I’m often asked what social selling and related business books I recommend, so here are some of those recommendations:
Klout Matters: How to Engage Customers, Boost Your Digital Influence–and Raise Your Klout Score for Success, Gina Carr and Terry Brock
If you are interested in understanding or growing your Klout score then this is a good book to read. Realise I might get comments about the relevance / irrelevance of Klout, but the fact of the matter is having a Social presence is now seen as important in the job market. Klout is a way to measure progress and is sometimes used by employers.
How To Twitter For Business Success, Nicky Kriel
Nicky’s book has for me, become the best book on Twitter I know. Realise that sometimes these books can look like text books, but Nicky’s writing style is very easy. was lucky enough to meet her last year and I can vouce that she is excellent counsel on good practice for Twitter, she is also a generally nice person.Nicky is heavily involved in bringing Social Media and Twitter to the masses, she undertakes training for Small Businesses, Sole Traders etc.
How to Really use LinkedIn, Bert Verdonck
While there are many “top 10″ articles on how to use LinkedIn, Bert’s books covers all of the angles. If you are going to run a Social Selling / Employee Advocacy program you need to read this book. Similar to Nicky above, I’ve met Bert and he is what I would call “great value for money”.
The Social Executive: How to Master Social Media and Why its Good for Business Dionne Lew
Dionne is very brave at covering the subject of why CEO or more importantly, people in the C-Suite should use or at least understand Social Media. Dionne’s writing style is to research the subject (some would say obsessively) but that means you always get facts and statistics to back up any hypothesis she puts forward. If you do buy a copy of this book, may I suggest you buy two copies and give one to your manager.Met Dionne when she came over to the UK in 2014, she is passionate about educating the C-Suite and getting them engaged in Social. Expect more in this area.
Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers, Geoffrey A. Moore
Have successfully taken three new products to market using the concepts in this book. If you follow the steps laid down in this book and you shouldn’t fail.
In Search of Excellence, Thomas J. Peters
While this book is now getting a little dated, it still for me the standard textbook for Business Graduates. Techniques are still used and I’ve seen them advocated recently by companies like Google and Facebook.
Start-Up Nation, Dan Senor and Saul Singer
How is it that some countries can be more tech savvy than others? Read this book on the way back from Thailand, it covers not just why Israel seems to generate many of the technology advancements we take for granted but also why you should be more confident and hold out for more money when your start-up gets purchased.
Age of Context, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
In his role at Rackspace, Robert Scoble comes into contact with many start-ups and Disruptive technologies. In this book, he and Shel give us a glimpse into the future.
Selling to VITO the Very Important Top Officer: Get to the Top. Get to the Point. Get to the Sale, Anthony Parinello
If you are interested in selling to people in the “C-Suite” then this is for you, I realise that this was written in the age of letter writing. But the concepts are the same. C-Suite suite people will give your content 7 seconds before they delete, move on or grant you another 7 seconds. You had better offer something personalised and offer value. You may well ask as a Social Seller, why I’m not advocating the use of LinkedIn. At the time of writing, in the UK not that many FTSE 350 decision makers are big users of Social Media. Something “old school” might get you a better response.
The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
There are many sales books to recommend, The Sales Challenger is the most up-to-date with regard to a “methodology” relating to modern Social Selling principles.
Lend Me Your Ears: All you need to know about making speeches and presentations, Professor Max Atkinson
While this book can be a little like a textbook, stick with it as it is the definitive on how to give great presentations.
If during your journey you come up with other books that can help Social Sellers out there, I would love to hear from you. Please leave any suggestions or comments below or contact me direct.