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Book Summaries

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Entrepreneurship
Motivational/Personal Development
Prospecting/Outbound
Marketing
Productivity/Habits
Sales

Entrepreneurship

The 7 Day Startup by Dan Norris

Dan Norris is a passionate startup founder and an award winning content marketer. He co-founded wpcurve.com, one of the fastest growing WordPress support companies in the world. Whether you’re a startup or not, this book is very actionable.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Don’t listen to generic entrepreneur advice. Much of the advice out there on entrepreneurship does NOT apply to early stage businesses:
    1. “Work on your business, not in your business”: impossible when you’re bootstrapping and vetting out an idea
    2. “Optimize your funnel”: pointless when you have ZERO leads
    3. “Hack your growth”: difficult prior to having customers
  2. Build a business with growth in its DNA. Adapt your business model so that growth is built in. Ways to do that:
    1. Half revenue, half profit. Double up on your costs to service your customer.
    2. Large market potential. Look for opportunities for a million dollar business in your first year (or more).
    3. Build assets. Put valuable content up on your website, make it an asset.
    4. Keep the business model simple. Customers are less likely to do business with companies they don’t understand or relate to.
    5. Recurring or predictable revenue. Build recurring revenue into your services.
  3. Business rules to live by. Dan listed 14, here are my five favorites:
    1. Test every assumption
    2. Solve problems as they arise
    3. Always consider how your business looks without you
    4. Get rid of and replace difficult customers
    5. Focus on retaining customers

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Anything You Want: 40 Lessons For A New Kind Of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers is mostly know for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians. He’s a super successful dude with a really interesting perspective on entrepreneurship.

Top 3 Takeaways:

    1. Only “hell yeah!” If it ain’t a “hell yeah!” it’s a “no.” Most of our stresses in business (and life for that matter) come from saying “yes” to things that don’t excite us. Or people we aren’t excited to be around. Start saying “no” to things that don’t excite you.
    2. If it’s not a hit, switch. Staying the course is always great advice. Don’t force it. If people aren’t excited about your product or service offering, keep improving and reinventing. Go until you find something your customers are dying to pay you for.
    3. Trust, but verify. Ronald Reagan said this many times throughout his presidency. Delegating is a must for scaling a business, but make sure to build in a system of checks and balances. You should have an eye on everymajor financial move in your business.
     

    You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here (affiliate link).

Marketing

22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout

Al Ries and Jack Trout are world-renowned marketing consultants and the bestselling authors of Positioning and 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. This book is full of great advice on how to position your business. Below are my three favorite laws.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Law #2: The Law of Category. If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in. As small business owners, it’s hard to be the very best at what we do right away. Niche down. Be different.
  2. Law #10: The Law of Division. Over time, a category will split into two or more categories. Cars are a great example. There are sports cars, SUVs, trucks, etc. People are sitting around deciding between a Ferrari and a Ford Taurus. Just because you sell marketing services doesn’t mean you’re competing with every marketing agency out there. Find a sub-set of customers who are looking for the best solution to fit their specific needs.
  3. Law #20: The Law of Hype.The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press. Hype isn’t proportionate to success. PR isn’t everything, ok?!
  4.  

Motivation/Personal Development

The Dip by Seth Godin

Seth Godin is the author of 18 best-selling books and is a big-time authority on entrepreneurship and marketing. The Dip is about knowing when to quit a business, product, or service offering.

This image will help with the three takeaways below:

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Know when you’re in the dip. The “dip” occurs on your way to mastery. Things are going really well until they aren’t. As time progresses, you hit setbacks. You lose a client. Results aren’t as easy anymore to get for your customers. These setbacks are “dips.”
  2. Know when you’re NOT in the dip. If you things aren’t getting better over time with more effort (i.e. your industry is changing, your business model is not sustainable, your product is outdated, etc.) you’re at a dead end (Seth calls these “Cul-de-Sacs”). These are bad.
  3. Strategic quitting is essential for success. It’s really important not to quit in the dip. Quit the tactics, not the long-term strategy. Bu if you find yourself at at a dead end, you have to quit—right now. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before quitting:
    1. Am I panicking?
    2. Is my persistence going to pay off in the long run?
    3. What sore of measurable progress am I making?
    4. If I quit the task, will it help me get through the dip of something else much more important?
    5. Am I avoiding the remarkable as a way of quitting without quitting?

