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Verne Harnish
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
Select Books (NY), March 2002
Ted Leonsis, Vice Chair, AOL Owner, Washington Capitals
"The undisputed expert in helping entrepreneurs grow their firms [has] now brought you his powerful ideas in book form."
Book Description
Business guru Verne Harnish's firm Gazelles has brought hundreds of businesses to fast-growth profitability. Now he shares entrepreneurial secrets in this must-read business primer. Harnish has discovered John D. Rockefeller's underlying strategy. Further study uncovered three winning habits:
- Priorities: A few rules remain consistent with a firm's core values and long-term goal. Others change regularly -- what Harnish calls the Top 5 and Top 1 of 5.
- Data: Key metrics should be measured over time (Smart Numbers); short-term metrics provide a tighter focus on an aspect of the business (Critical Numbers).
- Rhythm: A well-organized set of meetings keep everyone aligned and accountable.
In addition to case studies, a bonus chapter co-authored by Rich Russakoff reveals winning tactics to get banks in competition to finance your business venture. MASTERING THE ROCKEFELLER HABITS provides necessary tools for making strategically smart decisions and for keeping everyone aligned and accountable to those decisions.
Ralph Bruksos
Turning Change into a Payday
Training Consultants, July 2005
Relatively few men are called to become doctors or healers but a rare few manage to accomplish both through the steady application of their courage, perseverance, talents, skills or dedication to the success of others. In this book, Ralph Bruksos once again exposes his unique knack for sharing the lessons he has learned and taught to the enduring benefit of others in a long and richly rewarding life of giving the best of himself away.
I believe you will find yourself, as I did, underlining virtually every page as continuing lights flash on in your mind that here at last are the words of the authentic master of achievement in spite of the challenges you may face.
You will find yourself in the company of a true, wise friend, expert guide and caring coach as you read these words. I am sure that the person who reads these pages will be forever changed and permanently indebted for their value.
You are in for a rare and precious treat.
Jack Burke
Relationship Aspect Marketing
Silver Lake Publishing, 2001
Jack Burke, former Hertz Domestic Car Rental leader, has gotten to the heart of the matter in defining those organizations that truly ‘get’ customer affection. In his newest book, RELATIONSHIP ASPECT MARKETING he has detailed case after case of real world examples of ways the pros create touches that matter. If capturing and replicating the spirit of customer intimacy as daily exhibited by the likes of Nordstroms, Hallmark Cards, Disney, Hertz, Four Seasons and countless, dazzling, small and medium enterprises is on your mind then this book is a must. It’s solid writing, delightful reading and constantly raises disturbing questions.
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers
Enterprise One to One
Doubleday-Currency Book, 1997
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, authors of the international best seller The One to One Future, go beyond that now classic work on how to sell more products to fewer customers. For the last several years, they have been teaching companies how to stay at the head of the pack by harnessing technology to achieve killer competitive advantages in customer loyalty.
Seth Godin
Permission Marketing
Simon & Shuster, May, 1999
Remember "Mother, May I?" from childhood? It's back and it's deadly serious this time. Permission Marketing evangelist and Internet Marketing Pioneer, Seth Godin, says he wants to change the way almost everything is marketed today. The key question is, will you give him permission to show you the immediate future of true customer relationship management? The man 'Business Week' calls the 'ultimate entrepreneur for the information age,' teaches in-touch and the Nurture message in the age of the digital nervous system better than anyone yet. This gets my number two spot after only one reading. Added to Enterprise One To One and Nurture, it gives you a complete, closed loop, solution to gaining and sustaining customer permission to influence. Interruption marketers, beware. MUST READ
Bill Gates
Business @ The Speed of Thought
Warner Books, March, 1999
Chances are your company has a sizable investment in technology - and is realizing only 20 percent of its potential benefit. As Gates explains, you're probably viewing hardware and software as a way to solve specific problems. But like a living organism, an organization functions best if it can rely on a nervous system that will instantaneously deliver information to the parts that need it. In clear, non-technical language, Business @ The Speed of Thought shows you how a digital nervous system can unite all the systems and processes under one common infrastructure, releasing rivers of information and allowing your company to make a quantum leaps in efficiency, growth and profits.
"I have the simple but strong belief," Gates writes. "How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose." Business @ The Speed of Thought gives you the information you need to win.
