In today’s world, just having a good idea or the world’s best invention is not enough. The product must also have a spokesmen, be well times, well financed and have the proper marketing and advertising program to introduce it to the world and punch thru the mass fog of information. How can anyone get it all done? Well, I would like to recommend a few books to you that might indeed, answer these questions. The first book is:
“Bringing Innovation to Market – How to break corporate and customer barriers” by Jagdish N. Sheth and S. Ram – 1987.
No matter how great the innovation, concept or invention, it cannot and will not succeed in the market without financial backing, customer desire to purchase, over coming regulatory barriers and corporate status quo barriers as well.
The corporate mantra should be adapt and innovate or die, instead it is laced with adversity to risk, status quo barriers and stagnation through fear and the use of protectionistic strategies. How does an innovative company break down these barriers to beat the odds and win? If you are going to get serious about planning the perfect launch of a new innovation, this book is a must read. Now then, what about advertising? Well, I recommend the following book as a great book on advertising:
“Tested Advertising Methods – 5th Edition” by John Caples – 1997.
This book will teach you all about writing headlines that attract attention – the right and wrong methods of headlines. Next the author describes new advertising strategies and offers some 35-tips to writing great headlines. Other chapter titles include: Appealing to your target audience and/or the masses, putting enthusiasm in your ads, writing copy, avoiding special problems in copywriting, making small ads pay, ten brain teasers and 17-ways to test your advertising. I must say I definitely recommend this book, it should be on every entrepreneurs bookshelf and on the shelves of marketing and advertising executives as well.
Next, I would like to discuss the fact that every great concept needs a great leader behind it, someone who can speak with enthusiasm and mean it, thus if you do not possess such talents then either hire someone that does or learn how to do it yourself, so I recommend this book as well:
“Blow Your Own Horn – How to Market Yourself and Your Career” by Jeffrey P. Davidson – 1987.
This book is an introduction to career marketing and it can help you become your own career coach. This book will help you market yourself, improve your professional image and get the assistance of a career counselor. Learn how to market yourself on the job to get an advancement at your work. Develop interpersonal skills to help you succeed in the work environment.
How to write to get exposure, breaking into print, becoming a walking, talking and writing press release. How to do video presentations, get speaking engagements, and TV or radio interviews. If you are selling yourself or promoting a product you should be fully engaged and read this book. So, let’s talk about selling yourself and your product shall we? I also recommend this book for those who do not know much about sales, but they know about sports and how to win:
“Selling on the Fast Track – The Ultimate Success Formula for the Sales Athlete” by Kathy Aaronson – 1989.
This is a great book on selling and it relates the dedication of a serious athlete. The author takes many of the attributes required to win in sports and uses analogies to put them into a sales context. The first chapter discusses MVPs in sales, followed by chapters discussing performance strategies and touchdown strategies. The similarities between building teams and building contacts and relationships are fully explored and how that relates to winning at the sport of negotiation.
How do you avoid sales career injuries, while keeping your clients in good shape? Well, fear not these too are chapters of the book and you can compare how you go about winning in sales to what the author is showing that works.
If you are going to take your new innovation or product to market, there are many things you must be very good at, so I recommend that you learn them if you want to win. There is no easy way, there are things you need to know, so why not start doing a little reading and planning today?