Do We Really Need Yet More Sales and Marketing Books?

As well as being a writer, I'm an avid reader. Business books, Sales and Marketing books and books about Rock Music I consume, as much as I can. I read a lot of the classics in the past, Hemmingway, Waugh, Woolf etc. But I tend to settle now on books, where I can hopefully take away something new and use it in my business life.

Now here's my problem. In the books I've read over the last 24 months, they have tended to sit in 3 camps.

1. Self publish - Many of these I've read, it was obvious within the first 20 pages why the person hadn't got a publishing deal. There was little subject matter, there was no structure and you can read them pretty quickly. They don't tend to be life changing. The exception to this is the new Larry Lavine book, which he has kindly given me an early sight of and it's a good book.
2. The "Whys" - There are many books where, I couldn't wait to read about the knowledge I hoped would be shared and came away disappointed. Why? Well actually the book was all about the author, their journey and why you should do something. You get half way through and you realise that actually there is no content. I put the book down at the end and you are screaming, "I knew before I picked the book up, the reason "why", but "how" do you do it?" I must admit, I then have a question mark over that individual, do they really know what they are doing? The world needs less "whys" and more "hows"!
3. The book that is the same old, same old. If we think about sales as a process, as with any process, order to cash, for example. The processes have stayed the same pretty much years on year, so from a sales perspective, people can keep going to this "well" and lowering the bucket. But is it thought leadership? Does the world need another book on prospecting or a book on how to overcome objections? From the books sales, I guess we do, but as Phil Stubbs, who works for me says "same bus, different number".

So what about the books I authored?

I'm no Hemmingway, Waugh, Woolf, in fact I was told at school to never take a job where I needed to write. My grand vision when I wrote "Social Selling Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers" (available on Amazon here) and "Smarketing: How to Achieve Competitive Advantage through Blended Sales and Marketing" (available on Amazon for pre-order from Amazon here) to offer the reader a "how". Something you could implement back at the office, something that would make an impact on the readers life.

So many people came to me and said, "Tim, how do you social sell?". Matt and I wrote a manual that people could use and somebody even today came to me and told me how the book had changed their life and the way they sell. For the better, I should add.

I hope that "Smarketing" will be the same. Hugo and Adam are probably, in fact they are the best minds I have come across to write this. We have loved the challenge and challenged each other. But the vision was clear, which was to come up with something that would:-

• Make a difference (to the reader and therefore the world)
• Give people a "how" that they can use now and in the future
• Provide people with a guided learning where they can interact with the authors and other readers

Each chapter was brainstormed and I know that it's packed with new ideas. Adam, Hugo and I sparked off each other to put our best thoughts into it. People ask me what is Thought Leadership and I say you need thoughts and they need to lead. I would say (but I'm biased) that "Smarketing: How to Achieve Competitive Advantage through Blended Sales and Marketing" meets that challenge. But it's not a stuffy textbook, it flows nicely and there are a shed load of diagrams.

In the future weeks, I will write more about the groundbreaking details inside.

"Smarketing: How to Achieve Competitive Advantage through Blended Sales and Marketing" is currently on pre-order worldwide on Amazon here it ships in the UK and internationally on the 3rd October and in the US on the 28th October.

Digital Leadership Associates: We are Global Social Transformation Consultancy. We do three things: Social Media Strategy, Social Selling and Social Media Management. Drop me an email or call me on 00 44 7823 534 557 and let’s talk about how we can make an impact on your organisation.