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. The subtlety of not giving a fuck. “Not giving a fuck does not mean being indifferent; it means being comfortable with being different. The point isn’t to get away from the shit. The point is to find the shit you enjoy dealing with.” Nothing to add anything here.
  2. There’s value in suffering. Staying positive is important, but sometimes you just have to admit that something sucks and then work your ass off to change it. Constant positivity is a form of avoidance, and not a valid solution to life’s problems.
  3. Failure is the way forward. “Action isn’t just the effect of motivation, it’s the cause of it.” We rarely take action because of motivation; we are motivated because we take action. The next time you don’t feeling like doing something you know you should be doing, JUST DO IT. The motivation will come afterwards.

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

This is a huge book that’s close to 700 pages! You’ve likely heard of Tim Ferriss from the Four Hour Workweek. Tools of Titans is a summary of the interviews he’s done with folks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Foxx, Maria Popova, Brene Brown, and many others.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Maximize shower time — Peter Diamandis. Ever come up with great ideas in the shower? Peter shares several methods for maximizing “shower time.” Here are a few: do it (life) by the book, but be the author; you get what you incentivize; when forced to compromise, ask for more.
  2. The best way to say “no” — Maria Popova. “Often I think the paradox is that accepting the requests you receive is at the expense of the quality of the very work—the reason for those requests in the first place—and that’s what you always have to protect.” Sometimes the best “no” is no response. Why do you have to respond to everything?
  3. How to become world class — Scott Adams. Scott is the creator of Dilbert. He recommends that, instead of trying to be the best at one thing, develop 2-3 skills you can be in the top 25% for (Scott’s skills are drawing and comedy). This combination will make you more unique than anyone else in the world

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The War of Art is for anyone who experiences “the resistance” on a daily basis. “The resistance” is our natural inclination as human beings to favor immediate gratification over long-term growth.

As entrepreneurs, we crave immediate gratification (checking our social profiles, answering emails, etc). But it’s the activities that don’t generate short-term results that benefit us the most (prospecting hard to fill our sales pipeline 2-3 months out, reading books to build our skillsets, etc).

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Recognize “the resistance.” You’re experiencing resistance if you’ve been procrastinating, having feelings of self-doubt, or find yourself paralyzed by fear. It’s important to push towards the things that scare you the most.
  2. Master the how, and let the gods determine the what and the why. You have a right to your labor, not the fruits of your labor. Dedicate every work day to improving your skillsets. Don’t take success or failure personally, they’re not what defines you. Your actions are what defines you.
  3. Be a professional. Treat yourself like an elite athlete. Commit to showing up every work day no matter what. Remove your feelings from the equation. Commit to the long haul.

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Productivity/Habits

15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management by Kevin Kruse

“Not another book on time management?!” you say? Don’t worry, this book has several great insights. Kevin Kruse is a NYT best-selling author, and the Founder and CEO of LeadX. In this book, Kevin analyzed the productivity habits of 7 billionaires, 13 olympic athletes, 29 straight-A students, and 239 entrepreneurs.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. 321 email system. Block off three 21-minute chunks each day to reach inbox zero. Be intentional with your time by checking for email, instead of responding to emails as they come in.
  2. Batch your work. Create themes for each day to batch time spent on similar tasks. Use Friday as a buffer day to catch up. Schedule buffer days before and after your vacation.
  3. Touch it once. If something can be completed in less than 5 minutes do it immediately.

