Assalamualaikum…

As I promised in my previous post; The Typical Malay Entrepreneurs

I am not a book smart. I don’t deserve to be in that group. I believe it would be an insult for the book smarts if I say I am one of them. But I’m not sure whether I’m a street smart either. And I don’t care to which group I belong. I don’t have to label myself just to attract certain group of people to be friends with me or to convince anybody. That is childish.

I hate to squeeze all my neurons studying electronics degree for 4 years in a university and at the end I found that I can only put around 5% of the knowledge I’ve gained in real life unless I become an R&D engineer or a lecturer. I like to learn something that I can put into practice, apply them for my own benefit and others.

For that purpose, I read. I read because I believe it is necessary to do so. Not because I want to be an ‘Einstein’ geek.

As I said before, your reading material is one of the fundamental elements that would shape your mind set. In this post, I would like to share with you some of mine. May you find it beneficial and share it with others as well.

1) Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath

I found out about this book on the internet www.sellingtobigcompanies.com when I was cracking my head trying to figure out why few of our quotations amounting to almost RM2 million were rejected. It was a slap, particularly towards me as I was the one directly handling those prospects. I was the one who prepared the proposals and quotations to those big private companies. I was the one doing the presentation.

When we fail to get any deal, we can’t simply say, “Bukan rezeki aku ni“. We should do some post mortem on what’s lacking on the methods and techniques we used to approach our prospects. Not just in business, but this concept is relevant through out our life as well. Once we’ve improvised from time to time and give the absolute best on our effort, then only we should say “In Allah we put our trust. Whatever the result He gives, it is the best for me”. You can ask any great Islamic scholar. I guarantee you they will agree with me.

Moreover, I’m tired of always getting the ’small fry’. Although the profit margin is big but the total value of the project is still not enough to spearhead the company. That’s why we braved ourselves to explore the giants. Previously, it happened by chance. Our contacts referred us to them. We know that’s not healthy. We should learn how to get our foot in the door of large corporate accounts and win big contracts by our own hard work and smart campaigns.

That is why I feel blessed for having this book. Many marketing books stressed out more on the concepts. i.e. guerilla marketing, viral, etc. But this book stress so much on the latest in-depth techniques on what it takes to get into big companies. Sales approaches that had worked for years were no longer effective. The best part is the author wrote it base on her real sales experience. Now, she would like to share it with others.

We’ve implemented only a few of the tips given and we have seen good progresses already. Go to this link www.sellingtobigcompanies.com and download the first 2 chapters of the book for free. Review it yourself. Fortune magazine (Sept. 08) just selected it as a “must-read” sales book, saying it belonged on every seller’s bookshelf. And, it won a Gold Medal in the 2008 Sales Book Awards!

2) Buzzmarketing by Mark Hughes

Financial Times names Buzzmarketing as one of the Best Business Books of The Year. Fast Company names Buzzmarketing as one of the Ten Great Business Reads of The Year. Seriously, this is a great book. If you want to create a productive typhoon type marketing campaign for your products with one-third of the marketing budget usually allocated by the corporate giants, than this is the book to grab. It is very suitable for start-ups too.

Mark Hughes secret is about making the company a magnet for media attention and word of mouth, by any means necessary. Most reputably, he convinced the town of Halfway, Oregon, to rename itself to Half.com, Oregon — which Time magazine called “one of the greatest publicity coups” in history. Go to www.buzzmarketing.com to check it out.

But there’s one thing to be cautious. You must digest a lot of his ideas to suit the market environment in Asia, particularly Malaysia. You do it wrong, you’re doomed!

3) Built to Change - How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness by Edward E. Lawler III & Christopher G. Worley

This book was presented to me by Dr Hj Ramli Saad, Director of Institut Perubatan dan Pergigian Termaju, Universiti Sains Malaysia, which was recently awarded the title of Apex University. This book focuses on identifying practices and designs that organizations can adopt so that they are able to change. It is filled with illustrative examples from companies like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Limited Brands and Toyota - that have been able to change time and again to meet changing business demands. (but not so well during the current recession I guess).

It outlines what it takes to become an organization that continuously and rapidly changes, including information about creating strategy, reward systems, communication processes, and human resources management practices that are designed to facilitate the ability of an organization to change. A good read but not the right time to implement it in Aidan Group.

4) www.bnet.com BNET Business Network: The place to-go for management

Have a look at these links (click them):

(a) Is This Really A Good Time To Start A Business

(b) Present Like Steve Jobs (a must see video!)

(c) Meaningful Work through Passion, not Genius

(d) Capitalizing on Human Potential

(e) Top 5 Lies That Marketing Tells Sales

(f) Sales Machine: 9 Questions To Ask Before Presenting

(g) 3 Simple Rules for Great Presentation

(h) Why Your Marketing Isn’t Effective

(i) Nurturing Sales Leads

(j) Stop Overdoing Your Strengths

5) www.SellingPower.com Find out How to Accelerate Your Sales in 2009

Yes, let’s find it how. I haven’t explored them thoroughly.

6) There are other very good books and online materials that you can explore such as Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harve Ecker, Learn To Earn by Peter Lynch, Wall Street Journal www.online.wsj.com,  Mc Kinsey Quarterly www.mckinseyquarterly.com and others. Feel free to do your homework.

Eventually, I think we’ve read so many books in our life. But according to Conrad Hilton, “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit“. So, don’t just read books, alright? Take action. Execute. Action speaks better than words.  Action speaks better than reading 1001 books!

Well, that’s from me. Hope you have something to share with others too.

P/S: If you haven’t read my previous post; The Typical Malay Entrepreneurs , I strongly suggest that you read it, especially if you are a Malay residing in Malaysia. Happy reading!