Book Store
The University of Innovative Distribution recommends the following books to add to your collection. Please note that you will be directed to another website to purchase these books as we do not fulfill the orders.
Why Leaders Fail and the 7 Prescriptions for Success
Mary Kelly, PhD, Commander, US Navy (ret)
Why do so many leaders fail, and what do the best do differently?
Whether you're in your first year of leadership or your 20th, Why Leaders Fail is a must read for aspiring leaders who know they need to be constantly learning, improving, and developing their leadership skills.
- Gain insight into behaviors that may be sabotaging the loyalty of your direct reports.
- Identify the barriers undermining your team's ability to get things done.
- Understand why your top talent may not be performing up to their potential.
- Gain tools to help you align team goals with the organizational mission.
- Gain awareness of how you are perceived by your direct reports, peers, and supervisors.
- 49 actionable prescriptions for success.
- Facilitate an environment where employees can grow and develop to their full potential.
- Free access to a personalized leadership assessment to identify your leadership strengths and weaknesses.
In Case of Emergency, Break Glass!
Mary Kelly, PhD, Commander, US Navy (ret)
If you had to evacuate, would you be able to grab all of your important papers in less than a minute? If something happened to you, would a trusted friend or family member be able to take care of your family, business, and other obligations? Simplify the process of organizing and understanding your most important documents, and make it easy on other people in case you cannot act on your behalf.
Does your family know what to do in case something happens to you?
Do you have a process in place for what happens next?
Who takes care of your children, your parents, and the dog and cat?
This manual makes everything easy! The In Case of Emergency, Break Glass! book walks you through the details you need to have in place to take care of your friends, family, and business responsibilities. Topics include: Letters of Instruction, Wills, Trust, Powers of Attorney, Health Care Directives, Finances, Insurance, Memorial details, and caring for children, seniors, and pets. Make your family's most difficult time easier by getting this done!
Coaching for Sales Success
Tom Reilly
Coaching for Sales Success provides sales managers with a model for building the value added sales culture. As they read this book, they learn to think, plan, and execute strategically.
This book begins with a culture-building exercise to help sales managers develop a core focus. Each chapter builds on the previous chapter, as it helps sales managers construct a value added sales management infrastructure around this core focus.
By the time sales managers complete reading this book, they will have completed a strategic planning exercise to guide their sales organizations to success. The last section in this book offers sixteen follow-up training exercises to help sales managers prepare their salespeople for the rigors of Value-Added Selling.
These are the main topics in this book:
* Create the value added sales culture
* Hire the right people
* Set goals that motivate
* Train your salespeople for success
* Pay for performance
* Motivate your salespeople
* Coach your salespeople to success
* Coach your team to succeed
Value-Added Selling (4th Edition)
Paul Reilly, Tom Reilly
“Value” is about more than just price. Good salespeople understand that and know what differentiates their products from that of competitors. In the first edition of Value-Added Selling, industry guru Tom Reilly tackled the most common problem that salespeople faced: overcoming customer concerns about pricing. That book went on to become the global, go-to guide for value-added selling. Since then, the industry–and the world―has changed dramatically. Developments in technology, including price comparison apps and search engines, now provide consumers with more information than ever, making it much harder to value and sell your product. Additionally, millennials, who now comprise the largest population in the workforce, prefer to do things differently than prior generations. This updated fourth edition of Reilly’s classic guide examines the latest trends and technology that have impacted the market and provides expert advice on leveraging current technology to increase sales.
Value-Added Selling, 4th Edition offers proven strategies and tactics to help you not only close more sales but improve repeat business without compromising on price. You’ll learn how to anticipate the needs, wants, and concerns of buyers from the very beginning of the sales process. The book shows how to compete more profitably by selling value, not price.
The BIGGER Book of Apps: Your Nerdy BFF’s Guide to (Almost) Every App in the Universe
Beth Ziesenis
If you’re looking for technology to make your life easier, start here! Your Nerdy Best Friend, aka Author Beth Z, has filtered through tens of thousands of apps and tech tools to find the perfect free and bargain technology that you can use today. The BIGGER Book of Apps adds to Beth Z’s curated collection of tech tools to help today’s multitasking professionals. With almost 600 tools, this easy to read books is the best resource to keep on your desk to help you find the answer to today's biggest tech question: “Is there an app for that?”
