Question: Who Is the intended audience?
Answer: This book is ideal for B2B business leaders running companies under $100M in revenues.  It can also guide CEO’s who want to exit their business in 2-10 years, but are seriously undervalued, overwhelmed, or unfocused.  Many entrepreneurs are reading the book to learn from CEOs who have already reached the next level of growth to which they aspire.

Q: What is the book about?
A:  Many strategic planning and marketing experts try to dazzle readers with complex business jargon, sexy marketing hype and cool new ideas.  This book simplifies marketing success by helping business leaders overcome the two biggest business growth roadblocks: limiting beliefs and lack of a written, practical plan.  I bring many practical examples from my decades of working for growth companies and top performing organizations.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A:  I have helped clients secure $83M in new business within just two years. I have advised hundreds of business leaders based on the results of my one-year study of how high performing business owners create sustainable, healthy businesses.  My 26 years of helping organizations secure top line growth without “selling out” has earned me accolades from leaders such as Dr. Stephen Covey, Marshall Goldsmith, and Guy Kawasaki.   You won’t find any academic fluff here—only proven, time-tested, easy to understand tools and strategies.

Q: How is this book different from other books on the topic?
A: One book reviewer said that “many business books read like a theoretical, academic methodology that would take a rocket scientist to follow and implement.  Nirell avoids that problem with simple, down-to-earth steps that, if followed, will definitely place you on the right track for moving your business to the next level.”  Zappos CFO Alfred Lin says “it is a thoughtful book that brings together marketing and strategy to inform the planning process that is focused on delivering value.”  I added many of my own personal stories to give the book a uniquely human perspective and feel.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?

A: EnergizeGrowth® NOW helps you stay connected to your customers, partners,  and yourself. After overcoming the startup hurdles, it’s easy to stray from the vision and values on which you founded your business. This book shows you how to continually grow—without losing sight of the principles that got you here.
From my own personal experience, I know that it takes real commitment to focus on the fundamentals that help you build a sustainable business.  Energize Growth® NOW is the resource you need to help you achieve that.  It shows you how to build deep relationships with clients and customers, stop obsessing over the numbers so you can think about the big picture, and build systems that free you up to focus on more strategic activities. To me, that is energizing!

Question: Who Is the Intended Audience?
Answer: The book was written for sales professionals, sales VP’s, business owners, entrepreneurs, sales managers, professionals in service firms and anyone who sells for a living.

Q: What is the book about?
A: This book is about what it takes to be successful in sales. It is a description of the skills personal attributes that are necessary to make it, and the weaknesses that hold us back. The book takes rookies and veteran salespeople on a road of self-discovery. Readers will learn what skills are required to succeed, and why developing the skill is not enough to guarantee success. In simple, easy to understand terms they will learn the connection between what is in their mind and how much money ends up in their pocket.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: We are sales development experts. Our company, Caramanico Maguire Associates, has evaluated and trained hundreds of companies and thousands of sales people over the last 23 years in virtually every major category. This with over 50 years of combined sales experience and academic backgrounds in psychology, business, and technology gives us a unique perspective on what makes salespeople successful.

Q: How is this book different from other books on the topic?
A: This book addresses not only the intellectual skills required for success but much more importantly the hidden weaknesses that prevent salespeople from executing what they know. This is not your typical “how to” book. Where other books simply tell you what to do, this one identifies what keeps you from doing it and shows you how to overcome the weaknesses that frustrate most salespeople. For salespeople his book answers the question “why am I not more successful, I study hard, I work hard, I know my product inside and out…”  For managers and owners it answers the question “Do I have the right people to take me to the next level?”

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: It is an easy read containing simple yet powerful ideas on how to improve. Every idea is non-academic, field tested, and includes real world examples.

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Organizational leaders at every level within an organization, particularly those with the accountability for culture (HR professionals)., That said,  the perspective and behaviors of a jester can be understood and adopted by anyone regardless of their organization, role or position.  Those who apply what they learn from this book can wield significant influence and bring about remarkable positive change.

