Here are a few reviews of books about Wealth, Selling and Marketing etc.:
Title: ZenWise Selling - Mindful Methods to Improve Your Sales...and Your Self
Author: Lee Godden
Publisher: Two Circles Press
Category: Non-fiction / Business
260 pages; ISBN: 0-9740076-0-9
Rating: 9/10
ZenWise Selling: Mindful Methods to Improve Your Sales…and Your Self is written by Lee Godden, who has consistently and successfully used a Zen mind in his career as a sales executive. It is primarily meant for people who are already in sales or who may be looking at sales as a possible career option. The book does offer a basic course in selling too, but the focus is on Zen techniques.
The book has ten chapters and covers the subject well, both in breadth and depth. The approach is friendly and polite. The style is interesting and will hold your attention. For very definite reasons, the author has chosen a second person, guide book approach rather than the self- promoting autobiographical approach. He keeps himself in the background. Since the book does refer to 'you', the focus is on you, the reader, the customer, the consumer. The 'I' has been subdued, keeping with the Zen approach.
If you are totally new to Zen, this book may or may not be sufficient to understand that concept. The first few chapters of the book and the appendix give a fairly good treatment of Zen. But if you prefer to first read a more thorough introduction to that subject, the author gives good recommendations.
Lee Godden rightly differentiates between philosophical Zen and religious Zen. He uses the philosophical aspects of Zen, which when added to a set of beliefs and rituals forms the religious core for a good number of people in the present world.
The book is well-written and is well-produced. There are a couple of typos, but they don't interfere with understanding. Use of bullets and pointers, use of boxes with specific messages, exercises with specific focus, in general all the tools that make a guide book effective, have been liberally used. The book has two appendices on Zen, one on its history and one listing Zen resources. For those needing or wishing to explore the subject further, the notes and bibliography sections are a welcome addition. The book’s index will help you quickly locate the topic of your specific interest.
A summary or recap at the end of each chapter would have been a useful addition. Chapter 7 discusses the role of a Sales Manager, including coaching, correcting and critiquing. The painful but sometimes necessary step of terminating the services of an employee, who can't be corrected has also been dealt with, in a sensitive manner. However, the other scenario of a dissatisfied employee, quitting, has not been touched upon.
The book ZenWise Selling is indeed a radical departure from the usual guides to selling - which often focus on the individualistic aspects of selling and winning at the expense of another if needed. However, this book is at a higher level, where you, the customer and every one else, wins. This idea is emphasized throughout the book and is dealt with more at length in Chapter 8. Sales and business professionals open to new approaches will enjoy - and benefit from this book. Even if you are not immediately comfortable with Zen’s place in sales, but are willing to explore further, this book will become your friendly spiritual guide. And, it’s also a good value for your money.
The Personal Wealth Coach
Author: Jeff McClure Category: Non-fiction / Self-help 310 pages; ISBN: 09741858-5-X Rating: 6/10 "The Personal Wealth Coach" by Jeff McClure, Certified Financial Planner, is written with a good intention of educating the public about the various options of wealth creation and preservation. The author has a strong background of cultural anthropology in addition to his Certified Financial Planning qualification. This background helped him bring out the historical aspects of wealth. The first half of this book is more or less devoted to these historical aspects. The second half of the book tries to coach the reader about various investment instruments, plans, choosing the right investment manager etc. The author successfully argues that all average investors need professional advisors to help them to identify the right investment managers. Then the reader may rightly ask him/herslef the question, "why should I then spend this much time in reading this or similar books and try to understand these difficult concepts?" The book is not easy to read, especially the later parts of it. The author makes a sincere and valiant attempt to explain difficult concepts in an easy to understand style. But I am afraid to report, not really successfully. While the historical aspects have been brought out quite well, the author doesn't quite succeed in explaining in a simple and lucid manner the various investment strategies. The book does not accomplish the goal of clarifying and educating the average educated lay reader. The author is quite biased in favor of the American Capitalism as the best vehicle of individual enterpreneurship and thus wealth creation. People of other cultures may not agree. There is much more to life than just money. And the means are as important as the ends. In spite of the author's grateful acknowledgement about the editorial efforts, the reviewer could not but help noticing various glitches in the book. I would strongly advise the reader to spend more time in going through the book or buy it from a store which has a refund policy
The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses
Author: Jay B. Lipe Publisher: Chammerson Press, Minneapolis, MN, USA Category: Non-fiction / Business ISBN: 0-9720345-0-1 Rating: 8/10 Key Words: Marketing, Tips, Tools, Techniques, Growing Business, Marketing Plans, Toolkit "The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses" by Jay B. Lipe is a highly practical, Do-It-Yourself book, targeted at small to small-medium organisations (with an employee strength of say 5 to 50). He brings those marketing strategies from large organisations that are also useful to smaller, emerging businesses. Even if the organisation is going to use the services of an external consultant for developing and implementing marketing plans, it is essential that the CEO or some other reponsible person in the organsiation understands what is involved. This book helps that person to focus clearly on what needs to be done. In the space of nearly 250 pages, Jay gives the Marketer (would-be type, need-be type, seasoned type, a novice type, in fact any one with any interest in marketing), a well-prepared, field- tested game plan, a road-map for success. He assumes nothing on the part of the reader and uses a practical, easy-on-the eyes, step-by-step approach. The style is lucid and conversational, friendly without being patronising. The book or toolkit (that is an apt description), is divided into 17 chapters, thus making it easy for the reader to take the concepts in easily. Every chapter focusses on one aspect of the marketing, for example, Chapter 6 is "Your Business Vision & Goals: Keeping Your Eyes on the Prize". Notice the second person approach. The book is a well-written and good-to-read practical step-by-step guide. It is as if Jay is standing in front of us in a small seminar room and is giving us the distilled wisdom and experience of his and several other seasoned marketing professionals. Yes, the book is full of practical wisdom. Every chapter focusses on one important aspect, and at the end of the chapter, the main points are well-summarised and are presented as "Tools to go." The book is well designed visually and uses all the presentation tools and techniques effectively viz., boxes, bullets, figures, diagrams etc., designed to help the average reader, who is a busy marketer with many things crowding his/her mind and clamoring for attention, absorb the concepts and more importantly get the gut feeling, yes, this guys knows what he is talking about, he has been there, he is genuine. If he can do it, so can I. And that after all is the objective of the author in writing the book and I would say without the least hesitation that he has fully succeeded. Considering the amount of information packed into the book, which I again emphasise is not an academic tome, meant for being stored in your book-shelf, but is your daily friend, philosopher and guide, to be kept with you and used; considering that the volume captures the knowledge of a seminar of many hours - 10 hours at a guess?, the price is very, very reasonable. In fact, it is a bargain. Go for it. And yes, for those who are perfect beginners or even for those, whose experience has been in some specific areas of marketing, who may have just a little difficulty in understanding some terms, the book comes with a glossary. And for those, whose curiosity has been kindled and would like to read further on some aspects, there is a big list of further reading. Added value or bonus items, in my view. The book is primarily meant for the US Markets, especially the small (Jay prefers to call them emerging) businesses, who need marketing but can't afford a full time marketing director. However, some of the tools, tips and techniques are applicable to markets in other countries too. I compliment Jay for coming up with such an excellent effort.
Principled Profit
Author: Shel Horowitz Published by AWM Books Category: Non-fiction / Self-help 160 pages; ISBN: 0-9614666-6-9 Rating: 9/10 Review 'Principled Profit' by Shel Horowitz is an excellent book on ethical marketing, abundance mindset and other innovative ideas. They are innovative from the typical materialistically oriented, aggressive, 'If You Win I Must Have Lost' perspective. It may or may not appeal to the typical A-type (Ambitious, Aggressive and often Angry) pusher, but it will certainly open the mental doors to a different and more efficient ball-game of marketing. Instead of the Win-Lose mentality, it talks consistently of Win-Win situations and gives plenty of examples. The book is a comprehensive tour of ethical marketing, where the marketer is a partner of the client right through. And where 'There Is Enough For Everyone' is the recurring concept. Cooperation is more efficient than competition, and competition should be a friendly 'I Help You - You Help Me - Together Let Us Build A Better World For All' is the key theme in this small but great book. Unlike many 'professional' reviewers, I do read through the book carefully, though it takes a lot of time and effort, since basically I am a book-lover. So, I can't but help notice editorial or style problems, spelling and grammatical errors etc. I do make notes of them as I read, in the book's margins. I also note down some very good points which strike a resonative Aha in my mind. I am happy to report that Shel's book had very few adverse notes when I finished reading and several 'good', 'excellent' etc., comments spattered through out. Chapter 18 is the best chapter in the book and will give you a gist of the whole book. So read that short chapter first apart from this and many other reviews/endorsements in the beginning of the book, so that you can decide whether the book is for you or not. The "Resources' at the end of the book and the Index add value to the book. If you are in any way connected with marketing of a product or service, this book is definitely for you. Even if you are not directly involved in marketing of anything, since you need to market yourself without selling your 'self', PRINCIPLED PROFIT will give you several ideas. My score for this book is 9/10 and rating for this book is 'Excellent'.
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