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is the author of three NYT bestsellers: The Four Tendencies, Better Than Before, and The Happiness Project. She is an expert on habits and happiness…two areas small business owners are always looking to improve.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Know your tendencies. We fit into one or more of the four archetypes below. How we respond to expectations is important for forming new habits and staying accountable to our goals each day.
    • Upholder — someone who responds to both outer and inner expectations. This is someone who always follows the rules (me!). Create strict guidelines and rules around how you approach your day.
    • Rebel — someone who resists all expectations. You’ll stay motivated by going against the grain. Don’t try to be a rule follower—break them!
    • Obliger — someone who responds readily to outer expectations but struggles with inner expectations. An accountability buddy will help if you’re this type of person.
    • Questioner — someone who questions all expectations. If you’re this person, make sure to include logic in how you approach your workday. Find studies or success stories that prove why you should adopt a new goal or habit.
  2. Change your surroundings, not yourself. Stack the odds in your favor. Changing your surroundings is much easier than trying to change yourself.
  3. Schedule a once per week power hour. I schedule an hour every Friday to take care the random things I didn’t get to throughout the week. Block off an hour each week for catchup time.

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Cal Newport is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University who studies productivity and habits. He is THE dude when it comes to maximizing your time as an entrepreneur.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Busyness as Proxy for Productivity. “In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.” Don’t pride yourself in working long hours, focus instead on completing the highest priority tasks that move your business forward the most.
  2. Embrace boredom. Instead of taking breaks from distraction, take breaks from focus. Schedule several blocks throughout the week of undistracted focus on activities that build your business.
  3. Become hard to reach. Cal refers to this as “draining the shallows.” There’s a difference between being reachable vs. being responsive. Don’t be the person that answers emails as they come in, and picks up the phone every time someone calls.

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker’s work contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. Managing Oneself will make you think about how you’re setting up your business to best utilize your strengths.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. How do you learn? Some of us learn best by talking it out. Some of us like to write things out. I like to read and then apply. I also like to listen and then apply. Experiment with different learning styles to find the one that suits you the best.
  2. Do you work well with people? Or are you a loner? I can work well with people, but my best work is done in isolation. Structure your day to cater to your work style.
  3. Are you a decision maker? Or an advisor? I like making decisions and want to steer the ship. If you’re not that person, make sure you have a great business partner who is. If you’re better behind the scenes, own it!

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Mastery by Robert Greene

Robert Greene studied the behaviors of greats like Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Leonardo da Vinci to reveal how they attained mastery of their craft. As business owners, we should all be focused on becoming masters of our craft.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Focus on the simple and immediate. Avoid spending too much time dreaming and making grand plans for the future. Instead, concentrate on becoming proficient at simple and immediate skills that push your business forward the most.
  2. Occupy the perfect niche. Go where the competition is the most scarce. Don’t compete, create a new niche. How can you combine two or more of your skills to create a blend that no one else or any other business has?
  3. Cut loose from mentors. Recognize when a mentor may be holding back your success because they need you. Mentors are great, until they’re not. Don’t be afraid to cut ties.

Click here to grab the book on Amazon.

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Thing big, act small. Setting big goals is great, but make sure to narrow the focus. Find the biggest driver in your business by asking, “What’s the ONE Thing I can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” Force yourself to prioritize your ONE Thing over everything else in your day.
  2. Don’t get trapped in the “check off” game. Don’t mistake being busy for being productive. Say “no” to anything that does not align with your goals. A request of your time must be connected to your ONE Thing in order to accept it.
  3. Block off time for your ONE Thing. Ideally, you’d be spending half of your work day chipping away at your ONE Thing. That isn’t feasible for most of us. Get started by blocking off 30 minutes each day of protected time to work on the most important thing in your business. Then move up incrementally as you are able to delegate more.

