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Bill's Book List
April 9, 2008
Call me Jeff Bezos, but I constantly have a bevy of books on my nightstand, moving from one to another. Maybe it is my short attention span but I am in the habit of getting revved up on one title and then moving on to the next. And then the next. Once, when I was in Hawaii I read Lance Armstrong’s second book, Every Second Counts, while also reading How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. Somehow, some way, in the midst of switching from one to another, Reagan won the Tour de France. Man, that guy was amazing. Recently, I pulled out a few classics and made a list. Thought it might be of interest. As you will see, they are not your average Spin Selling kind of Sales 101 books. These take a different approach.
The Four Agreements—other than How to Win Friends and Influence People, I have read this book more than any other. don Miguel Ruiz wrote this classic spiritual self-help book and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a pulse and a conscious. It is simply brilliant and completely applicable to a printing sales rep.
Blink—Author Malcolm Gladwell’s second smash hit (after The Tipping Point), this book describes how to use your intuition to find your customer. At least, that’s what I get out of it. He talks about “thin slicking” —the practice of making a quick thumbs-up, thumbs-down decision based on seemingly instant reads you get on situations. Quick read and a good one.
Brand Warfare—I read this book on building your brand on a beach in Aruba and couldn’t WAIT to get off of that stupid island and practice its lessons. The author details the importance of creating your message through a consistent brand and then expanding within it.
Marketing Outrageously—How fun is a book going to be when the Forward is written by Mark Cuban? I thoroughly enjoyed these stories of how people and companies took a different approach to marketing themselves. Handing out bras at a woman’s basketball game? Yup. And that’s just the beginning.
The Purple Cow—Seth Godin makes his points in a short and easy manner. Nothing here is new, but it gives you yet another view of the need to be different on a consistent basis. We are in a homogeneous industry (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and must be as unique as possible whenever possible.
Well, that’s it for me (though I am sure I will think of a few more once I hit “Post Entry”). Tell me, what are YOU reading?
Posted by Bill Farquharson on April 9, 2008 | Comments (1)
