Books

Cold calling is not only one of the fastest and most profitable ways to initiate a new sales contact and build business. It’s also one of the most dreaded for the salesperson and the recipient, says Art Sobczak. Smart Calling claims to have the solution: Sobczak’s proven, never-experience-rejection-again system. While other books on cold calling dispense long-perpetuated myths such as… 

Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Oneworld, October 2015 Anne-Marie Slaughter argues why women (and men) can’t have it all. She looks at the hurdles women face in the workplace and sets out her vision for true equality between men and women with an action plan on how to get there. +

Insight Selling: How to sell value & differentiate your product with Insight Scenarios by Michael David Harris, paperback, 6 January 2014 How does a salesperson deliver insight so that it challenges the customer’s thinking without challenging the customer? That’s the question that this book will answer. Part one of this book examines why “Insight Selling” will help you sell value… 

The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource, Jeffrey Gitomer The new softbound edition of global sales authority Jeffrey Gitomer’s bestselling classic, The Sales Bible, has been updated and appended to include social media answers, and claims to offer the ultimate sales methods and strategies that really work every day, in real-world selling situations. +

Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, Flatiron Books, 2015 The authors tell the story of how an engineer and a salesman came together to create a business communication device that conquered the world in the early 2000s, and how quickly it was toppled by the… 

Brilliant Selling: What the Best Salespeople Know, Do and Say (Brilliant Business) by Jeremy Cassell and Tom Bird, Pearson paperback, 31 May 2012 Written by MD of performance improvement consultancy RTP (Release the Potential) Jeremy Cassell and RTP director Tom Bird, this book starts with the premise that you can sell anything you want and targets are always achievable. Whether… 

Big Data in Practice: How 45 successful companies used big data analytics to deliver extraordinary results, Bernard Marr, hardcover 11 April 2016 Big data is on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Everyone understands its power and importance, but many fail to grasp the actionable steps and resources required to utilise it effectively. This book fills the knowledge gap by showing… 

7 Steps To Sales Force Transformation: Driving Sustainable Change in Your Organization by Warren Shiver and Michael Perla, Palgrave MacMillan, January 2016, 978-1137548047, $35 Up to 75% of attempted transformations fail. According to authors Warren Shiver and Michael Perla, the root of the problem is two-fold: salespeople are notoriously reluctant to change, and all too often, even when the sales… 

Best Practice in B2B Customer Satisfaction Surveys – A Practical Guide by John Coldwell and Howard Plomann This book has been written specifically for those who work in a B2B environment who want to get more from their customer satisfaction surveys. The authors claim that a well-planned and carefully implemented survey, which is properly followed through, should result in a… 

Mapping Motivation – Unlocking the Key to Employee Energy and Engagement by James Sale, Gower, January 2016, 978-1-4724-5927-5, £45 Selling successfully is hugely dependent on motivation and author James Sales seeks to provide the definitive book on the subject – its language and metrics are full of knowledge, insight and practical tips. The contents explore the concept and roots of… 

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, authors of The Challenger Sale, with Pat Spenner and Nick Toman The Challenger Customer is the long-awaited sequel to the bestselling sales classic The Challenger Sale, the book which introduced the controversial idea that challenging the customer is the key to sales success. But it turns out that’s only half the story: it’s not just… 

Nick de Cent, Editor of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, recommends Return on Character by Dr Fred Kiel is based around original research and wider studies of psychology, genetics and neuroscience. Exploring the relationship between the character of business leaders and company performance, Dr Kiel found that character-driven leaders and their teams consistently deliver five times greater returns for… 

Nick de Cent, Editor of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, recommends Relevance by Phil Styrlund, Tom Hayes and Marian Deegan sets out to explain how we can avoid commoditisation by seeking to be relevant. They advocate four key principles in this search for relevance: authenticity, mastery, empathy and action. This book is easy to read and packed with personal… 

Nick de Cent, Editor of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, recommends Sales Growth: Five Proven Strategies From The World’s Sales Leaders is by those bright sparks at McKinsey. Authors Thomas Baumgartner, Homayoun Hatami and Jon Vander Ark offer a practical blue-print for achieving this goal based around what world-class sales executives are doing to find and capture growth and… 

Nick Christian, managing director of Turnstone Sales, says: “Behind The Cloud by Marc Benioff is a very interesting insight into the growth and strategy of one of the world’s most disruptive and successful businesses (salesforce.com). Really strong sales insight delivered in a practical and, at times humorous way. It’s not a heavy academic paper, but a really easy-to-read book with… 

Bob Apollo, Managing Partner at Inflexion-Point and Journal columnist says: “I’ve been inspired by The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, which is not directly about selling but highly relevant to eliminating avoidable errors in the sales process. All these books are very well thumbed, even the digital copies!” +

Bob Apollo, Managing Partner at Inflexion-Point and Journal columnist says: “I’ve been inspired by Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, which many regard as the bible for technology marketers, and very relevant to selling”. +

Bob Apollo, Managing Partner at Inflexion-Point and Journal columnist says: “I’ve been inspired by Insight Selling by Mike Shultz and John Doerr, which rebalances the importance of relationships; Sales Growth by Thomas Baumgartner, Homayoun Hatami and Jon Vander Ark, three very bright McKinsey types. I really like the section on micro-segmentation”. +

Bob Apollo, Managing Partner at Inflexion-Point and Journal columnist says: “I’ve been inspired by The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson on the power of constructive provocation but undervalues relationships”. +

Bob Apollo, Managing Partner at Inflexion-Point and Journal columnist says: “I’ve been inspired by Predictable Revenue by ArronRoss and Marylou Tyler, which is great on systematic customer acquisition”. +