Business Coaching

Business Book Reviews 1

My new Business Books blog has been active in the first week with a combination of book reviews and book summary reviews.

Book Reviews

The Ultimate Sales Letter Dan Kennedy - 4.5 Stars

I review my well thumbed guide to copywriting by non nonsense copywriter Dan Kennedy.

Instant Team Building Bradley Sugars - 3 Stars

I plucked up courage to read another of Brad's Sugars books and this time it does have some good points but not enough to recommend it as a buy.

Ebooks

The Secrets Of Getting Your Bank Manager To Say Yes by Rob Warlow - 4.5 Stars

Excellent guide to convincing your bank manager to give you a loan.

Book Summaries

Success In Small Business Is A Laughing Matter Phil Johnson

Business advice with humour.

Creative Marketing Communications

Compendium of articles from the big creative agencies ran into my scepticism of brand advertising.

How To Close Every Sale Joe Girard

Hard nosed sales book from the Guinness Book of Records top salesman. Not for the squeamish who prefer consultative selling but ideal for those people tired of being walked over by prospects.

New Leaders Wanted Now Hiring Leandro Herrero

Thought-provoking and unusual book about leadership

Built To Last Jim Collins & Jerry Porras

Other people love it but I can't see what the fuss is about.

Articles

Michael Porter Five Forces Update

Latest Harvard Business Review article updates the classic with recent examples but the basic theory stays untouched.

Free Ebooks

Download these free ebooks while you have the chance as I intend to refresh the contents regularly.

Internet Marketers Guide To FREE Traffic, Sales and Profit by Raam Anand

Making A Living Off Your Blog by Terry Jett

AdSense Income Blueprint by Kurt Chrisler

To Your Success

Paul Simister

Your Profit Coach, business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

© Planning & Control Solutions Ltd 2007-2008 All Rights Reserved

The Starbucks Experience - Joseph Michelli

The Starbucks phenomenon has passed me by.

I don't understand what has caused so many people to become loyal fans and for the Starbucks empire to spread across the world so quickly. But I do have to admire the astonishing success of the company in taking the familiar concept of a coffee shop and re-building the customer experience so that it is so differentiated that it becomes the fashionable place to go.

I am intrigued.

So when the BusinessSummaries update delivered "The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles For Turning The Ordinary Into Extraordinary" by Joseph Michelli into my email inbox this week, I felt compelled to read it.

The 5 Principles

I'll answer the obvious question and tell you the five principles:

1. Make it your own - balance your employees passions and skills with the need to consistently deliver a great customer experience
    
2. Everything matters - even the little things can make a big difference to customers
    
3. Surprise and delight - continue to look for ways to give your customers a better experience and to keep them involved
    
4. Embrace resistance - listen to customers issues
    
5. Leave your mark - become involved in the community

I can't disagree with any of those but it doesn't explain to me why the Starbucks blitzkrieg tactics of sweeping through new territories is so successful.

There is something that I am missing.

Starbucks is connecting deeply with many customers who are prepared to pay a high price to drink fancy coffee with funny names out of a paper cup.

Can you tell me what it is?

The success of Starbucks shows that you don't need to appeal to everyone to be successful. Perhaps I'm too old.

Conclusion

My impression from the BusinessSummaries report and from a brief glance of the Amazon reviews is that the book is written by a big fan although the book itself is highly regarded.

It doesn't answer my questions about the logic behind the offer so I may have to read the Howard Schultz Pour Your Heart Into It instead.

If you like the idea of having a business book summary emailed to you each week then I recommend BusinessSummaries. I think it is a great service.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

The One Thing You Need To Know - Marcus Buckingham

The full title of this book by Marcus Buckingham is "The One Thing You Need To Know...About Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success."

I am sure you want to be a big personal and business success but did you know that most people don't achieve great success because they don't know where to focus their time, energy and resources?

Let's Exercise The Mind

Just take a pause from reading, grab a pen and paper and list down the FIVE areas you have to focus to make a major difference to your success.

Did you do it?

Did you discover anything from just listing down your five most important areas?

