by Colin Knowles ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 4, 2015
Smart, on target, and born of experience, this strong volume should be highly instructive for the novice and reassuring to...
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A debut book characterizes the art of selling as building relationships.
Any volume about the sales profession has a hard enough time being noticed, much less rising above the pack. There are countless books on the topic, some classics, that preach selling philosophies, encourage the use of sales systems, and proffer countless tips. So it’s valid to question whether yet another title has anything new to add. This volume by a professional sales coach doesn’t necessarily deliver something brand new; still, it packages advice in an easy-to-read manner with a nice balance of the conceptual and the concrete. The overarching theme—building relationships with prospects and customers—may seem obvious to the more experienced consultative salesperson, but it is skillfully driven home in chapter after chapter. The author sets the stage by describing modern-day prospects who, because of the vast availability of information, “may have a better idea of the product they require.” He suggests this is a key reason salespeople must act as consultants who lead potential customers to buy rather than imposing their wills. The secret sauce of selling is simple to state but hard to deliver: “Confidence, trust, belief, and transparency are the difference,” Knowles writes. The book then delves into two areas of critical importance: self-development and skills development. Knowles addresses such personal attributes as attitude, positive thinking, and enthusiasm as well as skills, including professionalism and time management. He is at his strongest when discussing relationship-building: how to become an active listener, how to read and use body language, and, perhaps most important, how to ask great questions. Knowles provides specific examples of “goal-oriented questioning,” a technique that “reveals key hot buttons you can use later in your presentation to” prospects. His counsel on handling objections and closing techniques is sensible and wise. His explanation of the “four pillars of selling” is also useful; balanced correctly, they can potentially lead to higher success in selling.
Smart, on target, and born of experience, this strong volume should be highly instructive for the novice and reassuring to the accomplished salesperson.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4922-2791-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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by Erin Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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