Sales & Selling Books

Marketing Management (13th Edition) (Marketing Management)

Philip Kotler, Kevin Keller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The classic marketing textbook 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is really a good mainstream marketing textbook for countries with a well developed consumermarket. It covers all important subjects in a concise and smooth way. Relevance can be improved by switching focus from an American to a truly international practice.
More attention should be paid to the "good citizenship" concept. It's the licence to operate in a country. Mix it with the concepts of Naomi Klein and you will be well-prepared for your marketing job.

Editorial Review:

Kotler/Keller is the gold standard in the marketing management discipline because it continues to reflect the latest changes in marketing theory and practice.

Topics covered include brand equity, customer value analysis, database marketing, e-commerce, value networks, hybrid channels, supply chain management, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and integrated marketing communications.

For marketing professionals who place special emphasis to creativity and imagination in marketing management.

Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs

Craig Stull, Phil Myers, David Meerman Scott

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

3 stars for the content, 5 stars for the examples; 3.5 stars altogether 3 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Remove the examples from the book, and you have for the most part a collection of already known high level concepts without much depth. Granted, marketing does not have to be complicated and it should not be, but creating innovative products requires more than concepts. For example, the first step in the authors' Tuned-in "process" is "Find unresolved problems". OK, good point, but I knew that and you probably did know that too! How do I do it? The authors's advice: "ask the customers"! But I knew that too. Tell me more. "Ask your non-customers". Wow,I would never have thought of that. Tell me more. "Go to trade shows" say the authors. I knew that too. Tell me more. "Ask open questions", "Keep an open mind", etc. say the authors. At the end of this chapter and of most chapters, I fell frustrated of not learning approaches or tips I have not heard about before and of not learning more how to do it.

At the end of Chapter 4, I was going to drop the book, but the examples kept me going. There are at least 50 examples of Tuned-in companies from Disneyland to the Maganavox remote control that locates itself to the ubiquitous iPod. These examples are interesting by themselves. They are spread through the book to illustrate each step and to validate the entire tuned-in "process".

I keep putting process in between quotes because what the authors present is not really a process. It is more a framework. In addition, it seems that not one of the examples was actually the result of applying the authors' framework under their guidance. So the whole edifice is an after-the-fact analysis of successful innovations that serves to justify the author's framework. I would have liked to see at least one example of a product that the authors actually helped develop.

The book itself is an example of the framework the authors propose, and in particular of "Step 5: Articulate Powerful Ideas". This chapter develops the idea of establishing "memorable concepts that speak to the problems the customers have". The authors here eat their own dog food, and it is clear that they spent time thinking about how they should name that book and what memorable concepts they should articulate it in. "Tuned-in" is a sgood and simple concept that is repeated over and over throughout the book so that it sticks in your mind. There is an other one that is used over and over; it is "resonators" to designate successful products that resonate with customers.

In summary, the value of this book is probably in this Chapter 5. At least it is for me. We typically underestimate that the least number of words a concept can be described in, the more powerful it is. "Tuned in" is a useful concept to keep in mind to designate that idea that we need to be "tuned in" to the market and the customer. But you will need many other books and workshops to know how to do it. But, that's what the authors' core business is: delivering seminars! No doubt that they will have demand.

Editorial Review:

If you market a product, service, or idea in any business, industry or organization, you must read Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs, a guide to understanding and meeting the needs of consumers, whether or not they make those needs clear. An easy-to-follow six-step process developed over the past 15 years can help you address unsolved problems, recognize buyer personas, quantify impact and create breakthrough experiences. Stop wasting time by guessing what your market needs and start understanding consumer desire.

SPIN Selling

Neil Rackham

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 95 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The international bestseller that revolutionized high-end selling!

Written by Neil Rackham, former president and founder of Huthwaite corporation, SPIN Selling is essential reading for anyone involved in selling or managing a sales force. Unquestionably the best-documented account of sales success ever collected and the result of the Huthwaite corporation's massive 12-year, $1-million dollar research into effective sales performance, this groundbreaking resource details the revolutionary SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) strategy.