The next stage is to give yourself a mark out of ten. Be fair and don't claim to be at master level if you are not but don't be unduly harsh on yourself either.

Given that these are five areas that you need to have performed well, you have some decisions to make

1. If you are already very good at something, is it worth devoting the time and effort to get better? Can you get a level where you are recognised as the best in your geographical area, your country or even the world?
    
2. If you are average or poor at some activity, is it worth trying to improve, should you accept mediocre performance, should you outsource to a top quality (but expensive) specialist or should you outsource to someone better than you but a reasonable cost?

Your answers are inside you but I do know that how your spend your spend your time and focus your attention will play a very large role in determining your success.

The Book - "The One Thing You Need To Know"

The commentary on managers and leaders is unremarkable. Basically managers work through people while leaders inspire people based on the vision.

"The One Thing You Should Know" has some commonsense advice about managing - recruit good people, make sure that they understand what is required, give them feedback and show that you care about them.

In the leadership section, the recommendation is to build a rallying call around universal fears and needs:

1. Fear of death - need for security
    
2. Fear of being excluded - need to belong
    
3. Fear of the future - need for direction
    
4. Fear of chaos - need for control and authority
    
5. Fear of insignificance - need for respect.

Interesting but not too exciting.

What Is Exciting...

The Gallup Research shows that only 20% of people are in a role where they have a chance to do their best everyday.

That leaves a massive 80% of people who are set up, either by themselves if self employed or by their employers to struggle or maybe even fail.

The One Thing You Need To Know Is...

...  dramatic pause - can you feel the tension?

Drum roll please...

Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it.

Simple and now you can see why I started with the little exercise.

Your success depends on you spending more time doing the things that you are good at and enjoy and spending less time doing the difficult, hard, nasty, tedious activities that you hate.

How Do You Find Your Strengths?

I have written before about the Kolbe A Index in Discover Your Strengths which Rich Schefren has packaged up with an explanatory video and called the Strengths Mastery Advantage.

I love it and see it as a missing link which is so easily ignored.

If you are like me before I did the test, there is a tendency to almost punish yourself.

You won't like admitting that there are some things that you are not very good at and you will feel guilty about delegating or outsourcing them. So you do them, you struggle, you get bored and you feel frustrated.

And then:

The crazy man takes over

You decide that you can't carry on like this so what do you do?

You buy a teach yourself book or course on the twisted logic that, if only you knew the inside secrets and tricks it would be so much easier and you would do a better job.

But you hate the subject so you find the book mind-numbingly boring. You can only read a few pages at a time. I've been know to fling the book across the room muttering "I'll never understand this ...."

For Crying Out Loud Stop!

It is such a simple rule.

Focus on your strengths and outsource your weaknesses.

You will be happier and much more successful.

Just take the Kolbe Index. I think you'll be amazed how your working habits and emotions now make much more sense.

My comments on "The One Thing You Need To Know" by Marcus Buckingham are based on the BusinessSummaries book summary. I may have done the book an injustice on the coverage of the management/leadership areas but I wanted to make sure that you received the key message LOUD and CLEAR.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Profit Building - Perry J. Ludy

"Profit Building: Cutting Costs Without Cutting People" by Perry J. Ludy is the latest book to be reviewed.

The book looks at the conundrum of how to get your employees involved in finding ways to cut costs and eliminate waste when they or their friends and colleagues may be victims of the implementation of the cost saving ideas.

From the top management position, cost reduction looks sensible. More jobs are protected by streamlining operations and being as efficient as possible but from the bottom, it looks like "turkeys voting for Christmas."

The book proposes a profit building process based on five steps:

1. Create a profit building team of 5 to 8 people from different departments and functions.
    
2. Prepare the team to ask challenging questions.
    
3. Brainstorm solutions.
    
4. Implement the action steps.
    
5. Review and follow up.

This very much puts the onus on the profit building team and by implication reduces the responsibility of the other employees to identify waste and inefficiency.

