Pension Funds and Their Advisers 1998

Book Description

"A delight to read. The book is thoughtful, practical, and extremely respectful of teachers and of the multiple judgments needed to educate young children well."
From the Foreword by Carl D. Glickman
Chair, Program for School Improvement
The University of Georgia

This second edition of Marilyn E. Gootman’s best-selling book is a comprehensive guide to teaching students to do the right thing. With this insightful and important work, teachers can acquire the skills they need to help students practice self-control, solve problems, use good judgment, and correct their own misbehavior.

You’ll learn strategies to:

Give students realistic expectations and establish rules for behavior
Prevent and resolve misunderstandings using open communication
Deal with anger (yours or your students’)
Communicate more effectively in order to prevent or resolve misunderstanding
Develop and use problem-solving techniques
Reach students with trauma-and dysfunction-associated behavioral problems
Create effective partnerships with parents

With updated insights and a new chapter on "Bullying: Prevention and Intervention," this new edition of a powerful classic is a necessary resource for new and experienced teachers alike.

Marilyn E. Gootman, Ed.D., is founder of Gootman Education Associates, an educational consulting company that provides workshops and seminars for parents and educators, focusing on successful strategies for raising and teaching children. She has been in the teaching profession for over 25 years, and her teaching experiences range from elementary school to the university level. She holds degrees from Simmons College and Brandeis University and a doctorate from the University of Georgia. She is the author of The Loving Parents’ Guide to Discipline and When a Friend Dies: A Book for Teens about Grieving and Healing.

Customer Reviews:

Classroom circus guaranteed.......2007-05-16

This book is only good for examples of what not to do. It tells its readers that adults should treat children as equals, that a misbehaving child's right to empowerment is more important than the other students' right to an education, and that any situation can be dealt with by calm reasoning. This approach may work with one-on-one tutoring, but it's too permissive and time-consuming for 30 students in one room. It also directly contradicts many, many studies, reports, and the opinions of experienced teachers that recommend establishing authority immediately and firmly.At every turn, the author instructs you in techniques guaranteed to have the monkeys running the zoo right in your own classroom.

Good for the UNcaring teacher........2002-07-10

If you are a caring teacher, then despite the title, this book is not for you. You will not find anything new or profound here. I agree with a previous review--this book offers no concrete advice and is not based on a realistic view of the behaviors exhibited in many public schools. The examples of misbehavior provided in the book are incredibly tame compared to what I experience on a daily basis.

This book might be good for someone who has been told by a qualified mentor the s/he has not connected with the students or is too harsh.

Nothing new here!.......2001-06-20

I had heard good things about this book, but I was disappointed. Gootman's book is very similar to dozens of others out there. She repeats all the well-known DOs and DON'Ts of teaching. While I found myself agreeing with most of what she said, I didn't find many meaningful suggestions of ways to improve my discipline in the classroom. Suggestions such as using I messages, avoiding embarrassing students, and creating a classroom community are not new! I think most teachers are already doing many of the DO's and avoiding many of the DON'Ts, and this book, like many others, did NOT offer a usable plan to change the climate of the classroom. Gootman, like many other authors and speakers who no longer teach full time, suggests that if teachers are caring and plan interesting lessons, problems will be few. I wish that were true. I was looking for concrete solutions to specific behaviors I see time and time again. Gootman's book offered few answers.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book!.......2004-04-02

A great book, with all fundaments of classical and practical process inference applied to real industry cases.
A good text for industrial and quality engineers.

Average customer rating:

Control Estadistico de La Calidad
Cesar Perez Lopez
Manufacturer: Alfaomega Grupo Editor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Dirección Comercial | Profesional y Técnico | Libros en español | Formats | Books
ASIN: 9701503821

Iso 9000:2000: Estrategias Para Implementar La Norma De Calidad Para La Mejora Continua / Strategies for Implementing Quality Norm for the Best Continual

Average customer rating:

Exelent book

Iso 9000:2000: Estrategias Para Implementar La Norma De Calidad Para La Mejora Continua / Strategies for Implementing Quality Norm for the Best Continual
Victor Manuel Nava , and Ana Rosa Jimenez Valadez
Manufacturer: Editorial Limusa S.A. De C.V.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Total Quality Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Dirección Comercial | Profesional y Técnico | Libros en español | Formats | Books

Customer Reviews:

Exelent book.......2005-08-06

I think that this is a great book, the author makes the book easy to understand the iso 9000:2000 and shows you how you can implement this norm.

