Hi All,

Just a quick housekeeping item for you: I’ve introduced the “My Best Blogs” archive. Reason being, I constantly find myself having to dig for oldies-but-goodies that I think would be great for driving home various point to sales teams. But digging these things out all the time is a waste of time, so I’ve decided to get organized. My Best Blogs contains an easy-to-navigate list of some of my favorite and most frequently-requested blog posts and guest posts, organized loosely by topic category.

If you notice any glaring ommissions, please let me know. Otherwise, enjoy!

- Tom

By now you may or may not have purchased my new book, RFPs Suck! If you haven’t, you can purchase it here. It’s now in paperback. Call me biased, but I highly recommend it.

The latest stop on my book tour/media blitz was with Ian Brodie, one of the best sales consultants across the pond. Ian works with professional service firms–consultants, lawyers, accountants, surveyors, architects and coaches–to help them attract more clients and win more new business. You can check out the interview on his site, IanBrodie.com.

Thanks, Ian!

Hi All,

Just a quick note to let you know that my new book RFPs Suck! How to Master the RFP System Once and For All to Win Big Business is now available on Kindle. If Kindle is your format of choice, well then, please go forth and order!

The Kindle edition is available HERE.

Thanks and enjoy!
Tom

• 77% of Americans believe new entrepreneurs are the key to reviving the economy;
• 42% of Americans have considered starting a business since the economic downturn, with 1 in 10 acting on the idea; and
• 55% of Americans say starting a business is something they have wanted to do.

The term “newpreneur” is a great one. It represents an entrepreneur who is using the recession as a catalyst to start a business or develop an idea. I decided I would make up my own term for what these newpreneurs want: “THRIVAVING.” It’s the combination of business surviving and business thriving.

I have spent almost my whole life either working as an entrepreneur or working with entrepreneurs. So much so that I am the featured speaker and a panel judge for Alibaba.com’s Newpreneur™ of the Year award, presented in partnership with Inc. Magazine.

We all know there are a lot of risks in being an entrepreneur, which is likely the reason only 1 out of 10 who consider taking the plunge actually get in the water. Along the way, I have gone through a lot of those risky situations and have some key principles I want to pass along to newpreneurs…
(more…)

Well, everyone, a collective sigh of relief just left the Hunt Big Sales headquarters (or “clubhouse” as we prefer to call it). Why? My new book—which you are all no doubt familiar with, thanks to your immense help in choosing the cover—just came out!

RFPs Suck! How to Master the RFP System Once and for All to Win Big Business is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and a slew of other places. In about a week, it will be available on Kindle so if that’s your format of choice, just let me know and I’ll send you an update when it’s ready. And if its mere existence isn’t enough to convince you to grab a copy, you can find more details about the book at RFPsSuckTheBook.com.

The Vitals:

Hardcover: 160 pages

Price: $29.95
(Yeah, it’s a bit more than your average run-of –the-mill book but that’s because it’s not your average run-of-the-mill book. And anyway, your boss should be buying this for you.)

Publisher: Channel V Books

How you can help:

• Refer it to everyone you know.
• Buy it for everyone in your office. (Hey, it makes a great stocking stuffer!)
• Leave an online review at Amazon or Barnes & Noble if you’ve read the e-book or after you read the full length version. (Links are above.)
• Vote on other peoples’ reviews that are particularly helpful (on Amazon).
• Think happy, positive thoughts about it every now and then.

Background:
As many of you know, this book is the extended version of my e-book Landing Big Sales with an RFP.

[After the jump I’ve included the full Table of Contents so you can view the massive amounts of new information, RFP samples and processes I’ve added to this new hardcover version.]

Sure I kicked and shoved when my marketing team told me that I should write an e-book on RFPs and offer it to readers for free (free?!) on my website. After all, this was the stuff that my clients pay me adult money to coach them through. But I knew that arguing with them would be a losing battle so, like all other battle-scarred soldiers before me, I raised my white flag, buried my head, and jotted down a variety of my favorite RFP-defeating techniques to share with the world.

Thousands of downloads and seemingly hundreds of “Thank You” notes later, and I realized that the demand for this type of material was strong and growing. And so I’ve expanded what was once limited material into what I like to think of as the ultimate guide to conquering RFPs—whether government, private, or public—by adding several additional winning techniques and a number of sample RFP responses (with critiques). I also did my due diligence by surveying my audience about the mysteries and troubles they’ve encountered in their RFP traumas, err, experiences and addressed them here.

