Next book

THE TECH SALES WARRIOR

BATTLE-TESTED STRATEGIES TO CRUSH QUOTA

A useful, engagingly written, and uplifting method for improving sales performance.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

A guide offers advice on cracking the code for becoming an exceptional tech salesperson.

Early on in his book, Prangley confesses that it pains him to see tech sales reps trying to improve their game and feeling lost. Drawing on his own long, personal experience, he hopes to present these forlorn colleagues with sales methods that he’s developed over the years, techniques that he’s absolutely confident will help them exceed their quotas. He first addresses what he refers to as persistent myths: that sales are all about the money, that sales are about tricking people, that superb sales figures are mostly a matter of luck. He then proceeds to lay out the basics of his method, foremost of which is “Finding Your Why”—really focusing on the essential reasons why readers are in sales in the first place. (His precepts are specifically tailored to business to business, but he insists they can be more widely applied.) Each of his chapters addresses a core idea of sales, from researching prospective customers to strengthening the teamwork instinct. Each one ends with a series of useful “action steps” that readers can implement. For example: “Actively work at building a great relationship with your manager. In particular, commit to making sure your manager never needs to chase you for accurate and timely data.” At all points in his book, Prangley very convincingly adopts the tone of a friendly older mentor, and he manages to do this without any condescension. His concentration on the personal element of sales is familiar to this type of manual but nevertheless is refreshingly human. And he organizes his material expertly; the guide is generously supplied with lists, acronyms, and bullet points to streamline the reading experience. No matter what stage of their careers, readers involved in sales will likely find plenty of value in these pages.

A useful, engagingly written, and uplifting method for improving sales performance.

Pub Date: March 3, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5445-2745-1

Page Count: 200

Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2022

Next book

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

Next book

THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.

“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

Pub Date: May 27, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

Categories:
Close Quickview