Q: What is the book about?
A: In my business book, The Secret Life of the Corporate Jester: A Fresh Perspective on Organizational Leadership, Culture and Behavior, I reveal how to adopt and apply Corporate Jestership within an organization.  Jestership is not about wearing colorful costumes and entertaining others, but is, instead, a unique perspective into organizational dynamics.  Authentic jesters have the rare ability to uncover and successfully address blind spots in thinking and action that directly effect communication, morale and results.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Over the last 12 years I have worked for a consultant for over 500 various organizations including many Fortune 500 businesses.  The lack of Corporate Jestership seems to be common and at the heart of many of the issues I was asked to tackle.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: It is short, fun to read and not only a has “sticky” concept easy to understand and apply, but contains a step by step guide to immediately leverage the concept in your organization.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Using the Corporate Jestership concept as a base, I have delivered hundreds of personalized keynotes, learning sessions and coaching for organizations and individuals – including such industry leaders as eBay, JetBlue Airways, Hewlett Packard, L3 Communications, and the BBC.

The book has received positive praise from a number of people in many different business fields including the Senior VP of Strategic Change Management at Hewlett Packard who said:  “The Secret Life of the Corporate Jester is a fun and intriguing read filled with insights into what it takes to be a successful leader in today’s complex corporate environments.” as well as the VP of Organization Development at Advance Auto Parts who said “This book will quickly change your perspective on managing and leading.  Every person who wants to influence culture change and build leadership in any organization should give this a read.”

“After reading his book and sharing it with my team, we invited Dave to join us for a leadership development event.  His dynamic, interactive learning session brought to life the entertaining stories, effective exercises and thought-provoking questions in his book.” – Greg Inozemcev, Learning and Development, JetBlue Airways

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: This book is intended for both buyers and sellers of tangible non-cash incentive programs.  Sales and marketing executives that have struggled to have their incentive budgets “approved” will love this book.  Incentive companies that have suffered from the AIG effect will love this book.

Q: What is the book about?
A: The book is about creating a measurable Return on Investment for incentive programs.  Using actual client situations, the reader can follow a step by step process of how to do this through each chapter.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: This method of Incentive ROI is something I developed in 1991.  Since that time, it has been proven to be the most effective Incentive ROI method available (independent study by the University of Missouri, September 2007).

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: This book, as far as I am aware, is the only book on this topic.  While there are many books available on ROI, there are no such books out there that outline how this unique method can incrementally improve both profit and cash flow for a company.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: The timing of this book is perfect.  Companies have always “felt” their incentive programs work, people enjoyed getting merchandise or trips.  Now those same companies are cutting or cancelling these very same programs and productivity is impacted.

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Anyone who wants to understand more about risk in their life or business, including business owners, managers, executives, and employees who want to know more about the risks to their jobs if their company is endangering jobs by not balancing risk taken and reasonably projectable rewards obtainable.

Q: What is the book about?
A: In Stick Out Your Balance Sheet and Cough, Gary Patterson details for the first time the proven methods he’s used to successfully treat ailing companies of all sizes across a range of industries–from a startup purchased by IBM to a public technology company sold to eBay to an Inc. 500 consumer goods manufacturer to an international Fortune 500 firm.

Offering tips to stanch the internal financial bleeding and providing a daily regimen for ensuring your company’s financial health, the FiscalDoctor’s prescription is clear:
• Give your company an overall checkup to gauge its condition
• Diagnose problems by reviewing your financials and operations
• Implement a treatment plan using Best Practices from world-class successful companies
• Create a wellness program to prevent future fiscal crises

Using the FiscalDoctor’s Best Practices, the high-growth company you own, manage or
direct can avoid unnecessary increased expenses, revenue shortfalls, employee layoffs, missed bonuses or broken dreams.

So open this book and say “Profit.”

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Gary W. Patterson, The FiscalDoctor®, actually uses these methods developed over more than 30 years of top management experience with companies in manufacturing, technology, wireless, service and distribution in companies from start-ups to Inc 500 to Fortune 500. Several reached 10x compounded annual growth in revenue. He was the European coordinator for a global enterprise-wide leading-edge supply chain re-engineering pilot software application for Robertson CECO, a Fortune 500 company. The project was selected as a premiere site by J D Edwards and he was one of three worldwide pilots for a dimensional MRP software module. Gary also successfully negotiated more than 25 M&A transactions with a market value exceeding $390 million. Gary holds an MBA in Finance and Operations from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a BA in Accounting from the University of Mississippi, and is a KPMG Big 4 CPA.

Q: How is this book different than other books on this topic?
A: Patterson offers a commonsense approach to risk management that unlocks added value for existing or new ERM programs, both identifying formerly invisible opportunities and revealing key risk areas executives unwittingly take.

