A Gallery Without Walls: Selling Art in Alternative Venues
by Margaret Danielak
“This book is about selling art in alternative venues and in innovative, cost-effective ways” based on the author’s experience as an artist’s representative. What I like most about this book is that it opens the door to nontraditional sales channels, so you are not competing in the same sandbox with everyone else.
Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business, and Influence Others
by Andrew Sobel and Jerold Panas
“You’ve heard about people who talk too much. You never heard about a person who listens too much.”
Power Questions is about the productive use of questions in a variety of contexts. Co-authors Andrew Sobel and Jerold Panas are experts on client loyalty and fundraising, respectively. Continue reading “Power Questions”
To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others
by Daniel H. Pink
This book is about sales, but also “selling in a broader sense—persuading, influencing, and convincing others… Physicians sell patients on a remedy. Lawyers sell juries on a verdict. Teachers sell students on the value of paying attention in class.”
The old-school image of a dodgy salesman relied on what Daniel Pink calls information asymmetry—the seller had access to information which the buyer did not have. Clearly that environment has changed. The author replaces the old sales training mantra Always Be Closing with “the new ABCs—Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity.” Continue reading “To Sell is Human”
No Bull Selling
by Hank Trisler
No Bull Selling offers practical sales advice with a sense of humor. Hank Trisler writes, “I’ve been going to sales seminars all my adult life. That’s how I got so misinformed.” Continue reading “No Bull Selling”
Real Influence – Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In
by Mark Goulston and John Ullmen
This book is about the “connected influence model.” Disconnected influence is about “getting what I want.” It’s adversarial and focused on the short-term. Connected influence is oriented around understanding the other party’s situation and “viewing your current actions as a springboard for future relationships, reputation, and results… In the real world, interactions are never isolated. Anything you do might affect your relationships, as well as your reputation, for a long time to come.” Continue reading “Real Influence”
Learned Optimism
by Martin E. P. Seligman
“Explanatory style” is the way we think about life’s events. We can have either an optimistic or a pessimistic explanatory style. Seligman’s research found that changing pessimism into optimism relieves depression.
A pessimistic explanatory style frames negative events in terms that are personal, permanent, and pervasive—I’m a failure, This always happens to me, This screws up my whole life. Seligman offers the ABCDE technique to reframe explanatory style. The letters stand for adversity, belief, consequences, dispute (your negative beliefs), and energize. Continue reading “Learned Optimism”
The Key Point 