General Books - Page 6

22 Immutable Laws of Branding

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Total reviews: 87 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Branding.

Dubbed by many the “marketing buzzword” of the late ‘90s, everyone knows that building your product or service into a bona fide brand is the only way to cut through the clutter in today's insanely crowded marketplace.

The only question is, how do you do it?

Learn the laws of branding in the branding bible: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. Brilliant, bold, and mercifully brief, this is the definitive work on branding, distilling the complex principles and theories espoused in other long-winded, high-priced professional marketing tomes into 22 quick and easy-to-listen-to vignettes. Pairing the brand-blazing strategies from the world's best -- like Coca-Cola, Xerox, and Starbucks -- with the world-renowned marketing savvy of bestselling author, Al Ries, and his daughter Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding builds on the huge international success of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and provides the expert insight you seek on business's hottest topic in less time than an airplane ride.

Find out:

• Why you will fail to create a brand through advertising, sales promotion, public relations or fancy packaging
• How to define your category. . . even if you're not first to market
• How overbranding equals underwhelming
• Why good old-fashioned publicity may be the missing link in the brand-building process
• Why giving your brand the right name is perhaps more important than the brand itself

And perhaps most important of all:

• How to own a word in the mind of the consumer.

Smart and accessible, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding provides the ammo you need to dominate your category and turn your product or service into a world-class brand.

The SPIN Selling Fieldbook

Neil Rackham

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Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Strategies and tools that guarantee big-ticket sales!

Neil Rackham's national bestseller SPIN Selling revolutionized high-end selling. Now, The SPIN Selling Fieldbook shows you how to actually put into practice the proven tools and techniques outlined in that cutting-edge guide. After a review of the SPIN method of selling, Neil Rackham zeroes in on the critical SPIN® questioning behaviors. He shows you how to apply the tools and techniques to your own selling situation, using practical, skill-building exercises incorporated into each chapter. Addressing the sales of services as well as capital goods, the Fieldbook provides you with a hands-on implementation guide for applying SPIN in a wide range of businesses from localized companies to large multinationals. Real-life case studies of sales forces at leading-edge companies such as Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, and AT&T help you explore additional techniques that go beyond the basics to boost sales with even the toughest customers and clients.

The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do

Clotaire Rapaille

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Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Why are people around the world so very different? What makes us live, buy, even love as we do? The answers are in the codes.

In The Culture Code, internationally revered cultural anthropologist and marketing expert Clotaire Rapaille reveals for the first time the techniques he has used to improve profitability and practices for dozens of Fortune 100 companies. His groundbreaking revelations shed light not just on business but on the way every human being acts and lives around the world.

Rapaille’s breakthrough notion is that we acquire a silent system of codes as we grow up within our culture. These codes—the Culture Code—are what make us American, or German, or French, and they invisibly shape how we behave in our personal lives, even when we are completely unaware of our motives. What’s more, we can learn to crack the codes that guide our actions and achieve new understanding of why we do the things we do.

Rapaille has used the Culture Code to help Chrysler build the PT Cruiser—the most successful American car launch in recent memory. He has used it to help Procter & Gamble design its advertising campaign for Folger’s coffee – one of the longest lasting and most successful campaigns in the annals of advertising. He has used it to help companies as diverse as GE, AT&T, Boeing, Honda, Kellogg, and L’Oréal improve their bottom line at home and overseas. And now, in The Culture Code, he uses it to reveal why Americans act distinctly like Americans, and what makes us different from the world around us.

In The Culture Code, Dr. Rapaille decodes two dozen of our most fundamental archetypes—ranging from sex to money to health to America itself—to give us “a new set of glasses” with which to view our actions and motivations. Why are we so often disillusioned by love? Why is fat a solution rather than a problem? Why do we reject the notion of perfection? Why is fast food in our lives to stay? The answers are in the Codes.

Understanding the Codes gives us unprecedented freedom over our lives. It lets us do business in dramatically new ways. And it finally explains why people around the world really are different, and reveals the hidden clues to understanding us all.

The Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing: Build a Million-Dollar Business in 12 Months

Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, Robert Skrob

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Welcome to the information marketing industry - a little-known industry of entrepreneurs, most working only part-time hours and netting seven-figure profits.

Info-marketers gather information and sell it in convenient forms to people who need it. The topics include everything imaginable from better sex, to teaching parrots to talk, to gardening, to investing in real estate, to running businesses. In addition to an easy 9-step process for you to create your own info-business, this book profiles 29 info-marketers, reveals their businesses strategies, marketing materials and business documents so you can have the tools you need to duplicate their success.

How a Real Estate Millionaire Gets His Customers to Do the Selling for Him ….. Page 159

How One Ex-Salesman, Ex-Law Enforcement Officer, Ex-Company Owner Turned Surplus Junk Into a Million-Dollar Info-business ….. Page 28

A High School Kid Built a Business and Earned More Than His College Professors ….. Page 32

A Direct Sales Process That Turned Into an Info-Business ….. Page 35

The 40 Ways to Make Money With Information Products ….. Page 41

The Quick Way to Determine the Selling Price of Information Products …. Page 43

How Simple Changes Multiplied a Product's Sales Price 4Times …. Page 51

How a Professional Speaker Got Off the Road and Built a Million-Dollar Business She Could Run From Her Home Office …. Page 53

Blinded and Handicapped by Multiple Sclerosis, One Info-Marketer Used His Disability to Build a Successful Info-Business …. Page 59

What a Successful Veterinarian Did to Get Veterinarians From Around the World to Buy His Marketing Strategies …. Page 62

How an Info-Marketer From a Small Town in Kansas (population 565) Built an International Business …. Page 72

Someone Who Teaches Men How to Get Women to Approach Them for Dates …. Page 76

An Australian Built a Business Teaching Salons How to Book More Appointments, and He's Never Owned a Salon Before …. Page 81

How an Info-Marketer Used His Products to Create a Professional Speaking Business Earning Him $10,000.00 per Gig …. Page 89

How a Mom From New York Built a Business From Her Home That Kept Bill Collectors Away and Gave Her Family the Extra Money for a Great Lifestyle …. Page 101

What an Info-Marketer Did With No Knowledge and No Customers to Build a Million-Dollar Business Within a Year …. Page 149

What to Say to Get Customers to Believe That You Really Do Offer High Quality Products …. Page 121

Information Marketing is responsive to and fueled by the ever-increasing pressure on peoples' time. Businesspeople and consumers alike need information provided to them in convenient forms, and in some cases, need an extension of it; methods and strategies that might merely have been taught to them 10 years ago are now done for them. The Information Industry encompasses products like traditional books, audio programs, videos or DVD's that you might buy in a store, from a catalog, or online; magazines, newsletters, e-books, membership websites, teleseminars and webinars, telecoaching programs, and seminars and conferences; and combinations thereof. Much of this business is conducted by lone wolf, small, quiet operators, many with home-based businesses, most with zero to no more than a few employees, most working only part-time hours and most netting 7-figure profits.

Michael E. Porter on Competition

Michael E. Porter

List Price: $39.95 By: Harvard Business School Press Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $7.29

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For the past 15 years, Michael Porter's work has defined our fundamental understanding of competition and competitive strategy. Presented here for the first time as a collective whole are a dozen articles: two entirely new articles and ten of Porter's articles from the "Harvard Business Review". The collection includes a framing introduction from Porter. As a collection, these essays assume a new strength and significance, with each piece augmenting and supporting a complete picture of Porter's perspective on modern competition. To read through this collection is to experience Porter at work: we see first hand as his important theories take shape, deepen, and evolve over time. Organized around three primary categories: Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Location, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems, these articles develop the building blocks that define competitive strategy as we know it. With his unique ability to bridge economics with management, Porter addresses the important issues of competition, from its relationship with environmental regulation to the counterintuitive role of geography in the global economy. It is a "Harvard Business Review" book.

Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?

Seth Godin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords . . . I don’t care, as long as it’s shiny and new.”

Wait. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great. But if you start with a bowl of meatballs . . . yuck!

