Strikingly Different Selling. Dale Merrill & Scott Savage. 2022. ISBN 9781642504873. The two authors are two high performing experienced sales people with the Franklin Covey organization. The book is very useful to all levels of B2B sales people, marketers and managers. They layout very different ways of selling which complement good practise. The first part of the book shows good ways to capture the reader’s attention using metaphors of billboards, movie trailers, flashbacks and flashforwards (I.e. present status and future status). There is one of the clearer statements of differentiation (How does your client see that you are different, since they buy on differences?) with good examples and ideas. This is well worth getting the book for this. They go on to show good selling practices during all parts of the sales. Excellent resource and well worth the read.

The Billion Dollar Spy. David E. Hoffman,. 2015.ISBN 9780385537605. Fascinating true story about a highly placed Russian engineer who gave the US the information about Russian advances in radar and airborne systems during the ’90s. This saved the US billions in expenditures on deterrents that would not work and directed US advances to the point that they were singularly superior in the air vs the Russian MIGs and Supelovs. The CIA was beset with cautious leaders during the Clinton years so this individual was initially stymied by indecisions. At great risk to himself, he provided 100s of classified documents to CIA. Eventually he was betrayed by a washed-out CIA agent Holmes and Aimes the Russian spy. Well written.

No Time Like the Future. An optimist considers mortality. Michael J.Fox. 2020. ISBN 9781250265623. What a heartfelt memoir by quite a decent Canadian born actor. This starts when Michael was in his twenty’s, with a burgeoning acting career, learning he had up MS and then living with it to his mid-fifties Its raw and full of emotion as to how he was and is feeling. How the acting gigs changed and Michael changed over time. He gives full compliments to his wife and family and caregivers for their support and tireless patience with what was so often a real problem patient. Laugh when he discusses his drug induced hallucinations. Feel for those around hm for their belief in him. Lots of lessons to be learned from this book.

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.

Little Brother. Cory Doctorow. 2007.  Free to anyone.  .  Always a favorite Sci fi writer, this book can bring shivers.  What could happen t some tech savvy teenagers, if Homeland Security went apeshit in their city?  What if the teens were versed in personal freedoms and decided that the DHS was way out of line, as were most adults after a terror attack?  Thats the thesis and Doctorow does a masterful job of weaving tech, civil rights and sci fi into a compelling hard to put down story.  Read this and you will learn quite a lot.  As well as having a blast while reading

e Art of War in Business Technology. Simple tactics for conquering IT & Cybersecurity Challenges on the small business battlefield. A-Jay Orr. 2021.   Like many other veterans the author had some life altering experiences in his time in the US military. He draws many business parallels to this and in they can very helpful to the young entrepreneur. I read this for his take on cybersecurity and  what to do about it. Sadly this was only covered in two of the twelve chapters.   The chapters are fine and quite useful.  Good simple prose makes this an easy read.

the age of influence. The power of influencers to elevate your brand. Neal Schaffer. 2020. ISBN  9781400216376.   I have read all of Neal’s books in the past  and enjoyed them.  I heard good things about this one, contacted Neal and he sent me a review copy.   He then followed up and asked how it was going.  Neal practises what he talks about in this book. The book is a clear blueprint for working with influencers, with great examples, guides and room for you to maneuver in applying this to your business.  I took pages of notes and checked into most of the web pages/apps he suggested.  The examples are key to understanding how to use this book,  but his thoroughness in describing strategy and execution will make this a read and reread guide to how to do this.  He even h=gives you a web address where he will keep updating this book, important in such a fast-changing market.  It is an easy read, but that does not mean you can treat it lightly.  I highly recommend this book

New Dark Age. Technology and the End of the Future. James Bridle. 2019. ISBN 139781786635488. The author is a British technology artist and commentator. His thesis is that the more information, data, networks and visibility we have , the less the society acts on it.  Whether it is declining scientific rigor, populist journalism, conspiracy theories, Creepy YouTube videos directed at children, NSA type spying worldwide, fake news, disinformation he feels that technology is not a panacea to ills that plague us.  Each chapter is an unique topic and could stand alone.  Its dystopian , dark  and filled with foreboding.  Yet I felt that his point of view was worthwhile and illustrative of valid points. I recommend this book to educators, parents and educated people as a counterpoint to populism.

Washington Black. Esi Edugyan. 2018. ISBN 9781847659972.  The author traces the life of a young Negro slave in the Bahamas and his  brutal life as well as travels with a young master. The slave , Washington Black has a talent for drawing and finds himself in many difficult and interesting situations as he follows ( and tracks down)  his young master to the US, Arctic, Maritime, London, Amsterdam,  and eventually Morocco.  The tough life and his love is illustrated and he does not get beaten down. My only question is that there is no real ending.  Still the book is compelling reading

Trillion Dollar Coach . The leadership playbook from silicon valley’s Bill Campbell. Eric Schmidt. Jonathan Rosenberg. Alan Eagle.  2019. ISBN 9780062839268. A very timely book. Its a book that should be the basis of  every leadership seminar and a well read reference on all leader’s bookshelves.  As sports coaches ourselves, my partners and I see the applicability of high performance sports coaching to technology companies. Whether if its in a non profit board community committee or a business, these “lessons’ are applicable and very useful.  This book is deserving of the kudos it has been receiving.  I enjoyed it so much I read it in two session and intend to reread it often.