Virtual Selling. A quick start guide to leveraging video, technology and virtual communication channels to engage remote buyers and close deals fast. Jeb Blount. 2020  Wiley. This book was getting quite a bit of good press so I asked Jeb for a review copy. It came a few days ago.  I have read several of Jeb’s very useful books and I like the work he does.  This book does not disappoint.  Part of good sales technique is being efficient (do the right things) and being effective ( do them at the right time)  Jeb covers both of these very well. His ideas and guides are very current and much of what we do with present clients is contained here. A bonus is the plethora of online resources available to buyers of the ebook.  This is very good value and the content is presented in an easy to assimilate and use style.   Buy this book, read it once and then read it again. get to work.  Your commissions will soar!.

Stop Killing Deals. How to avoid deadly assumptions and achieve sales excellence. George Bronten. 2020.

The author has really hit to the core of much that causes sales initiatives to fail.  I agree with his three false assumptions:
Salespeople are born, not made..
Salespeople are disciplined..
Buyers and sellers are logical.

From these is built a solid argument on how to make things better.  A rigorous and proven sales process model with resources, better coaching from sales management and getting away from a reliance on CRM systems that have false assumptions.

The author also provides a plethora of useful tools to help an organization transition to to better way.  Along the way you learn a little bit about his product Membrain.   Its all good. I recommend this book.

Gap Selling. Getting the customer to yes. Jim Keenan. 2018.  ISBN 9781732891012.  Quite a useful read. The author makes a strong point that the sales discovery should be over one half of the sales process.  He feels that sales process problems could be reduced if discovery did a better job of extracting present status, desired future status and the gap between.  This book details what salespeople and managers can do to improve their sales process. This approach is very aligned with present ideas on value selling and managing as coaching.  Lots of  case studies and real world examples greatly help your learning.  Good use of your time.

Podcast Prospecting. The ultimate guide to winning high-ticket clients with a podcast. Steve Gordon. 2020. ISBN 978-0-9904941-2-6.

Quick but valuable read. The author has been successful in driving leads to his service business with podcasts. If you are thinking about this method, are already using podcasts the book provides some very useful ideas and methods. Very much a practitioners book; it is clear, concise and right to the point.  Wish there were more authors like this .

The Ultimate Differentiator. The sales manager’s guide to talent development. Matthew McDarby.  2020. ISBN 9781947486157.  A short book  for new and experienced sales managers.  Quite a few case study examples of where you can go wrong and how to set it right.  I found his hiring suggestions and ongoing training ideas very useful.  This books sits alone in the sales book category and does a very good job of presenting concise and simple arguments on improvement. Very apt for today’s world.  Good for sales manager and early CEOs.

Tactical Pipeline Growth. Winning the battle for new business. Mark McInnes. 2020  ISBN 9780646819938.  The author has put together a very practical, pragmatic book on tactical sales methods. He is also very organized and logical making this a good guide to building internal sales processes.   You will still need a good idea of your ideal client, the types of language and content that works for them. As well you need good marketing chops to drive leads and traffic to work with.  That done, this book will make sure you take the best care of the leads you work with.  Worth any sales professional’s time to read this.

Tactical Pipeline Growth, Winning the outbound battle for new business. Mark MacInnis.  2020. ISBN 9780646819938.  The author has put together a very practical, pragmatic book on tactical sales methods. He is also very organized and logical making this a good guide to building internal sales processes.   You will still need a good idea of your ideal client, the types of language and content that works for them. As well you need good marketing chops to drive leads and traffic to work with.  That done, this book will make sure you take the best care of the leads you work with.  Worth any sales professional’s time to read this.

Sell It Like Serhant. How to sell more, earn more and become the ultimate sales machine.Ryan Serhant. 2018.  ISBN 9780316449571.  The author is completely unknown to me but evidently he is very famous in New York real estate.  Fairly typical rags to selling start story.   IMHO he could be the Zig Ziglar for the Millenial crowd.  His work ethic is to be admired and emulated. His success is due to single mindedness and very hard work. Simple concise text that is a good get out there and go kind of read.

Ultimate Sales Pro. What the best salespeople do differently. Paul Cherry. 2018. ISBN 978081443896.  The author is a successful salesperson and sales trainer who has detailed the paths to success in sales.  His focus is on efficiency and why you do things this way. He makes a good argument that salespeople need a coach through their career, someone whom your company is unlikely to provide.  He also does a reasonable job wrto to laying out how your career is likely to progress.  I took many notes as his material rings very true. Pretty decent book and takes up about a 3 hour plane ride.

Account-Based Marketing for dummies. Sangram Vajre. 2016. ISBN 9781119224853.  I am always surprised how this series of books does the job. Well written clear and concise , it is useful to the  all levels of ABM knowledge as a first read.   IT may downplay how much work this method really is and the importance of the very early work to success later on.  What the author decries today is very true and without a material change of approach by sales and marketing the waste of dollars and effort with continue.  ABM is not new, (I used to call it Key Account Management)  but it  can be very effective with the tools and approaches we know about.

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