As traditional marketing fades away, the new tools seem irresistible. But they don’t work as well for boring brands (“meatballs”) that might still be profitable but don’t attract word of mouth, such as Cheerios, Ford trucks, Barbie dolls, or Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch spends $40 million on an online network called BudTV, that’s a meatball sundae. It leads to no new Bud drinkers, just a bad case of indigestion.

Meatball Sundae is the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don’t.

The winners aren’t just annoying start-ups run by three teenagers who never had a real job. You’ll also meet older companies that have adapted brilliantly, such as Blendtec, a thirty-year-old blender maker. It now produces “Will it blend?” videos that demolish golf balls, Coke cans, iPhones, and much more. For a few hundred dollars, Blendtec reached more than ten million eager viewers on YouTube.

Godin doesn’t pretend that it’s easy to get your products, marketing messages, and internal systems in sync. But he’ll convince you that it’s worth the effort.

Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide

John Jantsch

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Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Duct Tape Marketing is the small business marketing road map - A collection of proven tools and tactics woven together in a step-by-step marketing system that shows small business owners exactly what to do to market and grow their businesses.

This guide combines insights gained from over twenty years of successfully working, in the field, with real-life small businesses.

There are no theoretical complexities presented in Duct Tape Marketing - just simple, effective and affordable marketing that sticks.

CAREFUL! Duct tape is a serious tool... it sticks where you put it. So are the ideas in this book. If you're ready to make a commitment and are willing to make something happen, John's book is a great place to start. --Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow

For all those who wonder why John Jantsch has become the leading advisor and coach to small businesses everywhere, Duct Tape Marketing is the answer. I have never read a business book that is as packed with hands-on, actionable information as this one. There are takeaways in every paragraph, and the success of John's blog is living proof that they work. Duct Tape Marketing should be required reading for anyone who is building a business, or thinking about it. --Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large, Inc. magazine, and author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big

Duct Tape Marketing is a worthy addition to the growing library of how-to books on small business marketing -- concise, clear, practical, and packed with great ideas to boost your bottom line. --Bob Bly, author of The White Paper Handbook

With the world suffering from depleted reserves of trust, a business that sells plenty of it every day tends to create the most value. The great thing about trust as a product feature is that it delivers exceptional returns. With this book, John Jantsch has zeroed in on exactly what small businesses need to sell every day, every hour. --Ben McConnell, co-author of Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force

John Jantsch has provided small businesses with the perfect perspective for maximizing all marketing activities - offline and on. Jantsch has the plan to help you thrive in the world of business today. Read it, all your competitors will. --John Battelle, cofounding editor or Wired and author of The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

Duct Tape Marketing is a great read for anyone in business. It has fresh ideas laid out in a practical and useable way. I highly recommend this book for growing any business. --Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder of BNI and Co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Masters of Networking

Hypnotic Writing: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words

Joe Vitale

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Discover the secrets of written persuasion!

"The principles of hypnosis, when applied to copywriting, add a new spin to selling. Joe Vitale has taken hypnotic words to set the perfect sales environment and then shows us how to use those words to motivate a prospect to take the action you want. This is truly a new and effective approach to copywriting, which I strongly recommend you learn. It's pure genius."
-Joseph Sugarman, author of Triggers

"I've read countless book on persuasion, but none come close to this one in showing you exactly how to put your readers into a buying trance that makes whatever you are offering them irresistible."
-David Garfinkel, author of Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich

"I am a huge fan of Vitale and his books, and Hypnotic Writing (first published more than twenty years ago), is my absolute favorite. Updated with additional text and fresh examples, especially from e-mail writing, Joe's specialty, Hypnotic Writing is the most important book on copywriting (yes, that's really what it is about) to be published in this century. Read it. It will make you a better copywriter, period."
-Bob Bly, copywriter and author of The Copywriter's Handbook

"I couldn't put this book down. It's eye opening and filled with genuinely new stuff about writing and persuading better. And it communicates it brilliantly and teaches it brilliantly-exemplifying the techniques by the writing of the book itself as you go along."
-David Deutsch, author of Think Inside the Box, www.thinkinginside.com