In these turbulent economic times when risk is a guaranteed certainty, Gary Patterson unlocks the “hidden risks” that could topple even the best of companies. Even before Bernie Madoff, he saw companies struggle, even die from self inflicted risks they unknowingly took. To this end, Patterson helps companies develop and implement an ERM strategy to ensure a company’s long-term financial growth.

Patterson offers readers seven takeaway tips:
• Management needs to “bite the bullet” and just get started. Often companies want to start at too high a level of sophistication and quit because of the “perceived” challenges. Patterson offers a basic starting point.
• Patterson zeroes in on five operational areas where an ERM strategy will result in immediate improvements.
• Even viable business models need continuous fine tuning to help re-define and manage risk.
• The greening of America will necessitate that every company have an ERM strategy.
• Even cash-strapped companies can find innumerable ways to improve their cashflow. Patterson’s Resource Sections offer additional tips to improve a company’s balance sheet.
• Executive teams must come to terms with their risk tolerance in order to implement an ERM strategy that works for their companies’ cultures.
• Corporate board packages that are delivered less than six days before a board meeting is a sign that there may be systemic operational problems (read risk) lurking inside the company.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: This enterprise risk management (ERM) book includes stories on how a Fiscal Checkup can save your business life. “What You Don’t Know About Your Business Can Cost You Your Business.” That is why sticking out your balance sheet and coughing gets you what you need to know in time for any needed procedures which can mean the difference between life and death. Sticking out your balance sheet is no more comfortable than a visit to your doctor, but it’s every bit as important. Even if it’s bad news (maybe especially) you need to know.

This commonsense approach to risk management unlocks added value for existing or new ERM programs, both identifying formerly invisible opportunities and revealing key risk areas business unwittingly takes.

Too many CEOs, C-suite officers, and boards are taking far greater risks than they may be aware of. Posing the million-dollar-question, “What is the cost of what you don’t know,” this session alerts managers to hidden risks that may be lurking inside their projects and even companies.

For example, in this rapidly accelerating world where layers of management and large numbers of employees have been fired or their work outsourced, decision makers are under siege. After adding factors like silo-thinking departments, inadequate reporting systems, and a challenging global economy, companies are taking far greater risks than CEOs and C-suite officers and their boards are aware of. Examples of risks can range from inventory mismanagement, outdated and/or incomplete financial reports, and false accounting assumptions to external forces like misreading the market, losing competitive advantage, and missing opportunities.

And as another point of WIIFM, you will find you can implement a basic version of this which can make you more money, including saving your bonus in some future year, or maybe this current year.

A video of Gary discussing his book is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXhsY8hP70A

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Promoting Your Non-Profit is a workbook targeted to professionals and volunteers in non-profit organizations and associations who’d like to understand how to better promote and market their organizations. The book is valuable for both local groups and those operating as part of a large national or international network.

Q: What is the book about?
A: The book provides a series of fun, easy-to-use tools to help organizations identify and articulate their target audience, the unique value they provide, and outline the steps to create a simple marketing or promotional plan. Topics covered include how to understand the market and your position, developing a brand, competition, integrating social media, and developing a marketing campaign. The workbook also includes ways to measure the progress of your campaign and a list of useful resources.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Linda Popky is an award winning marketer, as well as a successful consultant, speaker, author and educator. Her company, L2M Associates, helps organizations dramatically improve their bottom line by more effectively leveraging their investment in marketing programs, processes, and people.

She is the president of Women in Consulting (WIC), a collaborative organization of seasoned business professionals in more than 30 consulting specialties, and a member of the Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC). She is the program advisor for the  Integrated Marketing Program at San Francisco State University’s College of Extended Learning, on the Advisory Board for the University of California Santa Cruz Extension in Silicon Valley and an adjunct instructor for the online Master’s in Integrated Marketing Communication program at West Virginia University.

Linda believes that especially in these challenging economic times many worthy non-profit organizations are not doing all they can to promote and market themselves to each of their key audiences. This book combines her extensive knowledge of applied marketing concepts with her long experience in leadership and volunteer roles with various associations and non-profit organizations, and draws on her consulting experience in organizations from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies as well.

