The Ultimate Sales Machine

The starting point of Chet Holmes's advice is focus: instead of trying to master thousands of strategies, a company should pick twelve areas that make the biggest difference and improve them one at a time. Holmes, who has been described as one of the nation's top 20 change experts, warns against managers who leap at every new trend and then drop it. His method asks for an hour a week on each chosen area, repeated with what he calls pigheaded discipline, much as a tennis player drills nothing but backhands for hours. The areas span management, where staff learn to work smarter; marketing, from websites and advertising to trade shows and publicity; and sales, where every interaction gets refined.

Noah Kagan, founder of Sumo, included it in his post The 18 Books That Changed My Life. Yaro Starak, founder of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, said it served, on some levels, as a reminder of what matters in sales, an area he admits is not his strength.