El Fabricante De Helados/ the Ice Cream Maker: Una Historia Sobre El Ingrediente Indispensable En La Empresa: La Calidad / an Inspiring Tale About Making Quality the Key Ingredient in Everything Yo

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El Fabricante De Helados/ the Ice Cream Maker: Una Historia Sobre El Ingrediente Indispensable En La Empresa: La Calidad / an Inspiring Tale About Making Quality the Key Ingredient in Everything Yo
Subir Chowdhury
Manufacturer: Empresa Activa
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Total Quality Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Dirección Comercial | Profesional y Técnico | Libros en español | Formats | Books

Control estadistico de la calidad / Introduction to Statistical Quality

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Control estadistico de la calidad / Introduction to Statistical Quality
Douglas Montgomery
Manufacturer: Editorial Limusa S.A. De C.V.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Statistics | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Statistics | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Dirección Comercial | Profesional y Técnico | Libros en español | Formats | Books
ASIN: 9681862341

Juran y La Planificacion Para La Calidad

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Juran y La Planificacion Para La Calidad
Joseph M. Juran
Manufacturer: Diaz de Santos
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Dirección Comercial | Profesional y Técnico | Libros en español | Formats | Books
ASIN: 8487189377

Average customer rating:

I wish I had this book a long time ago.

The QS-9000 Answer Book, Third Edition
Radley M Smith
Manufacturer: Paton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0965044548

Book Description

The QS-9000 Answer Book is the only book about QS-9000 written by the co-author of QS-9000 itself, Radley M. Smith. The book explains in clear, concise detail what QS-9000 is, how it works and how it will affect your organization. Smith walks readers through QS-9000 and provides insight into common audit problems and how to avoid them. This newly revised edition features a complete update on the Third Edition of QS-9000, the new Second Edition of the TE Supplement, the German automakers' VDA 6.1 requirements, new deadlines and more.

Customer Reviews:

I wish I had this book a long time ago........1999-04-15

As a project leader for a current QS 9000 implementation, I recently acquired this book. It has proven to be a big help to me to get more information for what some of the intent of the standard is in many cases. I really like the explanations that go specifically into the detailed subsections. I wish I had this book back when we first started our implementation.

Auditorias De Calidad Para Mejorar La Productividad

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Auditorias De Calidad Para Mejorar La Productividad
Dennis R. Arter
Manufacturer: ASQ Quality Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Total Quality Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Dirección Comercial | Profesional y Técnico | Libros en español | Formats | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0873895975

Average customer rating:

Que Es El Control Total de Calidad?
Kaoru Ishikawa
Manufacturer: Grupo Editorial Norma
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Dirección Comercial | Profesional y Técnico | Libros en español | Formats | Books
ASIN: 9580470405

Average customer rating:

A for ideas, D- for persuasion

A little dated now, but still right on

Markets are conversations

A manifesto for corporate communication in the Internet age

outdated

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
Christopher Locke , Rick Levine , Doc Searls , and David Weinberger
Manufacturer: Perseus Books Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Marketing | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | E-commerce | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Web Marketing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder

Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution

ASIN: 0738204315
Release Date: 2001-01-09

Amazon.com Reviews

How would you classify a book that begins with the salutation, "People of Earth..."? While the captains of industry might dismiss it as mere science fiction, The Cluetrain Manifesto is definitely of this day and age. Aiming squarely at the solar plexus of corporate America, authors Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger show how the Internet is turning business upside down. They proclaim that, thanks to conversations taking place on Web sites and message boards, and in e-mail and chat rooms, employees and customers alike have found voices that undermine the traditional command-and-control hierarchy that organizes most corporate marketing groups. "Markets are conversations," the authors write, and those conversations are "getting smarter faster than most companies." In their view, the lowly customer service rep wields far more power and influence in today's marketplace than the well-oiled front office PR machine.

