One Minute Pause no 15

I’ve taken a break from the topic of spoken communication (just for a week).

Instead, I’ve compiled 5 business books that you really must read.

Twice.

In fact it’s not fair for me to say that I compiled the list.

They’re mainly your suggestions (thanks for all your great ideas).

So, if you haven’t read them, buy these. There’s links to Amazon at the start of each one.

A tip: write all over them - it helps to remember key bits.

But don’t give them to friends (they never give them back).

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People - I almost feel apologetic for putting this in the list, because I’m sick of hearing about it - yet I love it.

It’s hard to deny that this book is, as Uncle Pete calls it, the Bible of Behaviour.

Ever since Carnegie wrote it in the 1930s it has been a best-seller and remains so.

2. Purple Cow - Seth Godin is today’s pioneer of marketing.

Purple Cow is Seth’s view of how marketing has changed, and how advertising as we know it has died.
If your organisation doesn’t stand out as would a purple cow in a field, you’re doomed before you start.

In fact, Seth reckons Purple Cow is the new P in marketing.

I think he may be right.

Short, straight to the point and with many current, interesting examples, it is a must read if as a company you are struggling to be heard against the competition.

Narrowly edges out Bootstrapper’s Bible and Free Prize Inside by the same author. Seth gives away Bootstrapper free: if you want it, just let me know.

3. Secrets of Question Based Selling - I’ve banged on about this before but it is the only sales book that I have read twice. In fact, much more than twice.

This book has also been the inspiration for our very successful 1 day course.

It is all about the questions you ask of people that help you to build credibility and get you the information you need to make a sale.

Should be simple and common to us all, but as you know when you’ve had to listen to dodgy salesmen, it’s not.

Thomas Freese was the first person to articulate it well and structure it better.

4. Ogilvy on Advertising - David Ogilvy, like Caples and Hopkins before him, demystified the advertising process to a large degree by introducing more of a science to it.

There is, according to the late great man, some rules to follow, and some disciplines to apply with advertising that will firewall your efforts against failure.

If you don’t have the need to advertise, and you are simply interested in what goes on behind the doors of an agency, then this is still a great read.

5. The Tipping Point -
Malcolm Gladwell is three things rolled into one: a great storyteller, a brilliant researcher and a lateral thinker.

The Tipping Point is all about the moment when a good idea turns into an epidemic.

Examples vary from Sesame Street to cleaning up the subway (the ‘broken windows’ theory of tackling crime is superb).

Narrowly edges out Crossing the Chasm due to a similar theory.

Special mentions:
Free Prize Inside, Anyone Can Do It and Execution (The Art of Getting Things Done).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2005 at 5:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, One Minute Pause. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.