Q: How is this book different than other books on this topic?
A: This workbook, based on Linda’s Leverage2MarketTM concepts, brings a solid audience-focused approach to non-profit organizations. Where for-profit businesses focus on reaching paying customers, non-profits must reach multiple groups of individuals, including volunteers, donors, sponsors, constituents, members and policymakers. Whether you are promoting toothpaste, coffee or non-profit services, what’s important are the benefits that meet the audience’s wants and needs—-not the features the organization may want to promote.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: You don’t need to be a marketing professional to benefit from this book. The marketing concepts are straightforward and easy to grasp, and the workbook is concise and easy to complete.

This is the second in a series of workbooks in the Leverage2Market Mastery Series. The Leverage2Market Model focuses on five key elements: Products: the goods or services being marketed; Programs: the marketing initiatives being created and delivered; Processes: the way initiatives are delivered; People: those who deliver the initiatives; and Positioning, the key messages to be delivered in a campaign.

Promoting Your Non-Profit: Using Marketing to Help Your Organization Success in a Turbulent Time is available immediately from Amazon.com and from the publisher, Woodside Business Press, a specialty business press dedicated to publishing books on stimulating and thought-provoking business and marketing-related topics, at www.woodsidebusinesspress.com.

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answers: Sales Professionals and Small Business Owners

Q: What is the book about?
A: Companies are infamous for “promoting” their top sales person into the role of sales manager with no training, no development, no mentoring. Since sales management is not a skill you learn in the womb, these new sales managers have not been provided with a tool kit to help their sales team…but they still expect them to perform.

The book is intended for the sales people working for a manager that is not equipped to help them so that they can develop their own sales architecture® which is their success framework. Soar teaches sales people how to develop a sound-byte, organize their sales territory in a meaningful way, create a needs analysis program, analyze buying players, and much, much more.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Having built sales organizations for twenty years in multiple companies and industries, I’ve learned what sales people need to thrive. The sales architecture® methodology presented in Soar is not theoretical. It has been used and refined by the sales organizations that I managed over the years.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: There is nothing theoretical in this book. It was not developed based on studies of countless companies and how they were successful. It a grass roots, hands-on book with strategies and tactics that have been used by the teams that I managed.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: The Sales Book Awards ranked this book as one of the top 12 books of 2008 and awarded it a silver medal for sales motivation.

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Executives, managers, directors, family firms, HR specialists, coaches, MBA Candidates.

Q: What book is about?
A: This book explores what happens when patterns originally created to cope with family conflicts are unleashed in the workplace. When stress and anxiety hit the hot button at work we all revert to behaviors we used as children for survival and security.

The common patterns of pleaser, rebel, avoider, martyr, and the like are familiar in every business setting and get in the way of real work being done. This book shows how to transform these out-dated behavior patterns to ones that make working together successful and profitable.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I am the owner of a retreat center and a consulting company. I am also a “drama queen” who had to learn where that academy award winning, albeit bothersome, behavior came from before my employees were ready for a mutiny.  I have a PhD in psychology with a focus on family therapy.

When I realized that we do bring the behavior patterns from our original organization, the family into our present organization, the workplace I knew I had stumbled onto something important. I have dedicated myself to helping leaders and their direct reports become aware of the tired, old behaviors that worked at three or ten years of age yet get in the way of present day grown-up interactions. I have developed the OUT Technique (Observe, Understand Transform) as an effective and efficient process to make the work environment productive and collaborative.

Q: How is this book different than other books on this topic?
A: This is the first book to identify the 13 most common patterns that correspond to characters familiar to anyone who has ever worked in an office. You know the type – maybe he’s the office clown, or the woman who always looks busy yet is the avoider, or the guy who has a rain cloud above his victim head. These behaviors are painfully annoying and stir up conflict in any office. The book is filled with a wealth of real-life anecdotes and practical workbook-style exercises that, when followed, empower people to make profound differences both at work and in their personal lives.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: It is being used as the text for a leadership program in Ghana as well as several other graduate courses in the states. There are several groups that have begun to use this book as a home study course and it is the basis of the successful Total Leadership Connections Program.

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: This book is for anyone who:

•  Ever lost a great employee to another company, and it wasn’t about money.
An unhappy employee will leave for a 5% pay increase; it takes a 20% increase to compel a satisfied employee to jump ship.

•  Struggles with when to be fair and when to be firm.
Most bosses would like to get results, but they don’t want to do so with a trail of disgruntled people in your wake.  They can learn the dos and don’ts of F2 Leadership.

