Ready, Fire, Aim

Great question. Firstly, the more I've gotten involved in business over the years, the more I've come to realise that for any kind of sale requiring human contact, personal relationships are absolutely paramount. This is fairly straightforward, but it bears repeating. People will buy from people who they like. In a situation where a customer can choose between Vendor A and Vendor B who have similar products and prices, they will choose the likable Vendor A who is friendly and who they enjoy getting a call from. This is 100 times more powerful than Vendor B who has 3 additional features that are really great, but who has made no attempt to establish any kind of relationship with the customer. As such, the first book I would recommend would be the classic "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.…

If any book results in me becoming a multi-millionaire, I'm thinking it'll be Ready, Fire Aim by Michael Masterson. Written by someone with waist-deep experience in multi million dollar revenue businesses and full of crazy amounts of advice. The focus of the book is marketing, although it most certainly crosses over into entrepreneurship a long way. http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Fire-Aim-Million-Agora/dp/047018... (http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Fire-Aim-Million-Agora/dp/0470182024) The reviews on that Amazon page should show how well it's regarded. The thing about many "clever" marketing books, such as Seth Godin's (which ARE good), is that they don't help you clarify if what you're building is actually WORTH marketing. Ready, Fire, Aim looks at that side a lot more. You need to work out WHAT your product quite is before marketing it.