Mahan Khalsa
Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play
Franklin Quest Co, 1999
Helping clients succeed is fundamental to the success of any business. Let’s Get Real teaches you to become totally client-focused, break down the barriers of dysfunctional business development, and find rewarding, productive business relationships. With honesty, clarity, and authenticity, Mahan Khalsa cuts to the chase, through the nonsense, and zeros in on helping clients succeed. “Mahan masterfully teaches that one person’s success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others. Let’s Get Real elevates the profession of selling and business development to a new level through sound business thinking, and genuine concern for the success of others.” Jean-Philippe Courtois, Vice President, Worldwide Customer Marketing, Microsoft.
Bernd H. Schmitt
Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act, and Relate to Your Company and Brands
Free Press, 1999
Experiential Marketing is a new form of corporate persuasion that strives to elicit a powerful sensory or thoughtful customer response, is rapidly replacing the boring features-and-benefits approach. Bernd H. Schmitt, a professor of marketing and director of the Center on Global Brand Management at Columbia Business School, says leading enterprises ranging from Gillette and Martha Stewart to Amtrak and Oprah Winfrey are already using such emotionally loaded techniques successfully to develop new products, communicate with customers, create business partnerships, build innovative cyberspace and brick-and-mortar sales outlets, and boost profits. Engaging, enlightening, provocative, and sensational are just some of the words I use to describe compelling experiences and these words also describe this extraordinary book by Bernd Schmitt.
Bill Bachrach
Values-Based Selling:
The Art of Building High-Trust Client Relationships
Bachrach & Associates, 1996
Values-Based Selling is one of the really great books on becoming a trusted advisor to affluent people. Bill has written an excellent book on this critical topic. Whether you are just starting out or already a seasoned veteran in any part of the financial services field, Bill Bachrach's book is delightfully easy to read and understand. That he has 'been there and done it' becomes instantly apparent as you read and his techniques on building client relationships are solid, practical and do-able. He provides actual conversational dialogues for virtually every type of situation. He has scripted actual phone conversations, prospecting techniques, seminar strategies and much more. Refreshingly, his concepts are congruent and in complete integrity. He's revealed basic steps and he's made it oh, so easy to implement. Read what he writes about working with their process, not just selling them your products. Order this one now. This book is a must for anyone wanting to become truly successful this field.
Dick Lee
The Customer Relationship Management Planning Guide
High-Yield Marketing Press, 2000
This book follows the author’s premise and philosophy that customer relationship management (CRM) is an on-going process beginning with developing customer-centric strategies, then redesigning functional activities (roles and responsibilities of your people), then redeploying work processes ideally supported by CRM technology - both the appropriate software and hardware. I have read many books covering the topic and rate this as tops in the field of customer relationship management
Tom Sant
Persuasive Business Proposals
Amacom Books, 1992
For a growing company, developing quality proposals in a short amount of time is imperative. Persuasive Business Proposals cuts to the quick, providing actionable advice on how to respond efficiently and effectively to an RFP. It presents an excellent structure for writing any proposal from start to finish. The examples are clear, the tips are practical, and the book is actually fun to read. The emphasis on the process of persuading is particularly valuable for technical people who need to get their ideas into print. I have already written my share of proposals, but I know my next one will be better because of this book."
Geoffrey Moore
Crossing the Chasm
Harper Business, 1992
"If you find yourself wondering why it is that the majority of potential buyers for your newest breakthrough technology are not as enthusiastic as your early adopters, read this book or risk joining the others at the bottom of the high-tech abyss." -Jim Kouzes, co-author of The Leadership Challenge, author of Credibility, President of the Tom Peters Group/Learning Systems.
"One of the most thought-provoking books on technology marketing...Moore throws outmoded marketing ideas out the window to clear space for the special realities of the high-tech market."-GIS World
Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D
Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion
Quill, 1993
More than fifteen printings later and with more than one quarter million copies sold worldwide, Influence has clearly established itself as the most important book on persuasion ever published. In his new revised, updated, and expanded edition, Dr. Robert Cialdini explores the weapons of influence at work in today's marketplace. If you have ever attempted to sell a product, to persuade a client, to influence another’s decision; if you have ever entered a department store or thought about buying life insurance or wondered whether to vote for a presidential candidate - in short, all of us, persuaders and persuaded a dozen times a day - you will be enlightened and delighted by what can be learned from this indispensable book.
Al Reis & Jack Trout
Bottom-Up Marketing
McGraw Hill, 1989
Takes you through the process of building a marketing strategy by starting at the bottom and looking for a tactic to exploit. In this pioneering book, Al Reis and Jack Trout explain how marketing should be practiced. Find a tactic that will work. Then build the tactic into a strategy. The workbook on developing a USP.