•  Has made bad hires in the past.
A bad hire costs the company about 1 to 4 times that person’s annual salary.  They will find the 10 tips for not hiring squirrels to be your top dogs.

•  Doesn’t seem to get their messages across very well.
This book provides a step-by-step model to communicate more effectively, especially when engaging in difficult conversations.

•  Spends too much time at the office.
Bosses can get back 10 to 20 hours of your week, not by telling direct reports what to do, but by delegating effectively and making people accountable for results.

•  Has direct reports who are bored or frustrated.
Only 20% of people feel their employers utilize their strengths.  When people don’t feel a sense of achievement, they leave.

•  Wants to respond more effectively to change.
This book helps bosses better understand change, plan its direction, and overcome resistance to it.

•  Needs to know how to conduct more powerful and behavior-changing performance appraisals.
Bosses can learn ways to develop people so they offer more to the organization, feel empowered, and see opportunities for advancement.

•  Would like to conduct better meetings.
Bosses will discover how to make the best use of everyone’s time and put plans into action.

Q: What is the book about?
A: In my work with hundreds of first-time bosses, I found that no one had really prepared them for their new jobs.  In college some studied engineering, marketing, accounting, or some other job function.  Some even took a course or two in management, yet they still weren’t prepared for the responsibilities of having direct reports.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: For more than 30 years, I have helped executives in military organizations, small businesses, and Fortune 500 Companies define their direction and select the best people to put their strategies in motion. I have helped clients in the retail, financial services, food, medical, hospitality, manufacturing, and technology industries.  Some of my major clients include Tyson, Emerson Electric, Kraft Foods, Boeing Aircraft, Estee Lauder, and Merrill Lynch. Through thousands of hours of coaching with hundreds of corporate clients, I have observed what it takes to become the boss no one wants to leave.

I hold a Ph.D. in organizational systems, two Master of Arts degrees in both interpersonal communication and organization development, and a Bachelor of Science degree in communication. By combining my experience as an organizational consultant with my education in business, I offer my clients selection, coaching, and consulting solutions that are pragmatic in their approach and sound in their foundation.

A former university professor, I have served on the adjunct graduate faculty at Washington University and belong to The National Speakers Association, The National Association of Corporate Directors, and the Air Force Association. I hold numerous certifications, including Director of Professionalism, a designation given by the National Association of Corporate Directors.

In addition to being the author of The Magnetic Boss: How to Become the Leader No One Wants to Leave, which Washington University uses in its graduate curriculum, I have also served as a contributing editor of two editions of Small Group Communication: Theory and Practice, written peer-reviewed published articles, and authored numerous articles published in trade magazines.

Serious about humor, I draw from my original research of the Vietnam Prisoners of War to help others cope with change and adversity so they can emerge from setbacks more resilient and hardy. I continue to associate with the Robert E. Mitchell Prisoner of War Center, a Naval research facility that has studied the Vietnam Prisoners of War since their 1973 repatriation.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: This book is an amalgamation of what I observed—and in many cases, helped create—in Fortune 500 Companies, privately held firms, family-owned businesses, and military organizations. The advice I offer in this book goes beyond theory; it addressed practical, proven techniques to help companies develop a talent advantage. Bosses can use this book as a guide for what they must do to attract, develop, and retain the best and brightest in their industries.

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: People in internal and external service roles; owners of small businesses; supervisors of internal service-providing units.

Q: What is the book about?
A: How to reinvent, decorate, and animate customer experiences.  How to choose the right imaginative service strategy for your unit and your customers.  How to insure the sustainability of imaginative service.  How to turn satisfied or retained customers into devoted fans.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I have been a customer loyalty consultant for almost 30 years working with some of the best organizations in the world for service. (Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Cadillac, USAA, etc.) and have authored several best-selling books on customer loyalty.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: It has a gazillion practical ways to focus on creative value-unique experiences rather than on expensive value-added extras.  It has cover endorsements from people like best-selling author Seth Godin, the president of SW Airlines, as well as the retired president of Starbucks.  It will be Wiley’s lead business title for this spring.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Yes, we have hired the best book publicity firm in the U.S. (Goldberg, McDuffie) who made best-sellers out of First, Break all the Rules, Execution, Jack: Straight from the Gut and Call Me Ted.