Book Review: Making the Number by Greg Alexander, Aaron Bartels, and Mike Drapeau

First, a definition for Sales Benchmarking from Wikipedia: A sales management process used to compare a company’s sales force against other companies or against industry performance. The purpose is to identify opportunities to improve performance and to focus the efforts of a sales organization.

This book was a tough read. It is not a story of the greatness of slaes techniques. It is a text book that educates the reader on the powerful practice of benchmarking for sales. It is not for the weak at heart or those who are not prepared for the journey. It is a science manual not a motivational tome. This review is directed at the sales leaders out their that need to gain a competitive advantage. All of the entrepreneurs and aspiring leaders in sales that read my blog should heed my advice and consider this a book you should get on the shelf. That is, after wearing the page corners with many thumb turns.

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The worst sales pitch ever – $24 million from Belgium

I am sorry but I had to. This was in my junk folder today. Now I get the Nigerian scams at a rate of 10 a day and every now and then I give them a read, in hopes I find one this funny. Seriously, this is a great read. Please comment and tell me why this is such a bad pitch. I will give the person who answers best, and yes I am the judge, 8 hours of free sales mentoring. OK here goes:

“TRUST IN THE LORD

From: Mrs. Linda Hartley

I am the above named person from Belgium . I am married to Dr Louise Hartley who worked with Belgium Embassy in America for seven years before he died in the year 2008.We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only two weeks. Before his death we were both born again Christians. Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my Matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of 24Million Dollars (twenty four Million United State Dollars) on the safe deposit box with the bank. Europe. (more…)

Five Minutes with Vito by Anthony Parinello and David Matteson

Parinello and Matteson make a great team

I am not going to give this book my standard number based review, because I gave the Parinello masterpiece Selling to Vito a review last year. Click on the link or check out the book review category to read it. Is this the same book, NO, NO, NO. It has fresh ideas, a modern voice, and is a great quick read for anyone who needs to know how to get to the top of the sales universe.

The reason I need not give a new ranking review, is it is based on the same brilliant principles that made the first book a masterpiece:

To sell to VITO you must act like VITO
Sales people are more like VITO than anyone else
If you do not think like VITO you lose
There is a process and it is VITO’s process
VITO believes in doing things that are effective (more…)

Book review: A quickie on a decent read, an apology, and another promise

First of all please forgive me for the long absence from words on screen. The workload is getting ever more complex and interesting. As many of you know, in startups, sales, mentoring, and execution, success breeds more work. With all of my client efforts thriving, my own efforts have had to take a backseat for a short period of time. No offense, but it was you or the kids, and well they are really cute. Still I am truly sorry.

Now on to the  promise; I will deliver fresh content EVERY WEEK DAY in OCTOBER; share several surprises and announcements, answer 2 ask the coach questions, offer some give aways, and much much more. For now, just know the TV show will launch in January, and the book is on track for summer.

Now, on to the review:

Email Marketing for Complex Sales Cycles by Winton Churchill. Yes that is really his name, and frankly I find it a great name for a marketing wizard. Talk about a quick grab and a talking piece. No offense to my makers but Karl Goldfield does not have a story of prime minister proportions behind it. At best a couple of stories whispered in the back of a seedy bar from my exploits in my 20’s.

Anyways, this was an exceptionally quick read that took about three of my four hours. Since it was so easy to digest I will skip my usual reviewing style and just share some basics. Winton does a a great job spelling out just that:

1. A simple explanation to the less savvy on the benefits of email marketing.

2. A basic philosophy to deliver value and get people to want to work with you.

3. Strong advice as to how this can cmpliment your sales efforts.

4. A defined theory and the application to make it work.

5. Value, this book is a steal considering he shares a lot.

Now, as is my custom, I will share the minor things I had a problem with. As in most books on sales and marketing, Winton has a habit of justifying the content. I wish as an author he would just let his content speak for itself instead of sharing why you have to believe in it. This book is also for the early marketer, and while I try to review through the average readers mind, there is nothing new here for those already focused on email marketing strategies. Considering I am running Message Slinger there is not much here for me but a bit of a strategic refresher. For those of you that are not accustomed to generating leads through email marketing, buy this book.

A parting thought; Winton is very good at spelling things out in conversational prose. With the reading of our modern society moving to the casual comunications of the blogosphere, he has a great written voice. Again, it was a quick read, between a Chivas and a plane landing in Dallas. If you need to get some leads going for a low cost with high return, it is worth every penny.

Book review: Topgrading for Sales by Bradford Smart PHD and Gregory Alexander

In Topgrading for Sales, we have for the sales focused hiring manager a playbook for bringing in the overachievers needed to maintain ongoing success. Gregory Alexander has aided Dr. Smart in translating his already well known methods into the sales community.

This book is an aid and tutorial for the sales manager that needs what they refer to as A players. There is no doubt that if you leverage these practical suggestions in your day to day hiring practices, the shape of your sales team will change for the better. Now to begin:

Delivery: 6 

As you will soon discover, this is the only place I had real issues with the book. While the appendix and layout of how to use their system is fantastic, I felt that too much time was spent on selling the concept to the reader. After the first example of why this system works, only a fool would not get it. In that sense, I did see the book as not realizing the audience is already hiring sales people and is probably utilizing some of their suggestions.

That said, the language is plain and frank. It would be hard to get lost in their explanations, and the data comes in straight forward packages that are easy to digest and equally as simple to look up and reference.

Concept: 10

I will minimize this explanation for a 10 because it is as basic as the book. THIS BOOK IS 25 YEARS OVER DUE! The need for a process in hiring sales people that covers all of the best practices, I mean, why did it take so long to think of that? While I have been hiring for years, and many of these ideas came to me naturally, to create this blueprint. Gentlemen thank you!

Message: 10

Again, brilliant and obvious. If you are not hiring the best, you are doomed to fail. If you do not use the best practices, you cannot hir the best. They spoon feed us these practices and make it easy. I have already adopted what parts were new to me into my hiring system. Beware of my pre-screening documents and virtual bench, I am even more dangerous than before I read this book.

OVERALL: 9

While a  6 for delivery should have brought this score lower, the concept and message should have rated above the top 10. Since this book should be on every bookshelf for its sound advice and strong documents, the delivery is easily excused. Frankly if you are not using this system, and your competitor is, quit and start working for them today.