An informed and enthusiastic guide to managing sales internationally.
A veteran of international sales offers insights for others in the field.
In this business book, Selch draws on decades of work with governments and corporations around the world to explain the fundamentals of a strong international sales organization. The volume covers basics like the value of developing an international sales channel, the key personnel involved in selling globally, the mechanics of establishing a relationship with a local distributor, how shipping and payment are managed across borders, and the ways in which modifying a product for a particular market can help and hamper sales. The book addresses both building a sales organization from scratch and managing an existing network of regional managers, distributors, and salespeople. The author also devotes a chapter to best practices for trade shows, addressing everything from how he prefers to organize his booth to the types of conversations he aims to have with each visitor. The work does an excellent job of explaining the elements of sales, and readers without a background in the field will be able to follow the discussions of strategy, market share, and training programs. Selch, who introduces himself as “a bit of an a-hole,” does not pull his punches (“In my opinion, the vast majority of people in the US who are building international sales organizations have no idea what they’re doing, so the organizations that they build are almost by definition faulty and weak”). While the aggressive tone of his prose may not appeal to all readers, some will find his unabashed confidence motivational. The author is undoubtedly knowledgeable about selling products in a global context, and the many stories he shares from his career illustrate the book’s concepts and establish his credentials as an expert. Readers looking to expand their careers or their companies’ sales in overseas markets will find many concrete lessons and thought-provoking suggestions throughout the text.
An informed and enthusiastic guide to managing sales internationally.Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73591-310-0
Page Count: 362
Publisher: Global Sales Mentor LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A vigorous and highly readable plan for building the finances of a new business.
A program of cash-management techniques for aspiring entrepreneurs, aimed at a minority readership.
At the beginning of this business book, Mariga reflects on the birth of her daughter, Florence, and on the depressing prospect of returning to her corporate job and missing some of her baby’s early moments. She realized that she “wanted to show Florence…that I could, that she could, that anyone could be anything they wanted to be in this world.” To that end, she wanted to start her own business, and she “wanted to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses that provide opportunities for others.” In a sentiment reflected by others she’s interviewed, she says that she wanted to strengthen her family legacy, so she founded her own accounting firm. She paints a vivid picture of the hardscrabble early days of other minority business owners like herself, the child of an African American mother and a Chinese father who also had a family accounting business. She and others were “all hustling to acquire clients and build our businesses…and most of us had absolutely nothing to show for it.” She was inspired by Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First money management system, and the bulk of her book is devoted to an explanation of how to make this system work for minority business enterprises. (Michalowicz provides a foreword to the book.) One of the primary goals of Profit First is to build “a self-sustaining, debt-free company,” so a large part of Mariga’s work deals with the details of managing finances, building and abiding by budgets, and handling the swings of emotion that occur every step of the way. As sharply focused as these insights are, the author’s recollections of her own experiences are more rewarding, as when she tells readers of her brief time as a cut-rate accountant and learning that it was a mistake to try to compete on price. These stories, as well as financing specifics and clear encouragements (“Small changes and adjustments accumulate. Over time, they will lead you to your goal”), will make this book invaluable to entrepreneurs of all kinds.
A vigorous and highly readable plan for building the finances of a new business.Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7357759-0-6
Page Count: 230
Publisher: The Avant-Garde Project, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.
Want to get ahead in business? Consult a dictionary.
By Wharton School professor Berger’s account, much of the art of persuasion lies in the art of choosing the right word. Want to jump ahead of others waiting in line to use a photocopy machine, even if they’re grizzled New Yorkers? Throw a because into the equation (“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”), and you’re likely to get your way. Want someone to do your copying for you? Then change your verbs to nouns: not “Can you help me?” but “Can you be a helper?” As Berger notes, there’s a subtle psychological shift at play when a person becomes not a mere instrument in helping but instead acquires an identity as a helper. It’s the little things, one supposes, and the author offers some interesting strategies that eager readers will want to try out. Instead of alienating a listener with the omniscient should, as in “You should do this,” try could instead: “Well, you could…” induces all concerned “to recognize that there might be other possibilities.” Berger’s counsel that one should use abstractions contradicts his admonition to use concrete language, and it doesn’t help matters to say that each is appropriate to a particular situation, while grammarians will wince at his suggestion that a nerve-calming exercise to “try talking to yourself in the third person (‘You can do it!’)” in fact invokes the second person. Still, there are plenty of useful insights, particularly for students of advertising and public speaking. It’s intriguing to note that appeals to God are less effective in securing a loan than a simple affirmative such as “I pay all bills…on time”), and it’s helpful to keep in mind that “the right words used at the right time can have immense power.”
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780063204935
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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