My Experience Of Special Teams

My experience of these special teams has not been favourable. Back in 1994 I was a director of an engineering company and we started a "world class manufacturing" project based on two special teams tasked with improving two particular divisions of the business.

Unfortunately this created two problems:

• An "Us v Them" attitude in the staff and the motives of some team members were less trusted than senior management.
   
• It paralysed regular management processes and continuous improvement. Everything had to go through the relevant team who had an "not invented here" problem.

I left during the project to start my own consultancy business but reports back indicated that the "world class manufacturing" process never resulted in any permanent improvement.

My first consultancy client had a strong Kaizen/continuous improvement program in operation where ad-hoc teams were encouraged to form and resolve problem issues. Using similar analysis techniques, these informal and short term teams were very successful and the whole process worked very well.

This combination of experience has shaped my views and as a result I have problems with the approach recommended by Perry Ludy in the Profit Building book.

Focus On Costs

The subtitle of the book emphasises the approach to profit building is based on reducing costs and the summary goes through plenty of questions to challenge the cost base of a business. This has the potential to make a useful checklist.

The book sets a difficult challenge of cutting costs without cutting people. It applies more to businesses with high purchase costs rather than those with high staff costs. This rules out many service sector businesses which are very people intensive.

There are only three ways to cut costs:

1. You reduce the purchase price.
    
2. You reduce the quantity you buy - this includes eliminating waste and even questioning whether the activity adds value and should be done at all.
    
3. You simplify or change the way the activity is performed so that it requires a different combination of inputs. For example make/buy decisions where you outsource something you do or you start doing something yourself that you have previously outsourced.

Brainstorming Questions

One idea I did pick up from the book was to brainstorm the questions to ask rather than just brainstorming solutions to an already decided question.

I like this. It helps challenge existing mindsets and areas of blindness.

You Can't Ignore The People Issue

It may be a worthy goal to cut costs without cutting people, but it imposes unnecessary restrictions on the cost reduction process.

If people are unproductive and inefficient, action needs to be taken and dancing around the issue in some form of political correctness won't produce an optimum solution. Sometimes difficult decisions need to be made.

Profit Building: The Scissors Approach

With so many manufacturing businesses closing in the UK as work is transferred to the low wage cost economies of China and India, I can't emphasise enough how important it is to maintain constant focus on costs.

I like the continuous improvement concept of continually identifying waste and finding better ways to perform necessary activities and I believe that the process needs to be built into the day-to-day management systems and procedures.

I also believe that profit building is a two sided problem. You always have the choice of:

1. Reducing costs.
    
2. Increasing revenue.

Profit building is like a pair of scissors. The aim is to widen the gap between the two blades so if new methods of operational efficiency are discovered, the business can:

1. Bank the gains by reducing staff numbers, perhaps avoiding lay-offs through a zero recruitment policy (although that creates "round pegs in square holes" with unhappy employees and higher ongoing costs).
    
2. Look at how that extra capacity can be filled by winning new business. The costs are already paid for so your prices can be keen. While you have to be careful about causing a price war, there may be opportunities to win business that would have otherwise moved offshore.

Conclusion

I have problems with the approach recommended in the Profit Building book but I welcome anything that encourages business managers to think about their cost base in a systematic way and then to take action to reduce costs.

I rate this a three star business book summary from BusinessSummaries. The summary is worth reading but I won't be buying the book.

You may be interested in top author and marketer, Mark Joyner and his 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit. I haven't tried it but Mark Joyner has a great reputation and reading the sales letter, you only pay at the end if you believe your business is back on track.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

If you like the idea of increasing your business skills and knowledge quickly and easily by reading summaries of the best business books, BusinessSummaries are highly recommended.

100 Ways To Motivate Others - Steve Chandler & Scott Richardson

The latest book to be reviewed is "100 Ways To Motivate Others: How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy" by Steve Chandler and Scott Richardson.

The title of the book made me bristle, "ways to motivate others" indeed but I relaxed immediately when I got to number 1.

The first point is "to know where motivation comes from" and the book goes on to explain that "motivation comes from within. Good managers get people to motivate themselves."

