I read Obviously Awesome by April Dunford because my current business (at time of writing) is struggling with positioning. Our best clients love us and will not operate without us. We have inbound leads from people who worked at our best clients and have new jobs. But, we have almost zero inbound leads from people that don't know who we are.
Seems obvious, right? People who don't know who we are don't come to us for a solution. Well, my friends, that's positioning.
These folks who don't know us actually do have the problems we solve. Those people are banging away at Google trying to find a solution. They are not finding us because we are not speaking their language.
Enter Obviously Awesome. It is an easy read with a clear and compelling formula. April Dunford's 10-step process has clear descriptions. You can use the book as a manual for working through your positioning. Items such as "list your happiest customers" and "form a positioning team" are relatively easily done and feel like "stating the obvious."
Then, there is Step 8 "Find a market frame of reference that puts your strengths at the center and determine how to position it." This one feels like she is saying, "OK, now position your product." What! That's why I'm reading the book. I need help!
Frankly, this is the culmination of some hard work leading up to Step 8. For example, "List your competitive alternatives." This sounds easy, but there are more competitors than you think and everyone has an opinion that may or may not be accurate. Or, "Isolate your unique attributes or features." If you ask long tenured employees, you will likely get a different set of answers than newbies. As the leader, you need to know who to listen to when. Often easier said than done.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. It is short and fun to read - some great examples. Is this the only methodology? No, it isn't. But, it is an accessible place to start and you'll find yourself enjoying the process as you and the team research through the steps.
I would recommend The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon to anyone - in sales, in marketing, in finance, literally anyone in business. It is an excellent book on sales process and methodology. It is told in an interesting and exciting narrative.
The problems John McMahon discusses are ripped right from the pages of my daily life building our current sales team. I know he isn't tapped into my brain by some Neuralink appliance, but it sure feels like it.
My wife gave me this book, although neither of us can recollect the actual occasion on which she gifted it to me. It hung around my "to read" pile for at least a year before I decided to jump in. My decision to read The Qualified Sales Leader happened when I realized that most of the testimonials on the inside front cover were from customers of my current business. "Whoa!" I thought, "There must be something here."
This book is a manual. It should be on your desk, pages folded, margins annotated, spine broken. You should give it to your entire sales team. For sales managers, this book describes how to do the job. For sales reps, this book explains the questions they need to know about their accounts. For executives, the book describes the focus and discipline needed to deliver on the sales number.
Here is an example of how accurate this book is. In Chapter 44, Negotiate and Close, is a section on procurement. In this chapter McMahon outlines some of the tactics used by procurement to discount the price. I'm not exaggerating one bit by saying that item number two on page 246 was said to me verbatim by a procurement officer in Q4 of 2023. When I read it, I almost dropped the book. Now that I have read this book, I cannot wait for a procurement person to use one of these lines on my again...
I also really identify with the opening scenario of the quarterly business review. I have been involved in my fair share of these pipeline reviews. They are usually awful and demoralizing for everyone involved. The book gives us the formula for making these meetings actually productive rather than a beat down. A productive QBR should be help the business and the sales rep equally.
This book has given me a common language with the sellers in our business. We all now ask the same questions and expect decent answers or plans to get the answers. We all know time kills deals. But, rather than say this to a rep, the book helps us figure out how to ask the right questions so that time doesn't kill the deal. Slowing down in the early stages actually doesn't kill the deal, quite the opposite.
The only criticism I have of this book are the typos I found. I can't help it. Typos jump out at me as if they are flashing red lights. And, the typos increased as the book progressed. Apparently our editor got tired. Too bad. But, easy enough to fix in the next printing, which I'm certain there will be.
The fact is that most of us are glorified scorekeepers rather than sales managers. This book helps us make that shift and in doing so regain some control over our pipeline and our numbers. Definitely read it.
I'm finding it difficult to write a review of Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, not because it is a bad book. Far from it. But, because it transcends the story of North Korea.
Nothing to Envy is the story of North Korea from the time of it's founding to the early 2000s. And, while the book is written by a journalist, it reads more like a novel than reportage.
The story is compelling. It is told in an intensely human way. The characters are vivid. Their struggles are real. Their relationships and hardships are on display. Nothing is held back.
This is a heartbreaking story of a totalitarian regime that cares little for its citizens while lining the pockets of the ruling family. In fact, as time goes on, North Korea is such a terrible government that China and Russia turn away. That is how bad it is in North Korea. The two most oppressive governments in the world won't have anything to do with North Korea.
The book exposes the North Korean regime as the fraud it truly is. The story is heartbreaking. It is a real life Animal Farm.
The reason that I'm finding it difficult to write this review is that I know North Korea and North Koreans were not, and are not, the only place and people who were and are oppressed. The policies of the North Korean regime are despicable. The treatment of their citizens was (still is?) criminal. But, there are many places in the world where this was and still is happening.
Plus, my memory of the 90s was a time of prosperity. For the first two years of the decade, I was in college. Once I graduated, I started my career in technology, constantly challenged, meeting new people, sharing ideas, building and growing. I got married in the 90s. We bought property in the 90s. I have fond memories of that time.
During this period, famine was ripping through North Korea. Humanitarian aid was stolen by the government. Citizens were murdered for expressing their thoughts about the government. There was literally NOTHING for people to eat. There was no money, There was no food. There was no heat. There was no electricity. There was nothing.
This book taught me that I should be doing more with my life to help people that are oppressed or denied the opportunity to live the lives they want to lead. When we allow the U.S. Supreme Court to deny fundamental rights on political grounds. When we obfuscate the truth in media. When we let social media serve us our "news," we perpetuate a society where people cannot flourish. Just like North Korea.