In SPIN Selling, Rackham, who has advised leading companies such as IBM and Honeywell delivers the first book to specifically examine selling high-value product and services. By following the simple, practical, and easy-to-apply techniques of SPIN, readers will be able to dramatically increase their sales volume from major accounts. Rackham answers key questions such as “What makes success in major sales” and “Why do techniques like closing work in small sales but fail in larger ones?”

You will learn why traditional sales methods which were developed for small consumer sales, just won't work for large sales and why conventional selling methods are doomed to fail in major sales. Packed with real-world examples, illuminating graphics, and informative case studies - and backed by hard research data - SPIN Selling is the million-dollar key to understanding and producing record-breaking high-end sales performance.

Retailing Management

Michael Levy, Barton A Weitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Retailing Management by Levy and Weitz is the best-selling textbook in the retailing market.

Known for its strategic look at retailing and current coverage, this new 6th edition continues to be organized around a model of strategic decision-making. One of the major advantages of the Levy/Weitz approach is the text’s readability, organization, and its emphasis on how students can come to grips with real retailing issues and be able to solve problems. The text’s logical organization around a decision-making process allows readers to learn about the process of strategic decisions first before moving on to decision implementation. The implementation decisions are broken down into merchandise management decisions and store management decisions, just as they would be in a real retailing setting.

The text provides a balanced treatment of strategic, “how to,” and conceptual material, in a highly readable and interesting format. The sixth edition continues its cutting edge coverage on the latest topics and developments in retailing including globalization, customer relationship management programs, multi-channel retailing, supply chain management, and the use of the Internet to improve operating efficiencies and customer service. Students indicate that this text is a “good read” because of the numerous examples of retailers, their practices, the interesting retail facts in the margins, and eye catching design and layout.

Retailing is a high tech, global, growth industry that provides challenging and rewarding career opportunities for college graduates. This book and its corresponding tools and exercises were written to expose students to the excitement of retailing and prepare them for a career in retailing and related fields.

Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness

Jeffrey Gitomer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 111 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Won't make you a sales pro, but a nice little book 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The Good:
* This book does have some practical, usable insights how how to be a more effective seller
* It's an easy read
* It's competitively priced
* Gittomer does incorporate some good humor and illustrations in the book, which make it more enjoyable

The Bad:
* I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable recommending this book for professionals with some prior sales training. The book is fairly basic and some of the approaches and insights really can be chalked up to common sense. While the book isn't that expensive, I felt it was a little short.

The Bottom Line:
I'd recommend the book for anyone who is new or hesitant about selling (I do recommend this book to my creative freelance readers who dislike sales). Gittomer does a terrific job in simplifying sales and making it a lot less intimidating, I just wish the book was a little longer. This would make a great stocking stuffer, or a quick read on an airplane.

JM Tuber
Author of "Being a Starving Artist Sucks", ISBN: 0981622003

Editorial Review:

Salespeople hate to read. That's why Little Red Book of Selling is short, sweet, and to the point. It's packed with answers that people are searching for in order to help them make sales for the moment--and the rest of their lives.

The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America's Greatest Woman Entrepreneur

Mary Kay Ash

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wow.Just Wow.Must read.Be succesful.Do it with care and kindness. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This woman was a success and her company lives on in legacy for a reason.She knew what she was doing and her succesors would be wise not to doubt for a moment the things she put in motion.I am wildly inspired and equaly moved by this book.Practicing trating people with respect is common sense but so often forgoten in todays society that the proven power of it with the forfront leadership of the company is motivation enough for me to keep that the #1 in my futur direct sales.
Thumbs up for this one!

Editorial Review:

The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America's Greatest Woman Entrepreneur is back in print and updated to reflect developments in today’s business environment for the modern entrepreneur. You will find inspiration and real, proven success principles that represents the forty-five year old success story of Mary Kay Ash, founder Mary Kay, Inc., the cosmetics company that provides women with unlimited opportunities for success. A foreword by Mary Kay’s grandson, also a company executive, introduces her timeless guide to entrepreneurial success.