Exactly right. You can't motivate people but you can alter the pay-offs from action (or inaction) so they motivate themselves. The remaining 99 tips tell you how to manage your team more successfully.

The approach taken is very much towards practical action rather than theories about motivation and personal drives.

In summary form, it is not a book to read in one sitting as it lists points with a very brief explanation. I suspect that the book fills out each action point with a little story or extra advice.

It is a good summary to change the way that you lead your employees and encourage them to take action. I recommend that you get download the summary and start implementing one tip a day and try to use it so that it becomes habit.

I rate this a 3 star review because I am happy to stay with the BusinessSummaries report and refer clients with team/leadership issues to the summary as a starting point. I suspect that some will then choose to buy the full book to gain more understanding of the practical tips.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

If you like the idea of increasing your business skills and knowledge quickly and easily by reading summaries of the best business books, BusinessSummaries are highly recommended.

Positioning: the Battle For Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout

I have picked up "Positioning: the Battle For Your Mind: How To Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace" by Al Ries and Jack Trout many times in book shops but never bought it. Every time I see it referenced in a book or article, I think to myself "I must read that."

The book cover claims that this is a "marketing classic" and I can understand why.

It looks closely at one important area - how you position your product in the name of your prospect. Regular readers will know that developing your market positioning in the third of my Eight Pillars of Business Prosperity business coaching model.

Less Is More

I like long copy but sometimes as Positioning points out, "less is more".

In a society overwhelmed with advertising messages, the answer to cut through the noise is a simple short message based on what the product can do for the customer.

Be First

People remember the first, they don't remember the second or third. I am sure you know who was the first man on the Moon, but the second and third? Mmmm, I need to do some research on that one.

This makes it a requirement to be the first to occupy a product position. Vacuum cleaners have become more advanced but we still remember Hoover.

People See What They Expect

Look at a modern art painting with no name on it and you are probably not impressed.

Look at a modern art painting by Picasso and you may still not be impressed but you will look at it longer to try to understand why some people see genius in what looks like a painting by an untalented seven year old.

The Picasso painting has positioning.

Positioning for Leaders and Followers

The book gives tips on how you should position yourself in those two situations.

It's no surprise that followers should find new territory rather than aim to be perceived as an inferior "me too."

Choosing a name

The ultimate is when you can move your positioning from your slogan to your name and people just know what you stand for. The book gives advice on choosing names and warns you about meaningless initials.

Yes I know that IBM get away with it but we know who IBM is and what they do.

Line extensions

Good and bad news if you try to extend your brand across different areas. It can work but many times it doesn't.

Coke means one thing. OK it now means two if you include the illicit substance but the brand "Coke" means Cola. You don't have Coke Lemonade or Coke Dandelion & Burdock.

The one brand that seems to break all the rules is Richard Branson's Virgin. This is an incredibly transportable brand from the original record shops and music label through to Virgin Airlines, Virgin Rail, Virgin Money... Very clever but Richard Branson did pick a unique attention grabbing word.

Positioning examples

To make sure that we understand the ideas, the book looks in detail at the positioning for:

• Xerox
• Belgium
• Jamaica
• Milk Duds - this one isn't in the UK
• Mailgram
• A Long Island bank
• A New Jersey bank
• Stowe, Vermont - a ski resort
• the Catholic Church

Positioning You & Your Business

The book finishes with some great tips on how to position yourself.

I rate the Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout highly and I can fully understand why it is rated a marketing classic. The BusinessSummaries report is excellent and I award it three stars - I am very glad that I have read it but it has given me so much detail that I can't see any need to buy the book.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Crunch Point - Brian Tracy

"Crunch Point: The 21 Secrets to Succeeding When It Matters Most" by Brian Tracy is a great read for any business owner or manager who is in a difficult position because business performance is poor.

I have reviewed this book through a business summary service and it is clear that the summariser has the same issue with Brian Tracy as I do.

The content is so rich in valuable advice, information and guidance that a 117 page book is reduced to 15 pages in the book summary. Often BusinessSummaries take a 300 page book and reduce it to 8 to 10 pages of core ideas and concepts.