Relevant Selling
Jaynie L Smith
Research Proves Customers Value More than Just Price
Relevant Selling, the sequel to best-seller, Creating Competitive Advantage, challenges the all-too-familiar price issue. Many companies lament that price pressure has destroyed their margins – but when customers are surveyed in double-blind studies, we learn that more than 90% of the time, price is not the most important buying factor. This book will teach you how to uncover what is relevant to your market and stop caving in on price. Without relevance, successful negotiation is seriously hindered. More than Just Price
Differentiators are not competitive advantages if they are not relevant to the customer.
Companies must not only sell value, they must also sell what is specifically of value to the customer.
The majority of marketing and advertising efforts rely too heavily on creativity instead of relevance.
Relevant Selling shows you the importance of learning what is most relevant to your customers, your prospects and your different target markets, noting they almost always require tailored messaging to be relevant. You will learn how to obtain and use that valuable information.
Each chapter is loaded with actual case studies and research that demonstrates how companies achieve remarkable results when they sell what is relevant. Many companies are leaving profits on the table each day simply because they lack the research described in this book.
Creating Competitive Advantage
Jaynie L Smith
Think you know your company’s competitive advantage? Think again.
Why should I do business with you … and not your competitor?
Whether you are a retailer, manufacturer, distributor, or service provider – if you cannot effectively answer this question, you may be missing the opportunity to maximize your potential customer base, client retention and margins.
The five fatal flaws of most companies:
• They don’t have a competitive advantage but think they do.
• They have a competitive advantage but don’t know what it is – so they lower prices instead.
• They know what their competitive advantage is but neglect to consistently and effectively tell clients and prospects.
• They mistake “strengths” for competitive advantages.
• They don’t concentrate on competitive advantages when making strategic and operational decisions.
Creating Competitive Advantage reveals that identifying and touting competitive advantages – based on your customer’s perspective – is statistically proven to help your company’s marketing and sales teams close more deals, at higher margins, and stay miles ahead of the competition.
Overcoming The 7 Deadliest Communication SINs
Skip Weisman
Communication is the cause of every success, failure and frustration. Don’t you think it’s vital to get it right? Just because we’ve been communicating since we were in our mother’s wombs you think you know how to communicate.
This book will show you where you’re getting it right and where you’re missing the mark. You will learn the seven most common and most damaging communication mistakes that lead to endless workplace drama, toxic work environments, low accountability, poor attitudes and poor performance individually and organizationally. These communication mistakes are at the core of your employee retention issues, if you are struggling with them in this low unemployment economy.
The Sell Process
Don Buttrey
If you want to get action, you must become a master of the interaction.
Tactical pre-call planning is vital before sales interactions - and this book provides a practical framework to help you prepare and execute highly effective selling! This is an easy read - that clearly provides significant direction and skill for all sales and sales support professionals who interact daily with customers.
Old Dog, New Clicks: Online Industrial and B2B Marketing Know-How for the 21st Century
Bob DeStefano
Two big, related dynamics are changing the field of industrial and B2B marketing: It's an ever-younger crowd with a penchant for the wired and the wireless, and they don't enjoy phone sales calls. They're likely to Google you first, pop over to your website, then check out your social media accounts. How will they find you? What will they find when they do?
Effective Sales Incentive Design for Distributors: What’s the Right Plan?
Mike Emerson, Steve Deist
Effective Sales Incentive Design for Distributors: What’s the Right Plan? is designed for top wholesale distribution executives and sales managers who are looking for the answer to this question: “How can I get my sales reps to just do what I want them to do?”
Getting the Most Out of CRM: Best Practices for Wholesaler-Distributors
Mark Dancer
Experienced wholesaler-distributors say CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is fast becoming a standard practice. More than that, it’s becoming an essential tool for managing a high-performing distribution sales organization.
Optimizing Distributor Profitability: Best Practices to a Stronger Bottom Line
F. Barry Lawrence, Ph.D., Senthil Gunasekaran, Pradip Krishnadevarajan
There are 47 best practices in Optimizing Distributor Profitability: Best Practices to a Stronger Bottom Line and all were developed from actual experiences of 84 real wholesale distribution firms across our industry. This groundbreaking research study is not academic modeling or theory; it is a powerful weapon for you to use to enhance your shareholder value.
Customer Stratification: Best Practices for Boosting Profitability
F. Barry Lawrence, Ph.D., Pradip Krishnadevarajan, Senthil Gunasekaran
Best-in-class distributors categorize customers based on various factors, but customer stratification has long been an unexplored area for most distribution companies. Not anymore. At last, that gap is filled by this first-of-its-kind research study, Customer Stratification: Best Practices for Boosting Profitability.
