Daily Thoughts 8/5/2009 ( How You Make The Sale )

J. Sheridan LeFanu, Irish writer of ghost and mystery stories.

Daily Thoughts 8/5/2009

Every couple weeks we have a reference meeting to discuss reference books. I chose Jane's Vintage Aircraft Recognition Guide by Tony Holmes for the next meeting. It has lots of pictures of old airplanes in an A to Z guide. This book covers the period from World War I to the 1970s. Janes is known for its coverage of military and civilian vehicles all over the world. If you want to know specifications for submarines, commercial aircraft, military aircraft, naval vessels, and many other vehicles, Janes provides excellent concise and accurate information about vehicles Jane's is often the best place to turn.

I did some weeding in the 700s this afternoon. Right now, we are shifting the audiobooks to make room for the fiction books. Things are moving along nicely.

I am changing the books from the Current Events display with more recent books. Right now, I looked up books on Iran, North Korea, and Iraq as well as healthcare. These seem to have a lot of news coverage right now in the United States.

I finished reading How You Make The Sale What Every New Salespersn Needs to Know by Frank McNair. This book is a book on how to do consultative selling. This book is not about how to write scripts, hard sell, or be combative.

It follows the idea that every customer has a problem which they are seeking to solve and it is the salesmans job to find the solution to that problem. This book focuses on how to listen to the customer, ask the right questions, and taylor the sale to the customers need. Frank McNair uses automotive sales for many of his examples.

There are no secrets in this book. The book describes a step by step process; meeting the customer, listening to them, clarifying their wants, determining what problem needs to be solved, knowing your product, presenting the solution with a benefit, completing the transaction, and followup. This book describes each step with examples, end of chapter questions, and chapter summaries.

The book exudes common sense. It is very easy to follow. It is the kind of sales pitch which would make me comfortable; one based on service, feedback, and research.

Thoughts For Today 7/29/2009

Henry James by John Singer Sargent, 1913

Daily Thoughts 7/29/2009

Today has been another quiet day. I weeded some in the large print and the 700s. I also looked at the new books to genrify some sections. I am thinking of four genre categories; mysteries, African American, romance, and science fiction.

I did a little ordering for the new books focusing on recent books in the media.

Right now I'm reading Xenopath by Eric Brown. It is a science fiction novel featuring a telepathic detective. It is the second novel featuring Jeff Vaughn as the main character. The first novel was Necropath. The setting Bengal station is rather interesting. It is an East Asian space station with lots of Thai and Indian cultural elements.

I also finished reading How The Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins last night. I really haven't had a chance to review it yet.

I feel a little bit scattered today. We also have a section for oversize books, 26 centimeter or taller is the measure we use for quarto books. One of the new ones sitting on my desk is The Art of Harvey Kurtzman The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle. Denis Kitchen is the founder of Kitchen Sink Press one of the early underground comics publishers. This particular edition is published by Abrams Comicsarts. Harvey Kurtzman is best known for creating Mad Magazine. They have one of my favorite of Harvey Kurtzman's comics, Super Duperman in this book. They also have a picture of Robert Crumb at a very young age which is kind of interesting to look at.

I'm starting to accumulate books again. There are a couple more which came in for me, How You Make The Sale by Frank McNair, Montmorency and the Assassins and Montmorency On The Rocks by Eleanor Updale. I think that libraries are very much like bookstores, they have a product to sell; that product is books and other media. One of the main activities in bookstores is called "handselling" where you sell a specific book to a customer based on what they want. In some ways it is not that different from "readers advisory" in libraries. There is quite a bit of crossover between the two skills.