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Virtual Freedom by Chris Ducker

Chris Ducker is my go to resource for anything VA related. Virtual Freedom is a great step-by-step guide for building and growing your business using virtual help.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Know what to delegate. Many of us are the superheroes in our businesses and do EVERYTHING. You can’t scale a business that way. Delegate these types of tasks:
    1. Tasks you don’t like doing (i.e. formatting spreadsheets, invoices, etc…this is a great place to start)
    2. Tasks you don’t know how to do (i.e. updating your website, sending out newsletters)
    3. Tasks you feel you shouldn’t be doing (busy work associated with selling or fulfilling your service)
  2. There’s no such thing as a super VA. Don’t expect one virtual assistant to erase all of your problems. Hiring specialized workers is much more realistic and cost-effective than looking for a jack of all trades.
  3. Hire for the role, not the task. Virtual workers are people, not programs. Here’s a guide to the different types of VA roles and their rough monthly cost if you choose to hire someone living overseas.
    1. General Virtual Assistant — $500 – $900 / month (this is the type of VA every entrepreneur should have)
    2. Web Developer— $600 – $1,500 / month
    3. Graphic Designer — $600 – $1,500 / month
    4. Internet Marketing — $600 – $1,000 / month
    5. Content Writer — $400 – $700 / month
    6. Video Editor — $800 – $2,000 / month
    7. App Developer — $1,000 – $2,500 / month

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Prospecting/outbound

Combo Prospecting by Tony Hughes

Tony Hughes shares decades of prospecting knowledge in Combo Prospecting. To be honest, the book isn’t organized in the best way…but it’s filled with prospecting gold.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Law of Principled Disinterest. “You need to be present to communicate compelling business value and insight, but you cannot be aggressive like the face-humping alien leaping from the egg in the movie Alien. You can’t be like a golden retriever running at a Frisbee.” Great philosophy for approaching prospecting. Don’t NEED the prospect by engaging in a way that feels desperate. Here’s how that could sound: “Mrs. Customer, our product may or may not be a fit, but I’d like to share what some of our similar customers in your industry are doing that might be relevant—it’s positively impacting their bottom line. We can go from there; how does that sound?”
  2. Know how to engage the C-suite. Do this by starting at the end. What is the business outcome you deliver? How do you reduce/manage risk? Talk numbers and show how success is measured. “Rather than leading with a relationship and providing value with what you sell, lead instead with insight and value in every meeting and document.”
  3. Create your narrative. “As you prepare your own narrative, ask yourself this important question: What’s the business problem I can solve for the client, and why should that be a priority for them? Then ask: How do I create a compelling business case value better than anybody else? And finally: How can I lead with insight to create value in a conversation?” Enough said.

Click here to check it out.

Connect by Josh Turner

Josh Turner lays out a step-by-step process to meet and connect with prospects at scale using LinkedIn. He runs Linked Selling and is extremely knowledgeable about how to leverage tools like LinkedIn to boost your prospecting efforts.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Utilize systematic relationship building. Build a community to help you establish relationships, earn trust, and position yourself as a leader. You need a system in place for creating relationships as scale.
  2. The LinkedIn strategy. Josh’s LinkedIn strategy:
    1. Create a Facebook group page to invite prospects to, which will position you as a leader and allow you to be in front of your prospects on a weekly basis
    2. Identify your ideal prospect, and use LinkedIn Premium or LinkedIn Sales Navigator to send personalized connection requests to prospects
    3. Connect with 2,000 – 3,000 of your ideal prospects
    4. Start the conversation by sending a message to invite the prospect to join your Facebook group
    5. Now you can be in front of the prospect on a weekly basis adding value
    6. Reach out directly to prospects a few weeks after they join the group
  3. Tactics for building your community. Josh’s strategies for building your community:
    1. Send a personalized LinkedIn message or email directly to prospects to join your group
    2. Share the group with your email list
    3. Promote the group on your website
    4. Promote the group on other podcasts and blogs
    5. Run ads on LinkedIn or Facebook to join the group
    6. Partner up with others running large groups

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Definitive Guide to Sales Cadences by InsideSales.com