Brian Tracy takes his style of identifying 21 secrets of success and applies it to dealing with a business in trouble.

If you have ever been in that situation, how difficult and stressful it can be.

That's why tip #1 is Stay Calm.

Easier said than done but rather than take you through each of the tips in turn I thought I'd concentrate on this one. If you want the summary, just click over to BusinessSummaries and sign up to their free trial (available at the time of writing). Brian Tracy would prefer you to buy the book or the Brian Tracy University may have an audio program.

The tips in this area are:

1. Take a deep breath - it calms your mind.
    
2. Look to take control immediately - mentally and emotionally.
    
3. Recognise that the two biggest fears are the fear of rejection and the fear of failure. Both can cause anger, depression and paralysis.
    
4. Watch the way you talk to yourself. Your inner dialogue controls about 95% of your emotions.
    
5. Study the problem carefully and try to see it from different angles as you look for solutions. One tip I have heard is imagine that you are someone else and think what would they do. What would Richard Branson do? What would Indiana Jones do? What would Genghis Khan do?
    
6. Look for valuable lessons. Just identifying a positive opportunity or finding a valuable lesson can help make you feel better.

The book then looks at the other 20 secrets for success and if you are a Brian Tracy fan, you will know that another tip covers zero based thinking in the crisis. It really is a great way for making those different decisions that bit clearer and easier to make.

I rate this a four star book summary. The summary is great and a valuable precis that can be read quickly and a very useful set of notes but I want to read the book as well.

Browsing Brian Tracy's website I noticed that the there is a Crunch Point recording available in Brian Tracy teleseminar series and it's my understanding that you get the first recording free and there is no obligation to buy more. Sounds like it is worth considering - Brian Tracy Crunch Point - it was at the bottom of page one when I looked but you may have to click through if they change the order.

Other Resources

You may be interested in top author and marketer, Mark Joyner and his 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit (link to sales letter). (10 May 2008 - I am currently evaluating this turnaround program and my impression is that it is excellent - see Business Turnaround for my review comments). Mark Joyner has a great reputation and reading the sales letter, you will see that you only pay at the end if you believe your business is back on track.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

The Happiness Revolution - Blair Lewis PA

There is no way that I would have bought and read "The Happiness Revolution: Creating Balance And Harmony In Your Life" by Blair Lewis PA before I read the BusinessSummaries book summary.

By the end I was thinking that perhaps I should even buy "The Happiness Revolution" book.

But that's what I like about the idea of these business book summary svices 

They make a book or subject that you know you should read but can't face reading manageable because the information comes in bite sized chunks with all the clutter taken out.

I make no pretence to be a life coach but I do know that as a business coach, sometimes the main problems lie in the business owner rather than in the business. If I diagnose that to be the issue at the start I would probably duck out and refer the person to someone who operates as a life and business coach.

But sometimes I don't diagnose it early. Sometimes I only discover that the business owner is causing self inflicted damage later on in the assignment.

So this year, one of my resolutions is to become more familiar with the concepts of self improvement and to be able to point people in the direction of useful resources.

The Happiness Revolution

The book is based on Eastern philosophies and I accept that there is something to be learnt from this ancient disciplines but I am a hard nosed accountant/marketer so I can be a touch cynical on these themes.

Let me give you a quick overview of what Blair Lewis covers in "The Happiness Revolution":

1. Sturdy Body, Stable Mind
   
   "Happiness is your true nature" - I agree that it's what we want but is happiness our true nature or is content?
   
   The books seems to start from the same ground as The Secret & the Law Of Attraction - you can bring sadness on yourself through your own bad habits.
    
2. Know Yourself
    
   We now get introduced to Ayurvedic Constitutions (medical science based on the main elements of nature) and there are three main constitutions - Vata, Pitta and Kapha.
   
   Vata (space and air) seems to be linking closely to the Law of Attraction territory again as vatic people can't find light and warmth in themselves and are attracted to fellow sufferers.
   
   Reading this had me thinking about the Law of Attraction and the whole issue of cause and effect.
   