Hot Prospects: The Proven Prospecting System to Ramp Up Your Sales Career

Bill Good

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Whatever good or service you're selling, five likely customers are worth a hundred random names. No one can help you find new business by finding those five -- or five hundred, or fifty thousand -- best-qualified customers better than Bill Good.

For over a decade, Bill Good's guide to increasing new business by finding the right prospective customers has been an invaluable resource to people in every imaginable profession involving selling. Now completely revised and updated to include lessons on how email, fax machines, and the Internet can be incorporated into an effective prospecting and selling campaign, it is the most valuable tool a salesperson can own.

Anyone who does any prospecting or selling by phone -- from securities, insurance, and real estate to fund-raising -- knows the frustrations and rejections inherent in "cold calling." Many people come to fear it. But why should this be so? Certainly there are people out there who need and want the product you're selling. If only you could more efficiently generate a list of just those people, weed out the hopeless cases, and launch a simple and highly effective campaign to win them to your side. Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success shows you how to do just that. Bill Good draws on all he's learned from a long, successful career teaching companies and individual entrepreneurs how to create successful prospecting campaigns. He jettisons the stale, old-school, don't-believe-a-customer-who-says-no philosophy for a plan of attack that finds good prospects while quickly screening out unqualified, uninterested customers. From the first contact to the final close, Bill Good will help you design a complete, customized prospecting campaign.

In this new revised edition, bursting with fresh ideas for incorporating new media and new technologies into his proven campaign strategies, Bill Good has updated a classic and given salespeople everywhere a book they can't afford to live without.

Foundations of Marketing

William M. Pride, O. C. Ferrell

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Editorial Review:

Foundations of Marketing offers a concise, straightforward approach to basic marketing concepts and strategies, while providing instructors with the flexibility to integrate supplemental resources or activities into their courses. Providing comprehensive coverage in a consolidated format, Pride and Ferrell highlight topics in ethics, e-marketing, and customer relationship management while incorporating up-to-date research and examples throughout. In addition to a well-respected, distinguished author team, authoritative coverage, and comprehensive yet consolidated coverage, the Third Edition includes new advertisements, photos, and screen shots throughout the text; GlobalEdge features that pose questions about marketing in a global context and encourage online exploration; and Opening Vignettes that feature engaging companies intended to spark student interest. Foundations of Marketing Online, 3/e, is a multimedia eBook created to meet the needs of interactive learners. The eBook contains the same material as the printed text but is priced at nearly half the standard retail price of the paperback. The six-month eBook passkey subscription includes access to all the online and premium online content available with CL MarketingSPACE.

Framework for Marketing Management (3rd Edition)

Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

New Marketing Concepts from Classical Texts 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 20 people found this review helpful.

Kotler, a symbolic guru of marketing, has brought a new offering of "Framework for Marketing Management" since years' serial publication of classic texts in marketing management.
Some new issuse has been included in this edition in depth.

Saved me when I needed it FAST! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I needed 27 copies for a class that was started in a week ... Amazon saved me!!!

Editorial Review:

For the MBA Marketing Management course and/or undergraduate capstone marketing strategy course.

Framework for Marketing Management provides authoritative marketing theory in a concise format to provide flexibility where outside cases, simulations, and projects are brought in.

Framework for Marketing Management, A (4th Edition)

Philip Kotler, Kevin Keller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Framework for Marketing Management, Second Edition 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 15 people found this review helpful.

I ordered this book over 1 month ago - I have NOT received it yet. I am wondering what happened.

Great! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 7 people found this review helpful.

As always, College Books Direct delivered quickly, with no problems. Keep up the good work! You will continue to have my business.
-J

Editorial Review:

Framework for Marketing Management is a concise adaptation of the gold standard marketing management textbook for professors who want authoritative coverage of current marketing management practice and theory, but the want the flexibility to add outside cases, simulations, or projects.

Development of marketing strategies, market demand and environments, creating customer value, analysis of consumer markets, market segmentation, brand loyalty, the Product Life Cycle, managing mass communication, and marketing management in the global economy.

This text is for companies, groups, and individuals who want to adapt their marketing strategies and management to the marketplace of the twenty-first century.