A familiar but wide-ranging guide to applying Carnegie’s up-close-and-personal principles to selling.
A short but intensive overview of sales principles.
Why another book on sales? The latest volume credited to Dale Carnegie & Associates (Listen!, 2018, etc.) answers this bedrock question up front: “Everything else on the market came after Dale Carnegie,” the famed author of the 1936 bestseller How To Win Friends and Influence People, they write, “and much of it is derived from his work.” Several takeaways from this book, they stress, extend beyond the world of business—such as the importance of becoming a better storyteller, increasing one’s confidence, and learning how to handle negative criticism. Indeed, the core of the work is an elaboration on Carnegie’s “30 principles,” which will be familiar to readers of How To Win Friends, such as “begin in a friendly way,” “let the other person do a great deal of the talking,” or “if you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.” It’s an intensely human approach to business and to personal interaction in general. That said, the book also discusses many specific aspects of the sales world, as well, from conferences to networking to cold-calling techniques, but in all cases, the advice focuses on personal connection: “Get out and go to where your customers are,” the authors say. “Wherever your people congregate, go there and talk to them.” The book is aware of the latest advances in email and automation, but it steadfastly and repeatedly emphasizes that the sales game is still about conversational skills, offering plenty of clear examples and testimonials to further underscore this point. In the end, much of the advice here may seem obvious to many, but some readers are sure to find it invaluable, as when the book coaches businesspeople on how not to bungle a potentially valuable referral or how to set up an appointment with a prospective customer—and how not to do so.
A familiar but wide-ranging guide to applying Carnegie’s up-close-and-personal principles to selling.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-72251-010-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: G&D Media
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
A timely, vividly realized reminder to slow down and harness the restorative wonders of serenity.
An exploration of the importance of clarity through calmness in an increasingly fast-paced world.
Austin-based speaker and strategist Holiday (Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue, 2018, etc.) believes in downshifting one’s life and activities in order to fully grasp the wonder of stillness. He bolsters this theory with a wide array of perspectives—some based on ancient wisdom (one of the author’s specialties), others more modern—all with the intent to direct readers toward the essential importance of stillness and its “attainable path to enlightenment and excellence, greatness and happiness, performance as well as presence.” Readers will be encouraged by Holiday’s insistence that his methods are within anyone’s grasp. He acknowledges that this rare and coveted calm is already inside each of us, but it’s been worn down by the hustle of busy lives and distractions. Recognizing that this goal requires immense personal discipline, the author draws on the representational histories of John F. Kennedy, Buddha, Tiger Woods, Fred Rogers, Leonardo da Vinci, and many other creative thinkers and scholarly, scientific texts. These examples demonstrate how others have evolved past the noise of modern life and into the solitude of productive thought and cleansing tranquility. Holiday splits his accessible, empowering, and sporadically meandering narrative into a three-part “timeless trinity of mind, body, soul—the head, the heart, the human body.” He juxtaposes Stoic philosopher Seneca’s internal reflection and wisdom against Donald Trump’s egocentric existence, with much of his time spent “in his bathrobe, ranting about the news.” Holiday stresses that while contemporary life is filled with a dizzying variety of “competing priorities and beliefs,” the frenzy can be quelled and serenity maintained through a deliberative calming of the mind and body. The author shows how “stillness is what aims the arrow,” fostering focus, internal harmony, and the kind of holistic self-examination necessary for optimal contentment and mind-body centeredness. Throughout the narrative, he promotes that concept mindfully and convincingly.
A timely, vividly realized reminder to slow down and harness the restorative wonders of serenity.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-53858-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Portfolio
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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