   Are people successful because they want success or does success seek out the people with the capability to be successful? Do people suffer failure and disappointment because that is what they expect and therefore they don't commit to changing their lives?
    
3. Living With Purpose
    
   I'm a big believer in purpose so I have no problems with the idea that people with purpose are the happiest and accept situations and look for what they can find to move them closer to their purpose.
   
   The book identifies "5 principles to be considered for making important decisions" and "% daily observances for living with purpose."
    
4. The Happiness Diet
   
   Once again I don't have issues with the idea that good food promotes a healthy mind.
    
5. Hatha Yoga
   
   This looks at breathing, posture and relaxation.
    
6. Homeopathy: The Energy Medicine
   
   I know that some major breakthroughs have happened in this area. It may not work for everyone but at least I'm prepared to give it a try.
    
7. Sleep, Rest And Relaxation
   
   I got a bit frightened here as one of the relaxation techniques is to work through the 61 point relaxation exercise.
   
   61 points?
   
   I've been in quizzes when I've had to name the US states and I find that gets pretty stressful in the low forties so I'm not sure how focusing my mind on 61 different points of my body will help. I fear I may be a little too keen checking them off although I think the idea is that you fall asleep before you realise that you can only remember 57. A little like counting sheep then only not as repetitive.
    
8. Yoga Nidra
   
   Interesting. I hadn't realised that there were so many different stages to sleep but the book advocates power naps and I have found that a useful technique.
    
9. Creating More Space For Happiness
   
   This is about finding out how to create more energy.
    
10. Filling Your Day With Happiness
    
    Eastern time management theory.
     
11. A Life Of Balance And Harmony
    
    Contemplation - reflect on your realities.
     
12. Acquiring A Joyful Mind
    
    Meditation - organise your thinking patterns.
     
13. Discovering Your Sacred Link
    
    Your happiness touches other people and by being happy, you can inspire other people.

Sorry but I don't think I've done the book justice is my summary.

Will I buy the book?

To be honest it would probably be something that I'd buy but never quite find the time to read but I am very glad that I read the summary. I rate this a three star business brief.

Eastern philosophies of life are a long way from my traditional reading but I did find the summary informative, interesting and thought provoking. Why not sign up for a free trial from BusinessSummaries.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Listening Skills - Mark Brady

"A Little Book Of Listening Skills For The Workplace: 52 Essential Practices For Profoundly Transforming Production, Profits and People" is by Mark Brady.

Listening is a very important but much under-appreciated skill.

Since communication is "passing understanding to another person", if you don't have well developed listening skills you are unlikely to be as effective a communicator as you could be.

If your listening skills are poor, you may misunderstand what the other person is asking and mis-judge their understanding of your answer.

Listening is covered in much of the coaching literature but I haven't seen much about it in the mainstream business resources.

Yes you get told to research the market and listen to customers but few of the marketing books tell you how to look out for distortions in your perceptions of what you are hearing.

Most well written sales books cover the importance of asking the customers questions but few go into listening to the answers from the customer. Not listening was one of my 11 common sales & selling mistakes.

Books on team-building and personnel management recognise that it's important you know what your team think about the business and the issues within it but again there is a lack of debate and information about listening skills.

The one exception in the popular business books that I can think of is "Raving Fans" by Ken Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles. This is a book about customer service and naturally it talks about finding out what customers want. Although it is only a brief section, it does highlight the importance of"listening to the music as well as the lyrics."

It's not just the words that are used that matter. If you listen carefully, there will be much more that you can learn.

52 Essential Skills For Better Listening

52 is a lot and reading the summary, there is a lot about listening that Mark Brady covers in the book that I just take for granted.

I bet if you were to try brainstorming "listening skills" you wouldn't get anywhere close to 52.

Working through the list you have obvious ones like "stop talking." I'm sure that you've heard that before - we've been given two ears and one mouth and they should work in that proportion.

But you can also listen for potential sources of conflict, how people try to hijack conversations, how you can check for neglect...

Conclusion

I would never have read the full book even though it is only 103 pages.