Cadences are one of the big mysteries of prospecting. How many times should you contact a prospect? Over what period of time? Which channels should you use? The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence answers those questions through their analysis of 1.5 million activities across 479,140 outbound cadences.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Elements of a Sales Cadence. There are five:
    • ATTEMPTS. The total number of touch points made. 7-8 total touches is recommended.
    • MEDIA. The type of communication methods used. Phone and email are most recommended.
    • DURATION. The time between the first and last attempt. 12-20 business days is recommended.
    • SPACING. The time gap between contact attempts. Two days apart is recommended.
    • CONTENT. The messaging used. Voicemails under 30 seconds and emails under 300 words are recommended (I recommend keeping emails under 120 words).
  2. Effectiveness of Multi-Channel. If you’re just using phone or email, instead of combining the two, you’re missing out big time:
    • One communication method: 9.5% success rate
    • Two communication methods: 22.5% success rate
    • Three communication methods: 25.1% success rate
  3. How Their Customer’s Best Cadences Are Set Up. Their analysis showed that cadences with these elements perform best:
    • 3 voicemails
    • 6 emails
    • 3 social touches
    • 12-20 business days

Click here to check it out.

From Cold to Committed by Kyle Vamvouris

Kyle isn’t just a sales trainer teaching people about outbound. He started as an SDR and worked his way up.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Get to know your prospects. Interview coworkers and customers to find out more about the prospects you’re prospecting to. Here are some great questions you can ask:
    • What does your average day look like?
    • What are some challenges that come up frequently?
    • Can you tell me a story about how you overcame that challenge?
    • What is your favorite part of your job?
    • What is your least favorite part of your job?
    • What is something that you do that you feel is important but doesn’t get noticed?
    • How many cold calls do you get?
    • What are the majority of those calls regarding?
  2. Cold call structure. Use this structure for your cold calls:
    • Intro. Get the call started by getting straight to the point. Introduce yourself, company name, and why you’re calling.
    • The path. Share challenges you help similar companies with to direct the conversation.
    • Finding the gap. Find the pain. Ask questions to help you uncover where they might be having challenges.
    • Close the gap. Dig into the challenge and get closer to how you can help.
    • Close the meeting. Ask for the meeting.
  3. Storytelling and the art of captivation. Have a few 30-60 second client stories you can use that are relatable to the prospects you’re calling on.

High-Profit Prospecting by Mark Hunter

Mark Hunter is a Certified Speaking Professional, Keynote Speaker, and Sales Trainer. He is the best-selling author of High-Profit Selling and High-Profit Prospecting, and works with companies like Salesforce, Lenovo, Mattel, Kawasaki and hundreds more.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. One size does not fit all. “Segment your messaging not around your offer, but around the prospect and the key outcomes they hope to achieve. Build your prospecting process around gaining information.” Before talking about you and your company, make sure the prospect is a good fit. Ask the right questions upfront.
  2. Are you prospecting? Or wasting your time? “Buyers who buy based on tactical needs are economic buyers. Buyers who buy based on strategic needs are solution buyers.” Focus on prospects looking to incorporate a product/service likes yours into their strategy, opposed to a new “latest and greatest” tactic.
  3. Are they prospects or merely suspects? The questions below will help you separate prospects from suspects. If you don’t have solid answers to these questions, they’re not a solid prospect:
    • Have they shared anything proprietary?
    • Do they have a need you can help them with?
    • Are you sure they’re the decision maker?
    • Do they have the financial ability to buy?
    • Has one of your competitors already clearly developed the customer’s expectations?
    • Have they told you when they’ll make a decision?

Click here to grab the book on Amazon.

