead in meeting the buyer who says no.  The next nine chapters provide a good review of  decent sales tactics which should almost eliminate the no. At Chapter 11 and on they get back to addressing the client who says no and provide real and useful tactics to meet all the questions you get at this stage and at  closing and the inevitable negotiations.  Decent notes on value as well . Any salesman can see themselves in these situations and will learn something from it.
The big takeaway for me with this book is that it equips buyers with key tactics to improve their sales success rate at a really critical point of the sale. This helps with building up their optimism to making each sale , one of the three attributes  of sales success (along with competitiveness and need for achievement) which all together some call drive. Having these tactics brings more control back to the salesperson which is also really important to sales persons self worth. As a sales tactics book it is as good as many that are out there.

Where it falls down is the lack of acknowledgement of the buyers process today and how sales can reduce the no’s by eliminating many more client issues before getting into  all the detail.  I see the use of this book with the weak middle of your sales team who just will not adapt to more modern methods or can not.

• A Book Review – “When Buyers Say No” by Tom Hopkins and Ben Katt (sellingfearlessly.com)
• 8 Tactics to Maximize Lead Generation (businessbee.com)

How to Get Your Competition Fired.  Randy Schwantz. 2005. ISBN 0471703117. A client recommended this book and I am pleased he did. The author really nails the challenge of moving an incumbent out of the picture. Coupled with the books on Insight Selling, Agile Selling and so on this makes it a full meal deal. Pre call research on the target is emphasized and Schwantz stresses the need to do pre call research on the incumbent.  Then he lays out a very comprehensive program of questions and responses to bring the prospect into a fuller awareness of what you do differently.  Very valuable book for sales leaders and top producers whether you are a shop of one or hundreds of salespeople.  Great one way read to across the country.

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Brain Gain. How innovative cities create job growth in an age of disruption. Robt. Bell, John Jung & Louis Zacharilla. 2014. ISBN 9781499228021. The third (and latest)  “theme” book from the Intelligent Community Forum  ( www.intelligentcommunity.org). This tackle how cities can support innovation and it is a big topic that is done quite well in a concise readable  manner.  I am always surprised when three authors can put together a well structured  book like this.  If you are in a community/city/state/country that understands the challenge of meeting the Broadband economy head on then the ICF books are very valuable to you. I enjoy reading the stories about cities that are figuring this out and how their survival/growth contrasts so sharply with ones that do not.   I also appreciate that the authors take the time to fully  debunk the various myths that abound in the popular press wrto growth, outsourcing, automation, occupy wall street and many more.

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I Suck at Girls Jason Halpen. 2014.  This is the author who leveraged a twitter feed of “stuff my Dad says” into a book and a brief TV series. Tthis book is the basis of a new series , “Surviving Jack” and it is an amusing tale of a young mans “growing up” under the “help” of a father with his own type of tough love. A quick read,  it has some funny moments and amusing twists.

Insight Selling. Surprising Research on what sales winners do differently. Mike Schultz & John Doerr. 2014 . From the experts at RAIN Selling comes a book that is timely, current and essential. It is the result of asking a simple question. “In a world were some sellers are successful and many are not, what do the successful ones do better? ” The genius lay in who the questions were directed to?  Not sellers but the buyers. Not surprisingly, the answers can differ from many of the “sales books” previously written by successful sales people .  This puts  Shultz and Doerr againin the forefront of effective sales thinking and training. Reading this immediately after Jill Konrath‘s “Agile Selling ‘ and Linda Richardson’s “Changing the Sales Conversation” made this a perfect trifecta of innovative sales books.  Its simple – Sales leader sell insight  into the buyers business. The sales conversation and the sales person are often the deal maker , not the product.  Buyers appreciate salespeople who:

1. Educate me with new ideas and perspectives
2. Collaborate with me
3. Persuade me we would achieve results
4. Listened to me
5. Understood my needs
6. Helped me avoid potential pitfalls
7. Crafted a compelling solution
8. Depicted purchasing process accurately
9. Connected with me personally
10. Overall value from company is superior to other options.

This is a book for sales leaders and high performing sales people to buy read and take to heart.  No pages are wasted so this makes a good coast to coast air flight read