Beach Reading for Sales and Management

Recommended Reading for Sales and Sales Management
by Paul DiModica, Editor, BDM News

As the temperatures remain high here in the states, sales teams and executive management's thoughts drift to vacations sitting on the beach, riding jet ski’s, sailing or taking in a baseball game.

Here is a great list of interesting, provocative and motivational business books you should read this summer to help you market better, sell more and increase your personal sales income or company revenue.

Read and enjoy!

Blue Ocean Strategy by W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

The is one of the best books I have read on business strategy during the last ten years. It specifically identifies how companies often compete in the current markets (a red ocean strategy) and base their pricing, value offerings and market goals on being better than already established competitors. But, this approach (which is common) forces companies into a commodity position. The author recommends and teaches strategies and methods to create new markets (a blue ocean strategy) by looking at your current industry’s weaknesses and teaching you how to create new markets without competitors that are in a parallel environment, allowing you to increase revenues and profits unchallenged.

Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

Godin is the former VP of Marketing for Yahoo and lays it out in a short, verbally descriptive format on how companies today act like everyone else and how it is hard for buyers to see your business value if you act and look the same as your competitors. Godin gives multiple examples of companies which have repositioned their business value and increased their sales success by being different. This is inexpensive book that every marketing and sales manager should read.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

In this educational book, Gladwell documents how buyers and prospects make instant judgment calls on what products or services to buy based on group opinion, prejudice, education, social-economic background, and subconscious information that is not obvious through traditional marketing and sales methods. Understanding that many buyer decisions are made in a "Blink" is a key to help you premeditatively develop and control your sales steps and prospect interaction points (telemarketing, executive briefings, web site, brochures, etc.) to increase your sales.

Call to Action by Bryan Eisenberg.

Having personally spoken with the Eisenberg brothers several times during the last three years, it is obvious that they have a little megalomania in them, but there is no question they are industry gurus on how to write web site copy correctly and get unique visitors to your web site converted into business buyers or prospects. Today, most web sites scare prospects away using incorrect pictures, poor navigation button layout and copy that that makes the author feel good buy alienates the visitor. Yes, your web may be pretty, but what is your Customer Conversion Ratio (CCR)? The Eisenbergs write a monthly newsletter called "The Grok", which discusses techniques, methods and strategies to turn inbound web leads into business prospects. Check out this book if you want to have more inbound leads.

Value Forward Selling by Paul DiModica.

I know this author - hey it’s a great book and training course! If you are looking for a proven sales strategy and method based on tested research in the field, knowledge on how to manage buyer action steps, psychological R.O.I., managing buyer risk and creating business value, then this is the book you should buy and study. During the first 90 days of its launch, it has been shipped to over 50 countries and today these proven methods are used by over 21,000 salespeople.

Hunt now . . . or be eaten later!

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