“A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing. Always be closing!”
-Blake, Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
In Glengarry Glen Ross, the David Mamet-scripted film, Alec Baldwin delivers that line to a group of desperate real estate salesmen. If there’s anyone in your life who can relate, we have a great list of books for them — and for you. These books, all written by Innovation Women, all involve sales, marketing, advertising, and more importantly, closing.
In Branding Is Sex: Get Your Customers Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything, brand dominatrix Deb Gabor explains how proper brand positioning gets your customers in the mood. In just seven short and sweet chapters, Deb describes, in lurid detail, how the most successful brands get their customers laid, how to pass the bullshit test, and who your brand should hop in the sack with. Talk about closing the deal.
Sometimes, the products you’re selling are yourself and your abilities. In AMPLIFY: How To Grow Your Reputation And The Kickass Career You Love, Holly Chessman explains how to build your reputation, grow your voice, and reach your career goals. Chessman leverages her years of marketing, social media, and business experience to help you take control of your career.
Samantha Stone’s Unleash Possible: A Marketing Playbook That Drives B2B Sales is a guide illustrating how to transform your B2B marketing efforts and partner with sales to create real results. This is a practical and accessible handbook to help you drive revenue, growth, and profit.
Social media and networking are great tools to expand your influence, but many find them daunting. In Reach Out: The Simple Strategy You Need to Expand Your Network and Increase Your Influence, Molly Beck provides step-by-step instructions on how to use social media and networking more strategically to build your network and grow your own brand.
Innovation Women know the power of public speaking. Diane DiResta, New York communications consultant, wields her considerable expertise in Knockout Presentations: How to Deliver Your Message with Power, Punch, and Pizzazz. In her book, DiResta gives readers tools, techniques, and resources to improve their skills and make the most of every appearance on the platform.
You won’t get far in sales, marketing, working, or even just plain living without confidence. Doreen Dove understands this. In her book, Confidence Is Always In Style, she offers her funny, down-to-earth insights to help you take control of your image and exude the kind of confidence you need to get ahead and be true to yourself.
In Embrace the Machine: 111 Ways AI Will Change Your Marketing Job (Volume 1), Nancy Shenker and Jim D’Arcangelo outline the part artificial intelligence will play in the future of marketing. In this accessible primer, the authors define AI, machine learning, and other relevant terms while providing resources, tips, trends, and guidance to keep you on the cutting edge of marketing’s future.
In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of products marketed to women to improve their sexual health, satisfaction, and wellness. In her book, Orgasmic Leadership: Profiting from the Coming Surge in Women’s Sexual Health and Wellness, Rachel Braun Scherl draws on her experience in the pharmaceutical and consumer products industries and her sense of humor and passion to describe the obstacles which curtailed sales in the past and the strategies for commercialization of products in the future of this expanding market.
These days, you often need to market your company to prospective employees. If you’re hemorrhaging talent and productivity, Unlimited Talent: What Every CEO Needs To Know To Win The Workforce War by Nancy O’Keefe can help. O’Keefe takes a disruptive look at the talent problem and why it exists, then offers solutions companies can use to become the high-performance places where great employees want to work.
To sell anything, you need confidence and a network. These books, also by Innovation Women, can help you walk tall and close the deal.
It’s Not You It’s Your Personality: Skills to Survive and Thrive in the Modern Workplace by Diane Hamilton
Networking for Career Success: 24 Lessons for Getting to Know the Right People by Diane Darling
The 11 Laws of Likability: Relationship Networking . . . Because People Do Business with People They Like by Michelle Tillis Lederman
