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 Blanchard,
Ken, and Sheldon Bowles, Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to
Customer Service, William Morrow & Co., 1993
Written in Blanchard's now well-known parable style, this book
simplifies the critical area of customer service down to its simplest,
most fundamental aspects. If you apply these simple concepts, outstanding
customer service will become an integral part of your company, not just
something talked about but never done. And if you're out there circulating
in the world, you know just how rare excellent service really is...so read
this book and become one of those rare business.
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 Blanchard,
Ken, and Sheldon Bowles, Gung Ho!: Turn on the People in Any
Organization, William Morrow & Co., 1997
Another of Blanchard's charming, simple, yet surprisingly deep
parables. This time, the topic is turning on the people in your
organization and getting them to become enthusiastic, committed members of
your team. Let's face it, without that, your company has little or no
chance of becoming truly great, yet most business managers and owners
treat their employees as though just a paycheque should be enough to keep
them at the peak of motivation forever. Stop dreaming, 'cause it doesn't
work that way. Read this book instead and start getting your staff gung
ho!
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 Byham,
William C., with Jeff Cox, Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment: How to
Improve Quality, Productivity, and Employee Satisfaction, Revised
Edition, Fawcett, 1998
If you're only going to read one book about employee motivation and
empowerment, this is the one to read. It's a simple, easy-to-read story
that explains all the things you do as a manager that truly tick off your
employees—and how you can solve them. The hundreds of small ways you
"sapp" your people every day and leave them less and less
enthusiastic about their jobs and your business eventually lead to what
you see in the vast majority of companies: an unmotivated, uninterested,
uncaring workforce. This book will teach you how to "Zapp" them
and energize them in a way that is rarely seen. All the marketing and
management techniques in the world will fail if you don't get this part
right.
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 Byham,
William C., with Jeff Cox, Heroz: Empower Yourself, Your Coworkers,
Your Company, Fawcett, 1995
This follow-up to Zapp! focuses on what middle level management
people can do to change things for the better even when they don't have
company-wide support. It's an excellent companion volume to Zapp! Make
sure you buy everyone in your company a copy of both.
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 Covey,
Stephen, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in
Personal Change, Fireside, 1990
This may technically be a book on self-improvement, but the habits
discussed are nothing short of the basic requirements for success in
life—and business. Covey developed the habits after studying all the
literature about success throughout history and distilling the common
elements down to their simplest form. Read about them. Then practice them.
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 Covey,
Stephen, Roger Merrill, and Rebecca Merrill, First Things First: To
Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy, Fireside, 1996
"First Things First" is the third of Covey's 7 Habits of
Highly Effective People and is about making the best use of your time.
His approach is so good that it deserved its own book. You may have read
lots of books and articles on time management, but this way of looking at
the subject takes things to the next level. After you've tried it and
experienced the results, you'll want to give a copy to your family, your
friends, your employees...
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 Dominguez,
Joe, and Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your
Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, New
Edition, Penguin USA, 1999
Although this book is technically about personal finance, not business
or management, you should read it anyway because it really will transform
your relationship with money—and therefore significantly affect your
business goals and strategies. Most of us in business only have one wish
when it comes to money—more of it—this book will get you to
re-evaluate that position and show you a much better approach.
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 Gerber,
Michael, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and
What to Do About It, Harperbusiness, 1995
Any entrepreneur that goes into business without reading this book is
making a big mistake. There is no better explanation of the reasons most
entrepreneurs fail. What's even better is that Gerber also provides the
solutions that are simple but very rarely done.
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 Gerber,
Michael, The E-Myth Manager: Why Management Doesn't Work—and What to
Do About It, Harperbusiness, 1999
Gerber applies his insights into the workings of business to the
management function and brings a new perspective that can help both
businesses and individual managers make dramatic improvements in the way
they manage.
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Gerber, Michael, The
Powerpoint, Harperbusiness, 1991
Although it is now sadly out of print, you should be able to find this
wonderful book in your library or used bookstore. And you should
definitely read it and try to absorb the brilliant insights into the idea
and philosophy behind your business that Gerber shares. It may not have
much meaning for anyone new to business ownership, but if you've been in
business for a while, you'll find some great common ground with Gerber and
also have your thinking stretched to new levels.
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 Heiman,
Stephen, and Diane Sanchez, The New Conceptual Selling: The Most
Effective and Proven Method for Face-to-Face Sales Planning, Warner
Books, 1999
There have been a million books written about selling. Many of them
have some valuable tips and inspiring stories. But if I were to recommend
just one, this would be it. It's an approach that focuses on the customer
and his needs, not on superhuman techniques to be used by the talented
salesperson. It's a simple, no-pressure method that even those who hate
selling will gladly adopt. If more salespeople did, they wouldn't have
such a bad name!
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 Heiman,
Stephen, and Diane Sanchez, The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales
System Proven Effective by the World's Best Companies, Warner Books,
1998
This is the companion volume to Conceptual Selling by the same
authors and focuses on dealing with the special challenges of dealing with
larger companies and multiple decision makers. Read the two as a set and
you'll never again be at a loss about how to handle a sales situation.
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 Lynch,
Dudley, and Paul Kordis, Strategy of the Dolphin: Scoring a Win in a
Chaotic World, Fawcett, 1988
This book is also sadly out of print, but is found in most libraries
and quite common in used bookstores. It will teach you why you don't want
to be an aggressive, win-at-all-costs shark, or a weak, dependent carp.
The dolphin strategy is smart, based on a win-win concept of business yet
without self-sacrifice. The "tit-for-tat" strategy alone is worth the price
of the book.
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 Peters,
Tom, and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from
America's Best-Run Companies, Warner Books, 1988
Although time has taken some of the luster off a few of the companies
profiled in this book, the attitudes that characterized them are still
sorely lacking in most businesses today. Adding value, treating people
well, staying close to customers...these ideas are just as powerful today
as they were when this book first became a bestseller.
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 Ries,
Al, Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It, HarperBusiness,
1997
According to Ries, it's focus—or die. This book is filled with
examples of companies who followed the trend toward diversification and
suffered for it. The point is to do one thing extremely well and stop
trying to be all things to all people. Even though Ries' points and
examples are about big business, the lessons can be applied just as well
to any size of business. Ries, who co-authored the classic Positioning
with Jack Trout is worth listening to. Even though it may not seem
logical, this book will convince you that less can in fact be more.
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 Trout,
Jack, with Steve Rivkin, The New Positioning: The Latest on the World's
#1 Business Strategy, McGraw-Hill, 1997
This is a follow-up to the original 1993 book Positioning: The
Battle for Your Mind (which Trout co-authored with Al Ries) and
refreshes the basic concept that your company must hold a clear and unique
place in the mind of your customer. Although the examples are about
big business and mass marketing, many of the concepts can and should be
applied to companies of all sizes.
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 Winninger,
Tom, Price Wars: How to Win the Battle for Your Customer, St.
Thomas Press, 1994
If you thought playing the discount game was the only way to compete
because that's what everyone else is doing, read this book right away. It
will show you dozens of techniques to establish a value added advantage
where your price becomes secondary. Oh, and by the way, you'll make a lot
more profit, have les stress, and generally attract a better, more loyal
class of customers. Your competition will never again get an advantage
over you just by dropping their price. In our view, it's the only sane way
to compete and win over the long term.
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