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
The Discipline of Market Leaders
Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1995
How is it that some companies are reinventing competition in their markets while others are seemingly oblivious to the changing world around them? These are the questions that authors Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema explore in their groundbreaking book, The Discipline of Market Leaders, from the same consulting firm that brought you business reengineering. The answers provide a revolutionary way of thinking about customers, competition, markets, and the fundamental structure of your organization.
Al Reis & Jack Trout
Positioning, The Battle For Your Mind
McGraw Hill, 1981
Robert J. Richardson
The Charisma Factor
Prentise Hall 1996
The handbook shows you how to develop two vital communication skills, entertainment, a technique that allows charismatic leaders to bond with others quickly and gracefully, and emotional management, a set of techniques used to spark any emotional state of mind in those around you.
Michael E. Gerber
The E Myth Revisited
Harper Business Publishing, 1995
In this new and totally revised edition of the 150,000-copy underground bestseller. The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. Next, he walks you through the steps in the life of a business–from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed–and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have read The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.
Miller-Heiman
Successful Large Account Management
Warner Books, 1991
For the accounts you can't afford to lose: the strategies that will keep your customers coming back.
Whether your company has $50,000 or $5 million in sales, chances are that at least half of your revenues come from a few crucial accounts. What does it take to keep them going strong? The authors of Strategic Selling and Conceptual Selling have put together a hard-hitting, no-nonsense book of techniques to improve your most important business relationships.
Jack Burke
Creating Customer Connections
Merritt Publishing, 1998
Excellent customer service generates repeat business and strong profit margins. Shoddy customer service creates a quagmire of returned product and complaints. Success in this field requires dedication, intensity…and even a bit of magic. The magic makes for great stories. But the dedication and intensity pay the bills. This book breaks down the various facets of customer service and explains how the smart business person can master them all. As author Jack Burke writes, "Success in business requires an integrated marketing and communication approach that will result in the cultivation of a nexus between a company and its customers.
Katherine Vessenes
Protecting Your Practice
Bloomberg Press, 1997
Katherine Vessenes has written a lively, informative guide…Whether you’ve been a financial planner for years or are new to the profession, you’ll find Protecting Your Practice an essential addition to your professional library. An authoritative, compact overview of compliance issues and building a practice.
Andy Jenkins, Dick Elder, Dave Thomas
How to Sell with a Laptop: Shoulder-To-Shoulder Techniques for Powerful Laptop Sales Presentations
McGraw-Hill, 1999
Most salespeople now have laptop computers, but rarely receive training in how to use them effectively to make a sales presentation. How to Sell with a Laptop is the first book that tells sales people: How to use a laptop computer strategically on each sales call; What to do and what not to do when delivering a laptop-based sales presentation; How to use the Web to access information during a sales call, and; Tips for making easy PowerPoint presentations - customized for each client.
Roger C. Parker
Streetwise Relationship Marketing On The Internet
Adams Media Corporation, 2000
Repeat customers are your most profitable customers. But how do you create and implement a customer-focused strategy for the Web? Streetwise Relationship marketing on the Internet is filled with creative, low-cost ideas to turn browsers into loyal customers.
Tools that work in the real world. Whether you have an existing Web business or are considering starting one, Streetwise Relationship marketing on the Internet will give you the tools you need to:
- Increase traffic to your site
- Create a positive customer service experience
- Develop a site that customers will return to again and again
Promotion tips from the pros. Roger Parker also provides insight into the most important aspects of promotion on the Internet. You will learn:
- How to design a sight that is clear, attractive, and easy to navigate.
- How to streamline your customer follow-up system
- How to transform your business without risking your current success
- How to keep your site current once it is up and running
- How to utilize e-mail as a marketing tool
Roger Dow and Susan Cook
Turned on: Eight Vital Insights to Energize Your People, Customers and Profits
Harper Business, 1997
Roger Dow and Sue Cook have put together a compelling road map on how to achieve the payoffs and possibilities that result from ‘turned on’ people and is filled with leadership lessons everyone can profit from. Turned On offers timeless wisdom that is fun, inspirational, and immediately available to your organization. It not only shows where to go but how to get there. People count and they remain an organization’s single most important competitive advantage. Turned On is a practical, yet inspirational, guide to letting them flourish and excel.
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