The U.S. is still the best place in the world to live and thrive. I don't believe our society will fall to the same ills that happened in North Korea. But, make no mistake, this is a cautionary tale. Help other people. Stand up for what you believe is right. Help your fellow citizens. Don't abdicate your happiness to the government.
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin reminds me of two other books that I have recently read. The first is How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy. The other is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Rick Rubin has written a hybrid philosophical manifesto and instruction book on creative thinking.
Clearly Rick Rubin is a deep thinker about the creative process and how artists produce. His belief is that all the "creativity" and "Ideas" are already out in the universe. You, as a creator, need to open your aperture, allowing those creative forces to enter your mind and soul. What resonates with you, is when you start to create.
Pretty cerebral stuff when put in the context of Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic, or Licensed to Ill. That doesn't mean he isn't right, however. Ask artists of any genre or medium and most of them will tell you that they don't truly know where the art comes from. It is hard work, but there isn't a single origin to most of their great art. So, maybe creativity is flowing all around us and it connects with us when we are most open?
There is a fair amount of instruction in this book, too. What to do about "writer's block" or "how to create something that is different than your usual art." As a producer, Rick Rubin employs many methods and "tricks" to coax performances from artists. Based on my taste in music, he has done quite well.
Even if your taste in music is not his, or mine, the book still has value as a philosophy on creativity. Like Jeff Tweedy suggests in his book, the creative process should be enjoyed. Yes, it also requires discipline, but that is part of the enjoyment.
Like the boy in The Alchemist, you have to let the outside inside you. You have to "listen to the soul of the world" or creativity and life will pass you by.
I enjoyed this book. It was an easy read with short chapters so I moved along at a good clip. My previous reading of the Tweedy book and The Alchemist was a little distracting as I kept drawing parallels to The Creative Act. Perhaps had I read The Creative Act first it would have had more impact. For example, I bought my sons How to Write One Song as gifts because I thought it was such a great book on confidence and creativity. Had I read The Creative Act before How to Write One Song... Maybe that would have been the gift?
The first time I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, I was in Hana on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. It was a magical experience. The writing was relaxing and exciting all at the same time. The story was riveting and insightful. I underlined and annotated pages with a fury, all the while gazing at the ocean waves on one side and the lush green mountain on the other. Rain came on and off in waves. Complete silence other than the sounds of nature. I love couldn't stop talking about The Alchemist.
I didn't write a review of the book at that time. I was overwhelmed by attempting to distill such a powerful book into a few paragraphs.
I recently re-read The Alchemist for an event at which I was speaking. I needed to brush up on the themes and story. This time, I read it on an airplane. Not nearly as glamorous as Hana. But, I found the book as inspirational, moving, and uplifting as I did the first time I read it.
The story is about a young shepherd, who goes on a journey of discovery to fulfill his Personal Legend. His travels take him from Spain to North Africa, then across the great deserts and oases, to the Pyramids. Along the way he meets many characters, some who want to help and others who want to harm.
What the young man learns along the way is how to listen, not just to the human voices in the world, but listen to voice OF the world. In doing so, he becomes more powerful and influential than his wildest dreams, but not in the traditional sense of power and influence.
He learns that “when you want something, the whole world conspires to help you achieve it.”
This is the big idea of The Alchemist. When you truly learn to listen and learn how to love, the world rewards you by helping you along your path.
I believe that too many people think the opposite. The world is conspiring AGAINST them. But, wouldn’t the world be a better place if we thought the opposite? If all our actions and energy were trained on helping others realize their full potential? That’s the way I want to live.
I couldn’t recommend The Alchemist more strongly. And, I can’t wait to read more by Paulo Coelho.
I was excited when I got Satisfaction Guaranteed, How Zingerman's Built a Corner Deli Into A Global Food Community by Micheline Maynard. Zingerman's Deli, the entire enterprise for that matter, is a restaurant with a global following. The two owners of Zingerman's, Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig, have created a global management and training brand, too. Learning more about Zingerman's was exciting to me.
Unfortunately, this book did not deliver on that promise. My main criticism is that Ms. Maynard is too emotionally invested in the subject. She is a Zingerman's cheerleader rather than a reporter. There is too much bias.
There is also too much content about the impact of the COVID crisis on Zingerman's. Don’t get me wrong, COVID changed the restaurant and service industry for the worst, possibly forever. Revenue crashed, employees quit, supply chains dried up. It was not easy for any restaurant and Zingerman's was no exception. But, almost every chapter referenced the COVID crisis in nearly the exact same language. It is as if each chapter was written to be a stand alone article. I would rather have seen a full chapter on their moves during the crisis rather than an echo throughout the book.
There are some great lessons in the book. My issues isn’t with Zingerman's as much as it is with how the story is told. Here are some of those lessons:
Unfortunately, I have never been to Zingerman's. I couldn’t go to the University of Michigan tour with my family. They loved the deli.
Like many visitors to Zingerman's they said, “It was delicious and really expensive.” While I don't have an issue paying for quality, this is a secret of Zingerman's. Their prices are high by design. It is one of the keys to their success. This topic does come up briefly in the book. But, it isn’t as covered as deeply as I wanted. Pricing is interesting and important. They clearly are not embarrassed by the prices, so why not go into more detail about how they price? That’s a missed opportunity.
I would not recommend this book. It just isn’t a high quality analysis of the business.
jasonleeferrara@gmail.com, +1.773.315.3400
Copyright © 2022 Jason Ferrara - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy