7 Sales and Marketing Books to Kick Off Your Fall!

Mark is a honest writer, he writes about Marketing as it is in 2019. People are pissed off by being bombarded with marketing messages; adverts, cold calls, unsolicited emails. So what do we do? We filter this all out, either by using ad-blockers, just blocking cold callers on our iphones using standard technology or just using standard functionality in email to create rules so we are not bothered anymore. The smart marketers are those that recognize this and do something about it. and this is what Mark covers in his book -- You should be aware that Mark's book is a "why" .... he tells you why this is happening. It is not a "how", that is how you can do something about it. He does offer case studies (they are all B2C examples) of how people are trying to compete with this today, but does not give you a "kit bag" of things to do. The thing that worries me most about the book is I don't think Mark goes far enough. Some of the examples can be argued are still "old school". Anyway a must read for the modern marketer!

Katie and I share the same publisher and she sent me a preview copy to review, my review is as follows "Artificial Intelligence (AI) has arrived in Marketing, there are no brake pads and no reversing. The problem being that there are many people talking about it by few practitioners doing it.

King offers a great introduction to the new comer as well as practical guide to the current AI in Marketing state of the nation. A must read for the modern marketer."

We had a Sales VP that had a nasty temper, lose a deal and fists were banged on tables and expletives shouted. So much so that a toxic air started to form on the team. Said, Sales VP and management team was given this book and the team was transformed. We joked about controlling "the chimp" and the team went onto one of high performance. Can this book change people's lives (for the better) you bet!

Since the beginning of time, we have tried to be different from our competitors. We convince ourselves that we have USPs (unique selling points), or differentiators, some small difference that will help us win business. When, to be honest, all products are the same. Blue Ocean strategy is about changing the game. Creating a new space where there is no competition that makes your company unbeatable.  

New Power takes the reader on a journey on how the new world order of the internet, social media, and mobile is changing society. How we play and also how we work. In the book it uses the example of crowdsourcing as just one example, of how the world of "selling" and "marketing" has changed. I was also reminded of this at the weekend, where British Airways (BA) stopped flying to Cairo. They didn't say why. This is "old power" a corporation that thinks it can do something and hide. Of course, what happens is they get crucified on social media and then after a couple of days, they have to dig themselves out of a hole. Where as, any "new power" company would have know there would have been a media "shit storm" and would have managed it from day one. There is no way to hide and brands and their employees have to understand this. 

I’m writing this review in August 2019, the book was published in 2008. I purchased the book as a couple of people recommended it to me. In its day, it was probably ahead of its time, but 11 years later it’s showing its age. MySpace is a recommended networking site along with a number of tools that have long fallen by the wayside. As I say, probably a good read in it’s day, but now passed its sell by date.

With a title like "the end of marketing" I had expected a book like Marketing Rebellion by Mark Schaefer. If you don't know Mark's book is a well reasoned argument that the world of Marketing as you know is over. The book is actually a "brain dump" of everything that Carlos Gil knows about social media. -- Carlos has been in social media for a long time and is self taught. He's gone down the dead ends, so you don't have to. If you are a looking for an up-to-date book to give you a kick start in social, then this is for you. 

While you are here, don't forget you can still get my two books on "Social Selling" (left) and "SMarketing" (below).