Okay, I want some good advice on business books. (Not Marketing)

I'm not looking for Internet Guru #1, #2 and #3 because I'm quite fed up by them.

Things that matters, positioning, leverage,USPs, image and stuff like that.

I know that Rich Schefren is the guy on the Internet. I will probably download his
free reports, but I'm looking beyond that, to the advanced stuff.

I also know some of you guys are good business consults and some of you have business
degrees, so I wonder what do you or have you read to become what you are today..

Peace
Peace

Jack Trout

I want you to read this:
May 7th, 2008

• Marketing is the highest paid job field in the world.
• Suarez Corporation Industries (SCI) has established the most advanced marketing education resource at a major local university to produce qualified Marketing Professionals.
• The highest paid marketing job is the Creative Marketing Professional. Proficient Creative Marketing Professionals at SCI consistently make $150,000 to over $1 million per year, depending on their proficiency.

You can find the above at their corporate web site, suarez.com and read about the University degree you can receive in direct marketing. And it is a FACT.

There are employees at SCI and other direct marketing companies that make over 150 grand up to and over 1 million per year, AND get the benefits of a job...health and life insurance, 401k, profit sharing, etc. etc.

SO WHAT?

To answer your question, one of the books you should really have is Benjamin D. Suarez' 7 Steps to Freedom II.

It will bore you. It is a text book. It can be very dry and it is full of math. It is a REAL book about REAL business. It has examples, formulas and even some history. It has copywriting, marketing, positioning and it is a very complete "encyclopaedia".

It is NOT an easy read, not very entertaining unless you are serious.

And it contains the same material that you'd get if you took the college classes and spent tens of thousands of dollars on a direct response education.

MOST of the people who have it, have never read it, can't get into it and won't bother to learn the math or the formulas. YET, the information is used EVERY SINGLE DAY inside the walls of SCI (a 150 million dollar a year company) and inside the walls of several other local direct response companies.

It is one of 5 books that is on Gary Halbert's list of MUST Haves. So there you go. 7 Steps to Freedom II by Benjamin D. Suarez. And here's the kicker, in the book it tells you how you can submit a proposal for a product or for a PROMOTION, yet that whole concept of product development goes mostly ignored and copywriters often have some great ideas on products (and an idea for promoting them).

gjabiz

I got a used copy a few months ago at amazon.

Browsed through it, there's a lot in there.

It'll take a few months to read and absorb.

Thanks for this gjabiz...

Fantastic information, and I'm definitely going to look into that.

ha.... Grab a college text on Marketing... you'll learn lots like I did...sometimes, you'll be really surprised at what they teach in college...there are some very close parallels with the real World, street-savvy marketing.

Johnson,

You are right about most college text books on marketing. There is a lot of theory and books written by professors who have never sold a thing in their lives. That is what makes the University of Akron's program so UNIQUE and different from what many colleges teach.

The U. of Akron has set up a program that is taught by people from several direct marketing companies in this area. They don't teach theory, they teach what is working and what is working currently.

The Taylor Institute for Direct Marketing is attracting future Entrepreneurs from around the world. The Fisher Institute for Selling had a 100% employment for it's graduating class. The Fitzgerald Institue for Entrpreneurial Studies is cutting edge. AND, The Benjamin and Nancy Suarez APPLIED MARKETING RESEARCH LABORATORIES offer real life, real world, street savvy guidance from people who are doing it.

So, YES, you can actually learn something from a college class and the textbook that goes with it...IF it is a school that has real world information available.

By the way, 7 Steps to Freedom II was adopted as "THE" marketing/business text book at many colleges over a decade ago.

gjabiz

PS. Here's a link to one of the best schools in the country:
Departments & Institutes

I'm trying to find links to those programs, but am having no luck. Am I looking in the wrong places?

Never mind! found one of the links:
www3.uakron.edu/cba/fitzgerald/index.htm

What's the latest edition of "7 Steps to Freedom II" ?

I have the second edition.

Should have a copyright in 94. That is the most recent edition, however, there are updates due out very soon. There were minor changes made in the 93-94 editions, mostly editing, not content.

Also, this is a good text book too, it is put out by the Taylor Institute and can be found at Amazon:

Direct Marketing in Action.

Amazon.com: Direct Marketing in Action: Cutting-Edge Strategies for Finding and Keeping the Best Customers: Andrew R. Thomas, Dale M. Lewison, William J. Hauser, Linda M. Foley: Books