From Impossible To Inevitable by Aaron Ross and Jason Lempkin

Grab this book if you’re interested in growing beyond the word of mouth and referral stage in your business. Aaron Ross pioneered a system called ‘Cold Calling 2.0’ for Salesforce, which generated $100 million in recurring revenue—from scratch.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Go from “nice to have” to “must have.” Could your service offering use some refining? Don’t stop until you’ve hit the perfect blend of nailing your target audience, addressing their pain, AND providing a solution. Most business only nail two out of three.
  2. Cold Calling 2.0 vs. Cold Calling 1.0. The old methods of cold calling / emailing don’t work anymore. Picking up the phone and calling any and all businesses is extremely ineffective. Huge spam email blasts are worse. The new method of cold calling is:
    1. A “is there a mutual fit?” approach vs. an “always be closing” approach
    2. Significant upfront research on a prospect (to determine need, and feasibility) BEFORE making a single call or sending an email
    3. Highly personalized outreach vs. stock templates and scripts
  3. Seeds, Nets, and Spears. Most businesses put all of their eggs into one prospecting method—big mistake. Go for a balanced approach of all three:
    1. Seeds – Inbound leads, referrals, word of mouth
    2. Nets – Email marketing or paid advertising
    3. Spears – Targeted outbound efforts through calls and emails

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Predictable Prospecting by Marylou Tyler

Marylou Tyler is also the co-author of Predictable Revenue, which popularized the account-based approach to B2B prospecting. She has 30+ years of experience helping companies with their prospecting efforts. Her clients include companies like Deloitte and MasterCard.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Create ideal prospect personas (IPP). Go deeper than identifying your ideal prospect profile (the companies you’re going after). Take the time to identify specific people (personas) at those companies as well. For example, the CEO of a company has different pain points than a Project Manager. Make sure your messaging resonates with both.
  2. Use content to address pain points in your messaging. Let’s say you sell website services. In your outreach, make sure to include case studies, white papers, articles, etc. that talk about how a website could help a business grow. Or how much revenue a company could be losing if their website isn’t optimized properly. Or how a website is one of the best investments a company can make.
  3. Your email sequence should address the following:
    1.  Provide value. Educate the prospect.
    2. Set up the problem. Address your prospect’s likely challenges or problems in the area in which you can help them.
    3. Suggest the existence of multiple solutions. How can you help them with their problems?
    4. Present the company and / or product and its high-level value proposition. Include your best value prop in your emails.
    5. Embed a single call to action. Don’t ask the prospect for more than one action from each email.

The Sales Development Playbook by Trish Bertuzzi

First off, it’s great seeing a female badass in the sales/prospecting space. It’s much needed. Second, this book is a great guide for building a solid outbound foundation. It’s the best I’ve seen in this area.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Why listen? Why care? This is the framework of sales development. Focus your messaging on why prospects should listen…and why they should care about what you have to say. “The first job of an SDR is to get a busy, unsuspecting prospect to listen.”
  2. Do away with BANT. The old school way of qualifying prospects doesn’t work anymore. With more options than ever, prospects are qualifying you. Trish’s system is PACT:
    1. Pain. Does the prospect believe you can solve their pain?
    2. Authority. Who has authority to make things happen in the organization?
    3. Consequence. Will the cure hurt worse than the illness? What are the consequences for not acting?
    4. Target Profile. Confirm fit and identify red flags.
  3. Sell to everyone, close no one. Prioritize your prospecting efforts by choosing where you spend the most amount of time on personalization. Trish recommends segmenting in this way:
    1. Dream Clients. These are the whales you should be spending most of your outbound time going after. They’re not coming to you through inbound channels.
    2. Bread & Butter Clients. These are the prospects that respond best to inbound marketing. Focus on the largest companies here for your outbound efforts.
    3. Compelling Events. They are prospects that are likely to need your product/service after a trigger event like new leadership, a venture funding round, etc.
    4. Dead Ends. Find patterns in what leads to a dead end account and avoid at all costs.

Click here to check it out.

