Tuesday, April 26, 2011

25 New Books on My List

"Hey, you should read..... ". I hear that all the time and I keep a list; then I buy them on Amazon. The lists grows from personal recommendations, blogs, twitter, presentations, meetings, etc. I am also a huge fan of buying books for their cover. Most of them tie back to sales, but they have twists of management, leadership, influencing, clawing ahead, company strategy, etc. All good stuff to get your fired up.

I put them on a shelf, read them or parts of them (when I get around to it), and often refer back to them. Here is my most recent list that has grown over a few months and a quote from Mark Cuban to help me justify buying them.

“I read books about successful people. In fact, I read every book or magazine I could get my hands on. I would tell myself 1 good idea would pay for the book and could make the difference between me making it or not.” – Mark Cuban

·         “Executive Presence: The Art of Commanding Respect Like a CEO” by Harrison Monarth
·         “Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It” by Marshall Goldsmith
·         “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” by Steven Pressfield
·         “Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade, and Sell in Any Situation” by John Doeer
·         “Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload” by Bill Kovach
·         “The One Minute Manager”, by Kenneth H. Blanchard
·         “Only the Paranoid Survive”, by Andrew Grove
·         “Strengths Finder 2.0”, by Tom Rath
·         “Poke the Box”, by Seth Godin
·         “High Output Management”, by Andrew Grove
·         “From Bud to Boss”, by Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris
·         “Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow”, by Chip Conley and Tony Hsieh
·         “Speak as a Leader”, by Herman Cain
·         “Boring Meetings Suck”, by Jon Petz
·         “The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels”, by Michael Watkins
·         “The Effective Executive”, by Peter Drucker
·         “On Leadership”, by John Gardner
·         “First Break all the Rules”, by Marcus Buckingham
·         “Leadership is an Art”, by Max DePree
·         “Execution”, by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan
·         “Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week”, by Dave Barry
·         “Small Is the New Big and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas”, by Seth Godin
·         “TAPE SUCKS: Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story”, by Frank Slootman (Kindle only)
·         “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
·         “Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion”, by Gary Vanerchuck

MapQuest and AOL

We used to say "MapQuest it" or "IM me on AIM".

We don't anymore.



Technology is always changing and adapting. Are you?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Chasing Quota

Walter Brown is one of the top sales authors you never heard of. You won't find him on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. He has a simple website that promotes his only book, Chasing Quota.


Chasing Quota is one of the best sales books I have ever read. It is clear, precise, and simply genius. Walter recently posted an updated version of his book in a .pdf version I uploaded here: Chasing Quota 2. Read it. It's only 25 pages.


Here are a few of my favorite lines from the book:

WHO SHOULD BE IN SALES:
Maybe you, if you:
  • Love to win
  • Hate to lose
  • Like money a lot
  • Like people, and vice versa
  • Believe strongly in your product and service
  • Truly help prospects find solutions
  • Can persuade
  • Can tolerate income risk
  • Can tolerate rejection


Sales Success Can Be Summarized in Eight Words:
BUILD A GOOD PROSPECT PIPELINE, THEN HARVEST THAT PIPELINE

Every Prospect's Three Basic Questions Are:
WHY DO IT? WHY NOW? WHY WITH YOU?
Keep it simple - sell to those questions 

Problems are normal:
SO DON'T WASTE ENERGY ON WHY THE PROBLEM CROSSED YOUR PATH. INVEST THAT ENERGY IN SOLVING IT.
I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

- Bob


Sunday, April 3, 2011

Focus on the road not the wall

I recently read a fantastic post on Ben Horowitz's blog entitled "What’s The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology". This part jumped out at me and I had to share...

"When they train racecar drivers, one of the first lessons is when you are going around a curve at 200 MPH, do not focus on the wall; focus on the road. If you focus on the wall, you will drive right into it. If you focus on the road, you will follow the road. Running a company is like that. There are always a thousand things that can go wrong and sink the ship. If you focus too much on them, you will drive yourself nuts and likely capsize your company."


"Focus on where you are going rather than on what you hope to avoid."

Stay tuned for more on the venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz (they have funded Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, and Groupon).