The Cluetrain Manifesto began as a Web site (www.cluetrain.com) in 1999 when the authors, who have worked variously at IBM, Sun Microsystems, the Linux Journal, and NPR, posted 95 theses that pronounced what they felt was the new reality of the networked marketplace. For example, thesis no. 2: "Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors"; thesis no. 20: "Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them"; thesis no. 62: "Markets do not want to talk to flacks and hucksters. They want to participate in the conversations going on behind the corporate firewall"; thesis no. 74: "We are immune to advertising. Just forget it." The book enlarges on these themes through seven essays filled with dozens of stories and observations about how business gets done in America and how the Internet will change it all. While Cluetrain will strike many as loud and over the top, the message itself remains quite relevant and unique. This book is for anyone interested in the Internet and e-commerce, and is especially important for those businesses struggling to navigate the topography of the wired marketplace. All aboard! --Harry C. Edwards

Book Description

From four of the liveliest personalities on the Web comes a provocative, outrageous, and wickedly smart account of what it will take to prosper in the fast-forward world on the wire. This nationally acclaimed best seller is a spirited, original, and wonderfully irreverent conversation that will challenge, provoke, and forever change your outlook on the digital economy. A rich tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, insights, and predictions, The Cluetrain Manifesto illustrates how the Internet has radically reframed the seemingly immutable laws of business--and what business needs to know to weather the seismic aftershocks.

"An earnest plea for a new kind of language and new expectations for the Web.... While others work on turning the Internet into the perfect medium for reaching traditional business goals, these four Net-philes hope cyberspace will give commerce a 'human voice.'" -Harvard Business Review

"For every retail or consumer-products company wondering why its Internet marketing doesn't seem to be working, The Cluetrain Manifesto...offers fresh and sound advice, expressed in entertaining prose. Its oft-repeated premise--that markets are conversations--should be pounded into the collective brain of corporate executives." -Business Week

Customer Reviews:

A for ideas, D- for persuasion.......2007-09-27

This influential book lays out the reasons why companies need to replace corporate speak and marketing puff with online conversations. The reasons are compelling, but the way the authors make their case won't win them many converts. They go on the attack with scathing gusto, dismissing "Fort Business" as a bunch of obsolete buffoons and/or swindlers. Strangely, these buffoons and swindlers are the very people Cluetrain hopes to convert to an entirely new way of thinking.

Looking past the rhetoric, Cluetrain really does make some crucial points. Here are a few that stood out to me -

1. The control mentality of management doesn't work in a wired world where people and information are easily and instantly connected.

2. Companies pay too much attention to competitors and not enough to customers.

3. If companies did pay attention to customers, they'd discover that customers want "Authenticity, honesty, and personal voice ..." (p. 51) Companies mistakenly view customers as consumers instead of people. We don't exist to consume (hopefully).

4. "Positioning should help a company become what it is, not something it's not (no matter how cool it would be)." (p. 99)

5. You can't bluff about your company or products online. People will find you out.

6. The Web challenges formal corporate organizational structures. People can connect and collaborate with whomever they need to in order to get the job done. The Web values competence over position.

Of course, all of this was just as true before the Web. However, the Web has magnified their importance. Today, the penalties for ignoring the Cluetrain principles are stiff, and the rewards are huge, and in the years ahead - even more so.

For a gentler and more balanced assessment of conversations in business and the new marketing rules, try Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers and The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly.

A little dated now, but still right on.......2007-09-07

Cluetrain is an odd and irreverent book. The tone of the time was probably a shock to most readers back when originally published in 2001, and even still it upholds some wry quirkiness the authors were going for as they wrote about the future of the Web. Much has changed in the world of Web since the manifesto was released, and I'm certain, not all of it to the authors liking. The web has become much more corporatized, ecommerce much more like traditional commerce and online marketing shows some vast similarities to off-line marketing. The current web isn't quite what the authors anticipated!

