Books to Improve Your Competitive Position

Crunch Point, by Brian Tracy. Brian Tracy is one of the world's premier motivational writers. This book deals with how to pick yourself and your organization up off the ground when events go wrong. Anyone over the age of 40 knows that bad times follow good times, but how you handle the bad times will play a significant role on future prosperity.

Word of Mouth Marketing, by Andy Sernovitz. Incredibly, this author created a national organization out of this concept. As any businessperson knows, word-of-mouth recommendations are more powerful than multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns -- and cheaper to execute. Good examples are Myspace.com and YouTube.com, which became overnight sensations from users' buzz. You probably know of other examples of businesses in your town that are very successful despite a small marketing budget.

Small Business Book of Lists, by Gene Marks, a business consultant. This is an absolute must-have book because it provides small businesses with advice on finance, marketing and sales. It tells how to select a bank and reduce your taxes, and suggests Web sites to visit for new ideas.

Consultative Closing, by Greg Bennett. I have sold financial, marketing and sales services. I have sold memberships to trade associations, sponsorships and advertising. If there is one thing anyone with sales experience learns, it's that the salesman in the movies isn't reality because people don't like to be sold or conned into buying something they don't want or need. They want an advisor to go through the options and determine what they need and how that will best fit into their business. This book provides a process, methodology and examples on how to do it.

Instead of vegging in front of the Golf Channel or overdosing on endless Law & Order episodes, take the time to read. Books give you practical, focused, fully formed ideas with examples of how to make the concepts work. Every successful business leader -- from Jack Welch to Bill Gates to Warren Buffett -- will attest to the power that books have on his or her decision-making process. Without the ideas books offer, many businesses would have never reached their potential.