Common-sense, if not earth-shattering, advice that should come in handy for anyone wanting to prosper in sales.
A debut guide that shows how to succeed in business while really trying.
In this primer for budding entrepreneurs, Von Seeger lays out some ground rules for success, taken from what he calls his “well-executed career.” Von Seeger, a multi-lingual native of Germany who’s worked for many years as a salesman, mainly for telecommunications companies, writes that he intends this compact guide as “a tool for those seeking to learn and follow in my footsteps.” The most important ingredients in his recipe for sales success, he says, are relationships, confidence, and “emotional intelligence.” It also helps, he says, to know in detail what one is selling, to study the competition, and to let honesty, integrity, and a do-unto-others attitude guide one’s business relationships. Along the way, he offers tips on job interviews, resumes, and tactics for establishing all-important business connections. He sprinkles the text with examples from his own career to illustrate his points, such as when he got face time with hard-to-reach executives by befriending their assistants. He also tells the story of a German businessman who threw his sales reps’ desks’ contents out the window when he found them sitting in the office during work hours instead of getting their feet on the street. Von Seeger has produced a concise how-to guide about getting ahead in business, especially sales, that will be particularly useful to those just starting their careers. His liberal use of examples from his own life helps illustrate his ideas for how to get ahead. He occasionally falls back on clichés (“knowledge is power, and the devil is in the details”), but in general, his writing is clear, crisp, and to the point. At times, though, he appears to contradict himself; for example, he warns against “greed and lack of respect for team members, colleagues, and partners,” but also condones the firing of 80 percent of sales reps who aren’t premium producers.
Common-sense, if not earth-shattering, advice that should come in handy for anyone wanting to prosper in sales.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4917-8079-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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