Freezing Order. A true story of money laundering, murder, and surviving Vladimir Putin’s wrath. Bill Browder. 2022 ISBN 97819821533335. A truly frightening book. The author was a hedge fund manager working Russia when like so many others, Putin wrenched his investments and funds away through illegal means. The author documents all this and more thefts by Putin and his allies in Russia. He also shows the trail of murders of those who defied Putin that followed. The author further documents the trail of Putin and crony assets all over the world. Browder further got to Putin through helping facilitate asset seizure legislation in most of the free world that threatens many Putin and oligarchs’ assets. Putin reacts with characteristic disinformation and bogus “crimes’ by Browder at every opportunity – going beyond harassment, character assignation and then physical threats. Browder does a reasonable dive into the links between Putin and Trump, which is further evidence of joint malfeasance. You come away with the realization that Russia is controlled by thieves on a massive scale. I gained sympathy for the those resisting Putin and the average Russian.

Selling the Price Increase. The ultimate field guide to raising prices without losing customers. Jeb Blount. 2022. Jeb is a volume sales writer, who puts out really good sales books each year. I am a fan of his work and the content he religiously posts on LinkedIn etc. This book is slightly different as it addresses one prickly (to some sales people) topic. Jeb does his usual thorough analysis of the issue and then presents a step-by-step guide of how and what to do. (IMHO this is also a decent method for dealing with any angry customer.) Along with this you get a good dose of Jeb’s general guide to selling. My takeaway is that if you are a valued sales person to the client, then price increases can be communicated openly and received well. Very useful book for any sales person especially the young ones. We all need to be reminded of the bottom-line contribution of a price increase

The House of Kennedy. James Patterson.  2020. ISBN 9780316494885.  The prolific fiction writer, Patterson, takes a rare foray into non-fiction.  He strips away the deep layers of PR that have been used for covering up since the time of Joe Kennedy Sr. (  Gangster allied, ruthless businessman, racist, fascist millionaire)  all through the subsequent years.  Family skeletons are exposed and it is not a pretty sight.  Every Kennedy in the public eye (Ie all of the males)  has made its share of errors and even crimes (Jacks’s infidelities included).  I was raised through the Kennedy Camelot years where Jack and Robert were considered American royalty, heavily buttressed with PR and lawyer protection. It’s an insight into the “entitled”, filthy rich American lifestyle that goes on.  The escapades of the Trump bunch are just the logical extension of folks who live in a rich bubble and can get away with murder.  Well written and fast-paced, this is a useful, albeit cynical supporting, exposure of what can and did go wrong.    And maybe some insight into who did it and why Jack and Bobbie were publically executed by the powers that be (legal and criminal).

Improving Sales Momentum

Lee Salz in Sell Different tells sales people how to look at communications in a different way to distinguish and differentiate themselves. I have added a few things to this. I call it: Reflect, Reply, Remind. My clients have been doing this for over a month now and we are seeing really strong sales results and often a shortening of the sales cycle

Reflect
You are on a call/demo and its going well. The target is agreeing and telling you how your solution will meet their needs and what they like about it. During the call you must be making notes about all these points of agreement and next steps. You agree on follow up calendar date(s).
When you get off the call take a few beats to reflect on what went well, what didn’t go as planned, and what you can improve. (How else can  you get better at selling?)

Reply
Next, before taking the next call/activity,  send your follow up email to the target. In this email you reiterate the points of agreement and what the target said about your product and remind about the next steps (using your notes). This is done because when the target got off your call they dropped into a succession of other meetings, calls or a mass of emails. What you talked about is dropped into the everyday chaos and falls off the table. When they open your email, your conversation is brought forward.

Remind
On the next call you remind the client what they agreed on and what this call/demo is to achieve. You will find that they will remember more of the the last call and what needs to be done. You are not starting from zero, but are already halfway into a continuing discussion.

Rinse and repeat.

Why it works

Tony Robbins taught us how NLP ( Neuro Linguistic Programming) is able to affect communication.

A similar psychology is in play here , the warm feelings from the good previous call are brought into the next call. and the sales person is keeping the momentum.

Less desperation, more conversation.

Sales Coaching Essentials. How to transform your sales team. Mark Garrett Hayes. 2022. ISBN 97861788603324.  This book does what it sets out to do.  In today’s world the effective sales leader is the head coach for the team.  This is a book I would put on my desk to reread and make notes. prior to coaching sessions. It is organized around topics that are of immediate importance to sales.  As well the overall view is leading the team and team members to solutions they come up with and are responsible for.  You don’t do the work for them.  Very useful book.