From our bookshelf

A look at what we're reading and recommending right now.

THE 7 IRREFUTABLE RULES OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH

This book, by speaker, writer and small business consultant, Steven S. Little, promises to help small business owners and managers identify sustainable growth initiatives for themselves and their businesses. In clear, no-nonsense language, Little offers advice for the business owner looking to build their unique version of the entrepreneurial dream learn and earn.

The seven rules Little outlines are:

SAME GAME NEW RULES
By Bill Caskey (Winpointe Publishing, $19.95)

“The goal of this book is to create a new mind-set when it comes to selling. It’s the ‘same game’ but there are ‘new rules’,” said Bill Caskey. “Over the years I began hearing the same problems come from many different companies. They were all looking to increase sales but weren’t sure why their techniques weren’t working. This book teaches alternative methods for selling and communicating with clients, complete with real-life examples and proven results.”The author teaches 23 ideas on selling, including:

• Why prospects lie to salespeople—and how salespeople cause it
• Seven phrases that lose sales: i.e. what it take to earn your business?
• The one secret you must know about your prospect before you try to sell him anything

Bill Caskey is CEO of Caskey Achievement Strategies, based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Over the past 17 years, he has invested more than 15,000 hours in coaching and training sales professionals. Caskey has presented more than 3,300 workshops to professionals in nearly every business-to-business industry, including accounting, banking, advertising, distribution, technology and transportation.

DONE DEAL
By Michael Benoliel with Linda Cashdan
(Platinum Press/Adams Media, $19.95)

How are your skills as a negotiator? Whether you are trying to get a new lease for a shop, buy a car, persuade friends to go to the movie you want to see or negotiate a better price for the goods you buy, you might need to pick up some new negotiation skills. We can all use them. What if someone compiled tips and insight from master negotiators on how they accomplish what they do? Done Deal is a collection of research and personal interviews with 25 masters from such diverse fields as business, law, diplomacy, labor, politics, sports and real estate. The stories told by the Masters in this book demonstrate that whether you are negotiating corporate acquisitions or labor contracts, peace accords or the provisions of a bill in the United State Senate, a class action lawsuit or an eight-figure salary for a sports star, the skills needed to master the deal are essentially the same. The book outlines 10 strategies.