"Hypnotic Writing is packed with so much great information it's hard to know where to start. The insights, strategies, and tactics in the book are easy to apply yet deliver one heck of a punch. And in case there's any question how to apply them, the before-and-after case studies drive the points home like nothing else can. Hypnotic Writing is not just about hypnotic writing. It is hypnotic writing. On the count of three, you're going to love it. Just watch and see."
-Blair Warren, author of The Forbidden Keys to Persuasion

The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage

B. Joseph Pine, James H. Gilmore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

You are what you charge for. And if you're competing solely on the basis of price, then you've been commoditized, offering little or no true differentiation. What would your customers really value? Better yet, for what would they pay a premium? Experiences. The curtain is about to rise, say Pine and Gilmore, on the 'Experience Economy', a new economic era in which every business is a stage, and companies must design memorable events for which they charge admission. With "The Experience Economy", Pine and Gilmore explore how successful companies - using goods as props and services as the stage - create experiences that engage customers in an inherently personal way. Why does a cup of coffee cost more at a trendy cafe than it does at the corner diner or when brewed at home? It's the value that the experience holds for the individual that determines the worth of the offering and the work of the business. From online communities to airport parking, the authors draw from a rich and varied mix of examples that showcase businesses in the midst of creating engaging experiences for both consumers and corporate customers. "The Experience Economy" marks the debut of an insightful, highly original, and yet eminently practical approach for companies to script and stage compelling experiences. In doing so, all workers become actors, intentionally creating specific effects for their customers. And it's the experiences they stage that create memorable -and lasting- impressions that ultimately create transformations within individuals. Make no mistake, say Pine and Gilmore: goods and services are no longer enough. Experiences are the foundation for future economic growth, and "The Experience Economy" is the playbook from which managers can begin to direct new performances.

How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules For Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients

Jeffrey J. Fox

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 68 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

After a Year the results speak 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I read these reviews for help ascertaining the practical usefulness of a sales book. The thousands of reviews written by fellow authors which abound throughout the review on business/sales books I discount as completely worthless, authors scratching each others backs. Then there are the reviews by all the folks that know nothing of what sales is like in the real trenches of belly to belly selling. Worthless as well. Then the reviews by so called sales people and sales managers that is their opinion of the book being a "good" book or a "bad" book, that have suggestions, systems, etc. that they deem worthy or unworthy based on nothing more then their decree. No help for a salesman looking to better his skills and productivity.

I started last January and used the dollarization principle as part of every sales process for the year. This single principal drove my closing rate into the 90 percentile (93%) when presenting to the decision maker. My closing rate dropped to 76% when I have been forced to "sell by messenger" (i.e. selling my messenger occurred at times due to my own failure to present only to the final decision maker).
I also specifically used the principal regarding a "shot on goal" to close my biggest sale of the year which paid me a commission of a little under $12,000.

I use Mr. Fox's magic appointment setting words that make setting appointments with qualified prospects a natural, zero stress process (next time you have some one on the phone you have qualified and would like to meet just say the magic words..."do you have your calendar handy?" Direct, to the point and works in setting appointments with folks you want to see.

I've read libraries of sales books and my personal feeling has always been that if I pick up just one tip that helps close a sale the book was worth while. Well the rain maker books did that and much more for me. Here are the stats after 1 yr. on a national sales team of 37 sales reps, B2B, financial industry:

* Sales ranking went from 3 in the country to number 1
(4th person in country has 30% of the sales volume as number 3)

* Sales increase 2006 to 2007; 89% increase in sales

* 46% increase in income in 2007 over 2006

So hopefully this was a little more helpful as a review for my friends that are shoulder to shoulder with me in the frontlines of selling.

Editorial Review:

Filled with smart tips given in the Fox signature style, counter- intuitive, controversial, and practiced, this hard-hitting collection of sales advice shows readers how to woo, pursue, and finally win any customer. In witty, succinct chapters, Fox offers surprising, daring, and totally practical wisdom that will help readers rise above the competition in any company in any field. A terrific resource for CEOs, as well as anyone looking to distinguish themselves in salesbe it books, cars, or real estateHow to Become a Rainmaker offers the opportunity to rise above the competition in any company, in any field.