What marketing books do you read?

[Real World Hypnotherapy]

Hello there people. Before I start I just want to say thanks for the help people have given me regarding my website. It is constantly changing and we have made many improvements. We have just invested a lot of time and money into the site so please make sure you keep an eye on it in future, bright things to come !

OK I read a lot of marketing/management books and I just want to see what other people read. I think it is important to read as much as you can so you have a broad and wide knowledge of all the different marketing strategies that are implemented by business people in the world today. From reading a selection of material I look for common trends and then I try to apply these to my own business model.

The books I have found most helpful are;

Who moved my cheese?
The one minute manager
Think and grow rich
The 100 absolutely unbreakable laws of business success

In addition to the books I listen to a lot of audio tapes from Piranha marketing that include interviews with such people as Dan Kennedy and Chet Rowland.

Some people laugh when I say that I read marketing books and practice the principals of goal setting. I have found the above most helpful and it gave me a running start at my business. I applied such theories from the outset and MK Printing is doing rather well. I started the company with just a £450 business consortium investment and through what I have learn I have managed to not only break even but make a profit from day one! MK Printing now takes several orders a day with the majority being referred or repeat customers. Just look at what people say about us http://www.mkprinting.co.uk/testimonials.cfm.

What piece of advice that I took very seriously was “look at what successful people do, then do it!”. Also what I have learned is that you get back what you put in, start with cheap materials and mediocre staff and your results will always reflect that. I took a leap of faith by leaving a well paid job with BT and setting up on my own. Before I made my first sale I watched 10 hours of marketing DVD’s and read everything I could lay my hands on. Now I make a decent living from my company and I have not placed an advert (apart from Google) since September and yet my orders increase on a weekly basis.

If anyone out there is having problems with their marketing then I am more than willing to help. I am not a consultant or guru, but I am someone who applies and implements strategies in a successful way. I have helped a lot of people so far including bands, glamour models ( :lol: ), clothes designers, artists, record labels and guitar tutors.

All my help is totally free. I find that by sharing knowledge I actually learn more, so it benefits both the recipient and myself.

Thanks for your time and if you want to chat about your marketing and see if I can be of any help then please feel free to call me on 0161 248 5474.

Thanks for your time

Matt, MK Printing

[uksbc]

Matt,

thanks for your thoughts. there are some lessons there for us all and it is pleasing to see someone who took the risk of leaving employment and make something out of an idea and little capital

i read marketing and self help books occasionally. its difficult sometimes as i try to use reading as a way to escape work!!

one that you refer to that i have read though is "who moved my cheese" - it was a few years ago but i was so impressed i went out and bought copies for every member of my team at the time

as with all anything in life though, books like this only work if you are genuinely interested in learning from them and improving yourself

when i gave out copies of this book about only 50% got the benefit - the rest just took it as a bit daft
although books are a good way of self improvement the credit lies with the reader and what they do with the information they are reading



(i sounded a bit preacher ish then - sorry :cry: Lord Let In The Joy Of Marketing Books - halleuajh)

[Real World Hypnotherapy]

I find it is best to set aside some time each day or week to just concentrate on learning. Say 6-7pm each evening so it does not interfere with your working day.

Most people will moan that there is not enough time in the day to read and learn, take into consideration that on average people watch TV for 4.5 hours a day! I barely watch TV now, the only programs I watch are Peep Show and Dragons Den. I now spend my time developing my mind and educating myself.

It all sounds a bit hippy like but today I have made more than £100 net profit and I have just taken another 3 orders which will at least double that. You don’t get that from watching Corrie!

Matt

[Cornish Steve]

I agree that reading and listening to audio CDs is invaluable. I make a lot of business trips, and I take advantage of every spare moment on the plane, in a rental car, in a hotel room. As for TV, I must admit that I have not watched it for some time. This explains in part why mention of some series are lost on me - sorry!

As for books, I have read this year, and would recommend to anyone, the following (sorry that I can't remember all the authors):

- Good to Great
- Built to Last
- The Tipping Point
- Blink
- Blue Ocean Strategy
- Hug your Customers
- Selling the Invisible
- Raving Fans
- One Minute Manager
- Become a Rainmaker
- Never Eat Alone

There are many others that I would not recommend, but I had to read the books to know that! Personally, I found 'Who Moved My Cheese' rather boring. The story could have been written in two pages.