But much of what the authors preach about the web being a conversation is still so very true. And amazingly, many businesses still have not figured that out. While business on the web may bear some resemblance to the off-line world, it's still a very different place. That's what Cluetrain is all about.

Cluetrain will help you understand that the same old processes and strategies that worked off-line for some many years, need not apply here. While there are many similarities, online and offline marketing operate very differently. The book will put you in the mindset to realize that marketing on the web can be done with new ideas, fresh strategies, and most importantly, on a person-to-person level. Throw the corporate play book away. It's time to build a new playbook entirely.

Markets are conversations.......2007-04-27

Having grown up with high-speed internet as an expected must have, this book serves as an interesting reminder of the days I have missed. Multiplayer games, cross-referencing product review on web forums, asking other internet users for advice on products, all the things that seem natural today are in many ways changing the rules of the marketing game, and Cluetrain is all about this dynamic: markets are conversations. Broadcast media is once again being replaced by an older strategy of person-to-person contact, instead of a one way marketing stream.

Some of the information is slightly outdated, some of the sections are plain wacky, but it's an interesting work nonetheless, especially if you're into marketing.

A manifesto for corporate communication in the Internet age.......2007-02-25

Reading the "Cluetrain Manifesto" today is like reading an historic document. The book fuses the countercultural ethos of the 1960s with the go-go business dynamics of the 1990s. Written during the height of the Internet boom, the authors forecast the end not only of corporate marketing, but of traditional corporations altogether. They predicted a transition to an Internet-enabled marketplace of bartering and bantering individuals. The book's pages contain a wealth of overstatement, hyperbole, and provocation (as many have already noted). The flurry of lawsuits based on offhand email (`evidence mail') which emerged after the Internet crash have reemphasized the need for the caution and disclaimers to which the authors so passionately objected.

The basic message of the book remains fresh and contemporary, however. "Markets are conversations." Corporations should encourage those conversations, not inhibit them. It's clear that many corporations still haven't gotten the point. Some companies still require that customers sign pointless non-disclosure agreements to talk with their representatives and other customers about their products. Other companies treat their websites like big, glossy advertising brochures instead of centers of community. Still others issue the bland and senseless press releases derided by the Cluetrain Manifesto to their customers, leaving bloggers to read between the lines and to speculate about what's really going on inside the company.

But some of the largest corporations have clearly gotten the message--or at least a tempered form of it. The best way to cultivate loyalty and confidence among consumers is to become more transparent by allowing conversations to take place not simply between consumers and public relations representatives, but between people working with products and people designing those products. Microsoft's Channel 9 is a good example of a corporation sponsoring an online community that connects individuals to individuals. While this kind of marketing will doubtlessly always be somewhat messy and make some P.R. folk uneasy, it's far more effective than the business-as-usual approach of issuing sanitized press releases to an anonymous group of `consumers.' For the wakeup call that communications between human beings should take place in human voices we are still in these authors' debt.

outdated .......2007-01-03

Good Overview of where things are coming from and a good couple insights. Concepts are not outdated but some of the information is.

Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business As Usual

Average customer rating:

Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business As Usual

Manufacturer: Diane Pub.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0756770165

Product Description

What if the real power of the World Wide Web lay not in the technology behind it, but in the profound changes it brings to the way people interact with business? And what if these changes were altering the nature of your company as profoundly as they have changed your markets? This book explains how, through the Internet, people are discovering new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. Companies that aren't engaging in these exchanges are missing an unprecedented opportunity. This book provides a rich tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, insights & predictions to illustrate how the Internet has radically reframed the "immutable laws" of business -- & what business needs to know to weather the seismic aftershocks

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual

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The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
Levine
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B0000544O0

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End Of Business as Usual.(Review) (book review): An article from: Business Communication Quarterly

Average customer rating:

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End Of Business as Usual.(Review) (book review): An article from: Business Communication Quarterly
Melinda L. Kreth
Manufacturer: Association for Business Communication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Business Communication Quarterly, published by Association for Business Communication on December 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1760 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End Of Business as Usual.(Review) (book review)
Author: Melinda L. Kreth
Publication: Business Communication Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2000
Publisher: Association for Business Communication
Volume: 63 Issue: 4 Page: 106