My problem is that while I accept that listening skills are essential and many people show that there is plenty of room for improvement, the BusinessSummaries report was boring but I don't know whether this is the fault of the author or the summariser.

I have the same problem with some of the coaching books I've read. Yes they are worthy but they are about as exciting to read as an accounting text book. Give me a good marketing or sales book any day because that will fire me up with ideas for action.

Perhaps the problem is that I have always been a natural listener.

Partly because I am naturally shy but also because it has always struck me as the obvious way to learn and learning is the route to knowledge and wisdom.

The best personal development material that I've come across on listening (which made it an interesting topic) came from Peter Thomson. His premium business development program - the Accelerated Business Growth System includes a module on Active Listening and he builds on the skills elsewhere in the program.

I can recommend Peter's audio program "The Best Kept Secrets Of Great Communicators." Click and you will see that Nightingale Conant give you the chance to listen to a few short clips so that you can decide whether you like Peter's style.

I rate "A Little Book Of Listening Skills for the Workplace" as a 2 Star summary. I didn't learn much from this BusinessSummaries report.

The full book may be better so if you've read it, I'd appreciate a comment setting my readers straight.

I'd also like to hear your views of Peter Thomson's "Great Communicators" program if you have listened to that. I will be posting a review of it some time soon.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

High Trust Selling - Todd Duncan

"High Trust Selling : Make More Money In Less Time With Less Stress" is by Todd Duncan.

This is a good summary of relationship selling that starts with improving yourself.

The big idea is that you give fewer clients a better, high quality experience that builds lasting relationships. This is expected to result in more income from less time spent working and reduced stress.

It goes through and outlines 14 laws:

1. The law of the Iceberg
   
   The true measure of success is invisible to clients?
   
   I think this is intended to be the "big picture" that your product or service makes the world a better place so that you have a stronger purpose that shifting boxes. I have no problem with the concept but surely the benefits have to be visible to clients!
    
2. The law of the summit
   
   Take risks to reach the top and don't fear failure - see it as a learning experience.
    
3. The law of the shareholder
   
   See yourself as a business and invest in yourself
    
4. The law of the ladder
   
   Your success depends on the steps you take. I like the analogy and agree that success is about taking personal responsibility.
5. The law of leverage
   
   Commit to goals.
    
6. The law of the hourglass
   
   The importance of time management and discipline.
    
7. The law of the broom
   
   Clean up your act, stop firefighting. Be proactive.
    
8. The law of the dress rehearsal
   
   The selling process - plan and practice.
    
9. The law of the bull's eye
   
   Target with an explanation of high trust selling and tips on getting referrals, making the approach and setting the appointment.
    
10. The law of the scale
    
    Quality clients, not quantity.
     
11. The law of courtship
    
    Tips on building the relationship and creating trust.
     
12. The law of the hook
    
    Keep prospects attention throughout the presentation.
    
    [Make it about them and not you. I have sat in some very bad, very boring sales presentations.]
     
13. The law of incubation
    
    Relationships build over time.
     
14. The law of the encore
    
    Improve service standards.

I have covered most of these in glib one liners to give you a flavour as some of the rules are a little opaque from just the title but you can read teh summary yourself under the free trial offered.

There are some useful tips in the "High Trust Selling" by Todd Duncan which, if you earn your living from sales, will make you step back and take a good hard look at what you are doing and that is the first step towards improvement.

I am glad that I read the book summary and I rate it a 3 star review.

Now that I have read the BusinessSummaries report, I can't see enough original content to make me want to add the book to my list of "must reads" (remember I read a lot of these books) but the quality of the content looks high so it will be a good read on relationship selling.

The vast majority of the reviews on Amazon are very positive with the occasional dissenting voice - you can get it from Amazon UK or USA so if you want a detailed guide to relationship selling, it looks a good place to go.

If you just want to see what the fuss is about, then why not try the BusinessSummaries service - they offer a free trial and you get access to a big library of existing summaries. It is highly recommended as a way of absorbing business ideas quickly and easily.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs