Lessons
How these books show up in the work
Each book keeps its author. We use it on a week when you still own the number. Not a book report. What to do on Monday.
Extreme Ownership
When the raid goes wrong, the leader owns it. When it goes right, the team gets the credit. That is their book. We keep their names on it.
We say it this way: success is we. Failure is I.
The number is still yours. If the demo died, you put the wrong person in the room, or you did not inspect the work, or you treated a full calendar as a forecast. The team does not need a speech. They need you to say I. Then the next day has to look different.
Credit them in the room when a deal closes. Do not take the win as proof you are the closer. Take the miss as proof the system is yours to fix.
Eat Their Lunch
The deal already has a vendor. Trashing them in the room makes you the cheap option. Ask what is still hurting. Let the buyer move. You are there to attach to a problem they still have, not to win an argument about the incumbent.
Never Split the Difference
Stay curious. Get them talking. A yes you argued them into is not a yes. If you are still pitching, you do not know what the shot is.
High-Profit Prospecting
Conversations only count if they are with people who can buy. A week of rooms with people who cannot own the number is activity. It is not a pipeline.
The Challenger Sale
Teach them something about their own week. Then the product has a place. A tour of features is not teaching. A sentence about the problem they are already in is.
Cracking the Sales Management Code
Inspect the work, not the story the seller tells about the work. Calls, next steps the buyer owns, who cares. Hope is not a forecast.
Selling to the Very Important Top Officer
Get to the person who owns the number. Everyone else is a tour. If you cannot name that person, you do not have a deal. You have a calendar.
Mega Deal Secrets
A late deal with one thread dies. Who else has to be in the room. What paper has to move. Multi-thread or you are hoping.
The One Minute Manager
Goals on one page. Praise the behavior the same day. Correct the behavior the same day. Do not save it for Friday.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Circles of influence and control. Work where you can act. A week spent in the circle you cannot control is a week you gave away.
MEDDIC / MEDDPICC
The map for a late enterprise deal. Metrics, economic buyer, decision process. It is not how you qualify a founder whose competitor is building it themselves. That week needs a different map. We use SCALE for that chair.
The book in the works
The job nobody trains: the founder or first manager in the chair. That is the book. The public chapters wait on his voice. The rest of this page is already usable.