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It's a lot less painful to learn from other businesses mistakes than it is to find out the hard way!
And it's easy to gain an edge by borrowing great ideas from other industries - here's my quick recommendation list.
Here's a short list of books that might be of interest.
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Dan Kennedy is a no-holds-barred American Entrepreneur and writer. His stuff is DEFINITELY not politically correct, but he gets right to the core of the matter. One of the points which he repeatedly makes are that you have two key assets - your customer list and your time
This book explains how to make the best use of both (you only get one shot!).
He's written a series of books about running and growing a business and although they're all based on his experiences in the US, there's a lot of useful stuff in them.
He definitely tells it how it is!
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Despite its name, this is the best book on the subject I’ve found anywhere.
This book has earned me over 1000 good leads in under 12 months at minimal cost (and we're in a real niche market!)
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NLP has a mixed reputation, but the core principles are extremely valid.
"Selling with NLP" by Kerry L Johson is a great introduction to "thinking styles". As I'm sure you're aware, different people think in different ways, and they won't buy from you unless you can communicate with them in their preferred mode.
This book explains what the thinking styles are and how to express yourself in ways that your customer can relate to.
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Seth Godin is a marketing guru. He specialises in what is now known as "permission" marketing - rather than adverts targetting millions of people and aiming to convert a tiny fraction of a percent, he advocates very specific campaigns with very high conversion rates.
He also makes the very valid point that no matter how good your marketing, if your product doesn't do the business, you're wasting your time (see the book above!).
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"Think and Grow Rich" was written in 1937, towards the end of the great depression. The author, Napoleon Hill was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie (one of the wealthiest Americans of the time) to interview 500 of the most successful American millionaires and identify the secret behind their success. Amazingly, the process took 20 years, and it's still as relevant today as when it was written, particularly bearing in mind the current economic conditions.
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