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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THE CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO - THE END OF BUSINESS AS USUAL

Manufacturer: Perseus books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GR0B2E

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The Cluetrain Manifesto : The End of Business As Usual
Rick; Locke, Christopher; Searls, Doc; Weinberger, David Levine
Manufacturer: Perseus Books Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J373RG

Average customer rating:

Cluetrain Manifesto the End of Business as Usual
Rick Levine
Manufacturer: Perseus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000X6BSEI

Book Description

With huge, illustrated color libraries that contain more than 250 needlepoint and embroidery stitches; special techniques such as Florentine and crewelwork; and instructions for planning, finishing and making up, this comprehensive guide is the one-stop needlecraft reference. It will inspire and encourage users, and teach the art of stitching from the most basic skills, such as cross- and satin-stitching, to more complex procedures such as blackwork, beading, tramé, and smocking. There’s also all the advice anyone will ever need to produce perfect stitches every time, and 30 projects such as shades, tiebacks, and pincushions that offer many ways to put newfound skills into practice. Full-color pattern guide and easy-to-follow design motifs make everything simple.

The Complete Illustrated Stitch Encyclopedia

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The Complete Illustrated Stitch Encyclopedia

Manufacturer: Crafter's Choice
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The Encyclopedia of STITCHES

ASIN: 0965268616

Product Description

Whether you are a novice or an expert stitcher, you'll find this book an invaluable source for designs and patterns, as well as all the essential stitching skills needed to produce perfect stitches every time.

Complete Illustrated Stitch Encyclopedia

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Complete Illustrated Stitch Encyclopedia
n/a
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PSQURY

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The Complete Illustrated Stitch Encyclopedia
Crafter's Choice
Manufacturer: Crafter's Choice
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NSBHXI

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Managing the Franc Poincare: Economic Understanding and Political Constraint in French Monetary Policy, 1928-1936
Kenneth A Mouri, Kenneth Moure
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7GNI8

Average customer rating:

It changes everything!

I learned a lot, but there's a lot more to learn...

Total agreement with Gill

In My Experience, The Author Doesn't Practice What She Preaches

Truth Be Told, We Can't Sell To Everyone

Selling with Integrity: Reinventing Sales Through Collaboration, Respect, and Serving
Sharon Drew Morgen
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Sales & Selling | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World's Best Companies

ASIN: 1576750175

Amazon.com

The sales floor is rarely associated with spiritual values, much less with integrity. Nonetheless, entrepreneur and sales trainer Sharon Drew Morgen believes it is entirely possible for sellers and buyers to experience both--while still meeting their individual mercantile needs. In Selling With Integrity: Reinventing Sales Through Collaboration, Respect, and Serving, she persuasively outlines a revolutionary "Buying Facilitation" approach that remakes a traditional adversarial relationship into one marked by genuine collaboration and honest consideration.

Book Description

Introduces a fresh approach to the art of selling -- where the buyer's needs count for more than the seller's
-- Introduces the "Buying-Facilitation" technique, based on mutual respect, collaboration, trust, honor, and service
-- Shows sellers how to find appropriate buyers and weed out inappropriate ones quickly, vastly reducing the sales cycle
-- Schematic drawings, case studies, and "skill sets" help the reader master the author's sales approach

The traditional sales model involves convincing and coercing buyers into believing they can't live without what sellers have to offer. According to this view, the seller and the product are at the center of the process, and the buyer's interests are marginal: a successful seller is one who can create a "need" where none exists.

Selling with Integrity is based on the author's belief that closing the sale is less important than respecting the interests of the buyer. Morgen argues that the seller's primary responsibility is to the buyer. Both are well served by the author's "Buying-Facilitation" technique, where service is the goal, discovery is the outcome, and the solution may or may not be a sale.

Buyers "win" by having their needs met. Sellers "win" by getting to work within their value systems and by expediting the decision-making process with appropriate prospective buyers. This frank assessment of the potential buyer's needs involves cooperation rather than confrontation, creating a better overall experience.

