The 2008 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards - Sales Category

The books on our 2008 shortlist for the Sales Category are:

• The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite
  by Michael Port and Elizabeth Marshall (Wiley, August 2008)
  
  Elizabeth and Michael show readers that times are changing in business, and that customers are being driven away by typical sales tactics. Filled with real life stories about companies and what works and what doesn't, The Contrarian Effect not only shows how the sales process is broken, but how to successfully build something to replace it.


• Making the Number: How to Use Sales Benchmarking to Drive Performance
  by Greg Alexander, Aaron Bartels,and Mike Drapeau (Portfolio, November 2008)
  
  Showing how to use data-driven methods to make decisions, the authors introduce metrics to determine the sales process and identify potential growth without relying on pure instinct. Making the Number brings a practiced feature in other business functions, and shows how to apply the discipline of benchmarking to sales.


• Perfect Selling: Open The Door. Close the Deal
  by Linda Richardson (McGraw-Hill, June 2008)
  
  Selling requires searching out and gaining knowledge to be successful. Linda Richardson details five steps apply to becoming your own coach and developing better relationships with customers through the "perfect" sales call, using valuable checkpoints for any sales person to improve the lines of communication with potential customers


• Selling to Zebras: How to Close 90% of the Business You Pursue Faster, More Easily, and More Profitably
  by Jeff Koser and Chad Koser (Greenleaf Book Group, October 2008)
  
  Most sales people spend 85% of their time with prospects who aren't going to buy. Figuring out who your ideal customer really is will save sales organizations thousands of hours by making the decision not to pursue prospects with a low likelihood of success. Jeff Koser and Chad Koser show readers how to make the Zebra way part of their sales operation.


• What the Customer Wants You to Know: How Everybody Needs to Think Differently about Sales
  by Ram Charan (Portfolio, January 2008)
  
  In his standard, down-to earth approach, management guru Ram Charan defines new approaches to thinking differently about sales, and shows that sales is about everyone in an organization, not just the sales force. Packed with practical applications and simple solutions to common problems, the book draws focus on who is the most important party in the sales process: the customer.