 

Sales Engagement by Manny Medina, Max Altschuler, and Mark Kosoglow

This book is high-level overview of where sales engagement is and where it’s heading. There’s a lot of great case studies, use cases, and formulas to help with your outbound efforts.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Create research buckets based on trigger events. Two common trigger events you can use are when companies hire new employees and when new products/services are released. Create a templated processing for doing this type of research, include 2-3 value props, and create an approach for how this applies context/personalization to the outreach.
  2. A/B test everything. Do this early, and do this often (A/B test something every month). What they recommend A/B testing (in this order):
    • Open rates
      • Subject lines
      • Send schedules/ time of day (weekday business hours, weekday morning versus evening, weekends, etc.)
    • Response/conversation rates
      • Value proposition order (which e-mails and value propositions drive the most engagement)
      • Tonality (formal versus informal, etc.)
      • Testimonials and case studies (analyze if certain testimonials perform better than others within the same message)
  3. Copywriting tips for millions of emails analyzed. These are the less obvious ones:
    • Say what you need to say in five sentences or less.
    • Most people read e-mails on their mobile phones. If they scroll at all, you risk losing their attention (and response).
    • Use yes–no questions sparingly. Ask open-ended questions.
    • Instead of asking for a 15-or 30-minute call, ask if it’s easier to talk on Wednesday morning or Thursday afternoon … for just 5 minutes.
    • Smile when you write. It will come through.

Click here to check it out.

Smart Calling by Art Sobczak

One of the best cold calling resources out there. Art talks about how to make “Smart Calls” instead of “cold calls.”

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Use social engineering to gather intel. Art calls gatekeepers “assistants” and suggest working with them. When making calls, use conversations with assistants as a way to:
    • Confirm you’re looking for the right person.
    • Learn about what the company might be doing that’s related to your solution.
    • Build rapport with the gatekeeper. Avoid being a stranger the next time you call.
    • “Yes, I’m hoping you can help me.”
    • “I’m going to ask to talk to XXX and I wanted to be sure that what we do would actually be of value to him.”
  2. Create interest with your Smart call opening:
    • Goals for the opening
      • Move your prospects into a positive state of mind
      • Move to the questioning phase of the call
    • The process
      • Introduction: “Hi, I’m Jason with Blissful Prospecting.”
      • Share intelligence
        • “I was speaking with Suzie and she mentioned you’re in the process of looking for XXX.”
        • “I see that your firm is now going to XXX.”
      • Share personalization
        • Hint at your possible value prop
        • We specialize in working with XXX, helping them deal with XXX.
        • With other XXX in a similar situation, we have helped them with XXX.
      • Suggest more possible value
        • I’ve got a few ideas that might be of value to you regarding XXX, and had a few questions.
        • We’ve been able to repeat these results with other nonprofits and with a few questions could determine if it’s worth it for you to look into further.
  3. How to create Smart questions. He has great advice for how to stack questions with your prospect’s challenges:
    • Assumptive questioning. Build the challenge into the question.
      • “What happens when…”
      • “How do you handle it when…”
      • “What do you do when…”
      • “Tell me about situations where…”
      • “What are the implications of…”
      • “How does it affect ______ when…”
    • Loaded benefit question. Stack in the benefit and social proof to the challenge. Examples for us at Blissful Prospecting:
      • Many of the nonprofits we work with had trouble connecting with their dream partners before working with us. What is your experience?
      • Many of the nonprofits we work with had challenges connecting with companies outside of their traditional industries. What’s your experience been?

There’s plenty more to check out in this book. Grab it for more tactical tips for your calls.

Click here to check it out.

Sales

Hacking Sales by Max Altschuler

Max Altschuler is the author of Hacking Sales and the CEO at SalesHacker.com. He is a leading authority and expert in B2B sales. This book is an absolute GOLD MINE.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Find low-hanging fruit when data mining. Don’t rely on purchased lists. Instead, find places online where prospects are already seeking solutions to challenges you can solve. Use a tool like Import.io to data mine from these websites:
  2. Know your outbound email metrics. There are so many different metrics out there, but these are what you should be aiming for:
    • Send 50-100 emails / day
    • Target open rate: 30-50%
    • Response rate: 15-30%
    • Click-thru rate: 20-35%
    • Meeting set up rate: 10-20%
    • 6-9 touches is ideal
  3. Best tool recommendations from the book:

Click here to grab the book on Amazon.