Morgen's approach restores to the job of selling the honesty, integrity, and humanity that are missing from traditional sales techniques.

"Selling with Integrity not only offers a model of how to bring soul intosales, it teaches the hands-on skills to do it". -- Jack Canfield, coauthor, Chicken Soup for the Soul

Customer Reviews:

It changes everything!.......2007-02-19

Like most great things, I found this book by coincidence, looking for the next great thing to add to my sales skills.

It's an XLNT book about the buyers decisions and not your attempts to sell product, and it gave me a new perspective of sales - the buyer's perspective.

I also have had the pleasure to train with the author Ms Morgen. She has been very supportive both during training and after. I'm greatful for the time she has taken to personally coach me, and helped me learn new skills, and also "unlearn" some old sales patterns that used to get in the way.

Let me know how it works out, and good luck helping buyers to buy!

I learned a lot, but there's a lot more to learn..........2005-12-27

When my job started to involve selling as well as technology, I read a half dozen sales books. This one stood out. It didn't make me feel sleazy. It helped me understand my role as a participant in a decision process that is confusing and frustrating for the buyer, too. It gave me a general-purpose framework ("the funnel") for helping a customer (and me!) figure out what is going on in the buying process. It helped me not take things so personally when we didn't get a project. And when we did, the approach didn't leave us with a bunch of expectations that we couldn't meet. It embodies Covey's advice to "begin with the end in mind," where the end is a successful project and a good relationship and not just an accepted proposal. We've been basically successful (and able to sleep at night) while using the overall approach.

Still, I used to be more enthusiastic about the book and Sharon Drew Morgen than I am now. It's not nearly as simple as SDM makes it sound, and it's no substitute for products and services that are actually worth owning or using. As an antidote, you should read "Good to Great" by Jim Collins.

I wavered between three and four stars, and gave it four because it really did influence me more than anything else I read when I started out, and I find myself still referring to it. Read it, absorb the principles, and then pay attention to what's really going on.

Total agreement with Gill.......2005-08-26

I have first hand experience dealing with Ms. Morgen. I paid for and attended one of her 3 day courses. I even did some work for her. I was really excited to work with her at first, until I found out what kind of person she truly is. I totally agree with Gill's comments. Although many of her concepts have validity, I've seen her *not* use the same type of "we" space she advocates. I won't be specific, but I can say with certainty that I've never had a more unpleasant client experience. Ms. Morgen can be very rude, abusive and confrontational. Her opinion is if you don't agree with what she says then there must be something wrong with you. I would recommend this book for some helpful cold-calling tips, but I would not adopt Buying Faciliatation as my primary selling technique.

In My Experience, The Author Doesn't Practice What She Preaches.......2005-08-15

As I read, "Selling With Integrity," I felt that it was indeed a book for anyone who is struggling to make the conceptual switch from using manipulation to using honesty to sell. Throughout the book, using many religious undertones, Ms. Morgan places an emphasis on doing what's right, thinking of the prospect's problems first, putting your needs second and generally collaborating to identify whether a reason to do business exists. (These are all ideals with which I agree.)

My single biggest reservation comes not from the book itself, but from the response I got when I contacted Ms. Morgan with a question.

I had noticed that every example in the book ended in a positive outcome. For instance, the book conveys that, to get a great conversation with a prospect, all you have to do is call and say, "This is a sales call." So I actually tried doing exactly what the book said, and I tracked my results:

* I dialed the phone 150 times.
* I reached a gatekeeper 31 times and my prospect 21 times. (The remainder were busy signals, no-answers, auto attendants, voice-mails, etc.)
* I introduced myself and said, "This is a sales call."
* Every gatekeeper responded with some form of: "[Mr. Jones] doesn't take sales calls."
* Every prospect responded with some form of: "I don't take sales calls."

After my lack of success, I decided to contact Ms. Morgan and ask, "How many phone calls do you actually have to make before you get one of those great conversations you describe in your book?"

After dodging the question by telling me "I don't track such things," I forced the issue once more, and she finally said, "If you insist on questioning the process, then you clearly aren't committed to making it work." (These "quotes" are from memory, so while they convey her attitude, they are probably not exact wording.)