Read on for the full Table of Contents…
(more…)

When I was in college, the great lit summaries were published by Cliff’s Notes. They could get you through almost any 500+ page book with all of the key points, comparative analysis, footnotes and quotes that you would need for writing a 5 page paper. This was true even if you were starting at 1 AM for an 8 AM class.

Read It for (dot) Me has put a twist on the old Cliff’s Notes for the modern business books by combining animation, voice-over and an interview with the author into a 10- minute program for the business book reader. The company just summarized Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company coauthored by Barbara Weaver Smith and me. We did an accompanying interview with Steve Cunningham, the creator of the program.

The 10-minute Whale Hunting piece serves as a refresher for the thousands of people who have bought and read the book.  For your colleagues and others who may not have read it yet, the piece is a good intro to the book and provides some context to all of the things you have been trying to get them to understand.

Read It for (dot) Me is really worth your time.  And I promise, you can actually stomach listening to the 10-minute pieces.  Check it out.

Hi All,

I’m not one to brag (too much anyway) about good stuff that comes my way, but I’m especially excited about my upcoming work with Inc magazine, Fast Company, and Alibaba. Also, this news might be beneficial to you or someone you know, which is why it doesn’t seem too self-serving for me to share it.

In a nutshell, I’m going to be keynoting a seven-city tour along with Tom Peters. The tour revolves around the Newpreneur of the Year program and kicks off in New York on October 6th. (All dates and details are available HERE.) I suggest checking out the cities (and attending) if you’re looking for a great networking and learning opportunity.

The other part of this tour is its namesake event: the naming of the “Newpreneur” of the year. The event sponsor, Alibaba.com, will be giving away five business grants to new entrepreneurs and others with “big ideas.” If you’re interested or know anyone who fits this description, I’ve pasted the entry guidelines below. Just a quick head’s up, though: the contest ends on August 14th, so you’ve got about two weeks to enter.

Here are the details:

Have a big idea or budding business? You could be the Newpreneur of the Year and win one of five business grants from Alibaba.com.

It’s simple: share your story in a short essay on why you should be the Newpreneur of the Year; join us for inspiring discussion and dialogue among experts and peers and celebrate the excitement around entrepreneurship. Top Grant=$50,000, Second Grant=$25,000. Third Grant=$15,000 and two Fourth Grants=$5,000.

I hope to see a few of you at one of these events. If you plan to attend, please shoot me an email to let me know.

Thanks!

There’s nothing better than waking up to a note telling you that you’re the best…or, at least, one of the best. That’s what happened to me this morning when I received a note from The Fixer Upper Blog telling me I’d made their list of “Top 100 Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills.” I checked out the list (which is killer), and I’m listed among some bloggers who I really respect. People like Dave Stein, Jill Konrath, and Seth Godin.

Anyhow, I’m starting to sound like The Marketing Nag, so I’ll leave you with the quick description at the top of their list. Again, if you’re looking for a “who’s who” of sales bloggers, this is a must-see list (not that I’m a who’s who, but you get it!)…

Salesmen are the dreaded enemy of dinner time and door bells, but making a career in sales doesn’t have to condemn you to being the dreaded enemy. Learn top tips from expert salespeople across the world with these blogs. Train yourself in the latest sales techniques and see what works for the experts. It’s all here in this top 100 list of awesome sales blogs.

Ever since i called my marketing partner a “nag” in my post about Twitter a couple weeks ago, she’s been wearing the name around like a badge of honor. I always worry about people who mistake insults as compliments (I kid!), but I guess if you knew her you’d understand.  She lives for this stuff…

So, as these things go, she’s now gone off and created a cartoon character of herself and even given herself an official title within the company (I wish I was kidding). If you didn’t already receive her newsletter this morning (yes, her newsletter), you can find her official announcement below. One good thing I CAN say about her new persona is that it, I mean, she,  will now be doing all of the dirty work that I can’t bear to do myself. Workshop promotions, telling you how great I am, bragging about things that don’t need to be bragged about…that’s all her department now.

So, without further ado, The Marketing Nag has a “very important” announcement to make…

(more…)