Grant Cardone - If You're Not First, You're Last

If You’re Not First, You’re Last by Grant Cardone

If you run a business, you’ve likely heard of Grant Cardone. He’s the bestselling author of The 10X Rule and If You’re Not First, You’re Last as well as a sales trainer, speaker, and entrepreneur. He has worked with Fortune 100 companies like Google, Wells Fargo, and Ford.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Don’t be afraid of in-person visits. “Personal visits are the single most powerful method by which you will ever make contact with a client and are guaranteed to advance your position. It would take 10 phone calls to equal the outcome of one personal visit.” If you’re in the area, don’t be afraid to stop by!
  2. White space is the devil. Open space in your calendar should drive you CRAZY. Focus on hustling at the end of each week to fill up next week’s sales calendar.
  3. Always be prospecting. “Contacts turn into contracts, and the more contacts, the more contracts.”

Click here to grab the book on Amazon.

Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer is a leading authority on everything sales. He’s written several NYT bestsellers on the topic. This was the first business book I bought, and it’s a classic. He outlines 12.5 sales strategies, below are my favorite three.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Prepare to win, or lose to someone who is. It surprises me how few salespeople prepare for sales call. At a minimum, you should be using Google, LinkedIn, and their company website to conduct research. Take the time to understand their business and learn something personal about the prospect. I can’t tell you how many sales I’ve closed because no one else did their homework.
  2. Personal branding IS sales: It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you. Love this. Spend time developing a personal brand and publish posts / content on a regular basis. Make it your mission to be known as a value provider.
  3. Reduce their risk and you’ll convert selling to buying. “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.” Build tools and systems in your sales process to reduce the perceived risk in buying.
Click here to grab the book on Amazon.

The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need by Anthony Iannarino

Anthony’s no BS approach to sales is exactly what we need more of right now. He’s a sales speaker, trainer, podcaster, and writer at TheSalesBlog.com.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Ask great questions. Anthony has a great list of questions to add to your sales calls:
    • “What’s prevented you from being able to improve your results in the past?”
    • “I feel like we’ve done enough work to move forward from here. Can we go ahead and get started with a contract or is there still something you need in order to be 100 percent confident moving forward?”
    • “Who else are we going to need on our team if we really want to make this work?”
    • “What is the cost of not improving performance?”
    • “Why hasn’t the problem been solved before?”
    • “Who needs to be on the team to ensure our solutions are approved?”
    • “Who might oppose this solution?”
  2. Make prospecting a daily discipline. Treat it like exercise and eating a healthy diet. In order for prospecting to generate results, it has to be a habit.
  3. Use stories to create and share a vision. Give prospects a way to empathize with your clients who share similar pain points through storytelling. Here’s the process:
    • Find the arc. What were the challenges you and your client faced together? What lessons did you learn?
    • Find details that bring your story to life. How did the client find you? What they were trying to do and why? What did you learn together?
    • Be entertaining. What unexpected problems did you run into with your clients? What surprising events occurred?

Click here to check it out.

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

The late Chet Holmes was a sales BAD ASS. He ran 9 divisions in Charlie Munger’s ad company, worked with 60 Fortune 500 companies, and developed a unique 12-step system for any business looking to create consistent growth in their revenue.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Utilize education-based marketing. “When you sell, you break rapport, but when you educate, you build it.” Build education into your sales process. Start relationships with prospects by sharing something valuable for their business for free. Sell the education and the product/service will sell itself.
  2. Market data trumps product data. Find studies that prove the need for what your company offers. Sell website design services? Find studies that prove customers do online research before hiring a company. Show your prospect real data that proves they can’t afford not to invest in their web presence.
  3. Build Your Dream 100. Build a list of the top 100 clients that, if you landed just a few of these, could totally change your business and your life. The 12-step system in the Ultimate Sales Machine can be summed up like this: focus all of your marketing and sales efforts on the relentless pursuit of each client in your Dream 100.

You can grab the book on Amazon by clicking here.

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