Frankly, I expected to speak with someone who would interview me and help me decide whether her course was for me. What I got instead was more like what I'd expect from a cult leader who wanted to indoctrinate me, and who expected me to accept everything on blind faith.

I believe in a lot of what the book conveys, but the author's actions cost her a ton of credibility with me.

Gill

Truth Be Told, We Can't Sell To Everyone.......2005-02-09

Most buyer and seller relationships are typically adversarial. Sharon Drew Morgen suggests the reason for this complex relationship is that sellers have historically focused on controlling the buying process and using all necessary means to convince buyers to buy their products.

In Selling with Integrity, Morgen offers an alternative approach. She has designed a sales methodology called Buying Facilitation. This approach instructs the seller to "guide" the buyer through the buying process while maintaining personal principles and values.

The book jacket promises a completely new way to look at sales, and that's what you'll get, since Morgen puts helping the buyer far ahead of making the sale.

Sharon Drew Morgen asserts in Selling with Integrity that the major problem in the traditional buy/sell relationship is that the seller arrives believing that he or she has the answer the buyer needs. It follows, then, that the traditional seller's task is to convince the buyer - or help the buyer realize - that the solution the seller is offering is the right one for the buyer.

It really doesn't matter why the seller has this attitude, whether it's because of training, corporate culture, personality, or the basic need to make some money and put food on the table. In every case, according to Morgen, it puts the relationship between the buyer and seller on false ground, introduces stress, and produces undesirable behaviors, including dishonesty.

You may be inclined to dispute the idea that seller attitudes are bad for the buy/sell relationship, but consider a fictional example that Morgen presents early in the book. It involves a waiter in a Chinese restaurant, whose job it is to sell you food, and you, the diner. In the example, the waiter comes to your table and immediately says, "So, you'll have spareribs and chow mein."

You, of course, aren't so sure, and you say, "No. Hello. I'd like to see a menu, please. I'm not sure what I want."
But the waiter has his own idea: "You don't need a menu. I know what you want. It's our special tonight. It's priced fairly and it's delicious. It'll be spareribs and chow mein. Believe me, I can tell that's what you'd like."

Here is Morgen's comment on this - "You wouldn't let a waiter do that. But as sellers you do it all the time: I know what you need, and what you need is my product."

For Morgen, this example illustrates the point that sales as it is practiced in American industry today is based on disrespect of the buyer, the buyer's knowledge, and the buyer's ability to make an informed and effective choice on behalf of his or her employer. Morgen asks why it is appropriate to base a salesperson's monetary compensation on a system that at its foundation encourages disrespect.

Adopting Buying Facilitation may require a difficult leap of faith for many sellers, because in Selling with Integrity Sharon Drew Morgen redefines the very goal of sales:
"As I see it, the new goal of the seller is to support a buyer's ability to solve her own problems with existent resources where possible, or external resources where necessary."

Take note: By "existent resources," she means those that already exist within the buyer's firm. And "external resources" refers to any and all resources, not just those you are trying to sell.

But consider this idea, too:
"It is okay for people not to need our product. We can't sell to everyone we speak with. Our job is to find those who do need our product, not create a buyer from an unqualified prospect."
If this statement speaks to you, if it addresses some of the tension or stress that you feel while you do your job, then you may find great value in Selling with Integrity.

There is much that is practical here, and much that is well-explained and easily understood. However, to fully understand Buying Facilitation, you must be prepared to delve into the theory that supports it.

Robert Reed
President
TrustBuild

Average customer rating:
Modern Decision Making: A Guide to Modeling With Decision Support Systems
Samuel E. Bodily
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill College
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0070063605

Average customer rating:
MODERN DECISION MAKING: A GUIDE TO MODELING WITH DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
Samuel E. Bodily
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill College
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF9JGC

Customer Reviews:

excellent professionally written. Good for Pros. and Layman.......1998-04-14

I was impressed with the depth and clarity of the book. The topics were reasearched well and yet the book was easy to read.

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