Sales and Marketing Optimization: Developing Competitive Value Propositions in Distribution
Senthil Gunasekaran, Pradip Krishnadevarajan, F. Barry Lawrence, Ph.D.
Sales and Marketing Optimization: Developing Competitive Value Propositions in Distribution is a first-of-its-kind, best practices study that focuses on aligning customer needs, sales force priorities, and wholesaler-distributor objectives to maximize value creation.
5 Fundamentals for the Wholesale Distribution Sales Manager
Tim Horan, Steve Deist
This book, by Tim Horan and Steve Deist, offers a practical but powerful approach for taking your sales force to the next level. It includes key concepts, practical ideas, and real-world stories taken from the front lines of wholesale distribution. This book will give you the essential leadership skills to keep your career and your business moving ahead and performing at higher levels.
Value Creation Strategies for Wholesaler-Distributors
Steve Deist, Mike Marks, Mike Emerson
In Value Creation Strategies for Wholesaler-Distributors, authors Steve Deist, Mike Marks, and Mike Emerson provide highly actionable insights about how wholesaler-distributors can use a market-driven strategy to increase enterprise value for customers and shareholders.
What's Your Plan? Smart Salesforce Compensation in Wholesale Distribution
Mike Marks and Mike Emerson
According to authors Mike Marks and Mike Emerson in their book, What’s Your Plan? Smart Salesforce Compensation in Wholesale Distribution, there is absolutely no relationship between your sales incentive plan and your likely gain or loss in market share.
Working at Cross-Purposes: How Distributors and Manufacturers Can Manage Conflict Successfully
Mike Marks
It takes a long time to develop good distributor-supplier relationships; unfortunately, it only takes a short time to destroy them. Best seller Working at Cross-Purposes, written by Mike Marks, Tim Horan, and Mike Emerson, takes a look at what really drives these relationships, how often they go bad, and why.
5 Fundamentals for the Wholesale Distribution Branch Manager
Jim Ambrose
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This 5 Fundamentals for the Wholesale Distribution Branch Manager, Second Edition is the classic step-by-step guide to helping branch managers improve their business and leadership skills. “If winning means profitable market share and profitable market share growth, then developing the branch manager is essential to a company’s success,” he says. |
Facing the Forces of Change: Reimagining Distribution in a Connected World
Guy Bissett
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Facing the Forces of Change® is the only major research study analyzing the future of wholesale distribution within multiple lines of trade. Since its inception in 1982, the landmark Facing the Forces of Change® series continues to provide insights about the overall future of wholesale distribution and the role of wholesaler-distributors. |
The Little Black Book of Strategic Planning for Distributors
Brent Grover
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Brent Grover’s latest book on the wholesale distribution industry, The Little Black Book of Strategic Planning for Distributors, is published by Modern Distribution Management. This is a concise book covering the critical pieces of creating a strategic plan for a wholesale distribution company including case studies, exhibits and end-of-chapter questions for your management team. |
Pricing Optimization: Striking the Right Balance for Margin Advantage
Pradip Krishnadevarajan, Senthil Gunasekaran, F. Barry Lawrence, Ph.D., Brijesh Rao
Forward-thinking wholesaler-distributors who strive for above-average returns in the “New Normal” by leveraging pricing optimization best practices that are rooted in sound analytics must read Pricing Optimization: Striking the Right Balance for Margin Advantage!
Profit Myths in Wholesale Distribution
Al Bates
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Al Bates of Profit Planning Group has spent more than 30 years analyzing distributor financial statements. His findings boil down to this conclusion: Much, and possibly even most, of what distribution managers know about improving profitability is wrong. Good economic times mask this fact, while challenging times make this fact absolutely dangerous! |
Strategic Pricing For Distributors: Tools and Rules for Building Higher Margins
Brent Grover
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Experience shows that most distributors are leaving at least two percentage points of gross trading margin on the table. This translates into 2% of total sales. Many companies can ultimately achieve more. The improvement is attainable fairly quickly and has proven to be sustainable. Two percent is the difference between mediocre profit results and stellar performance! |
In Search of the Perfect Customer
Brent Grover
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As wholesaler-distributors operate in today’s economy, they must protect their most profitable, high-growth potential customers and avoid squandering their precious resources. If your sales compensation plan and other policies encourage your staff to misspend their time and your resources on the wrong customers, now is the time to act. If your company is overlooking opportunities to make money and stop profit leakage, this is the book for you! |
