I'm a fan* of Michael McLaughlin's previous work (he's co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants) so I was predisposed to like his new book Winning the Professional Services Sale. However, my heart sank at the long, jargon-y title and subtitle. What could he possibly tell us that hasn't already been said about the sales process? I quickly found the answer in the first few pages of this well-written and accessible book. Michael nails

Psyching yourself up to jump off a cliff into water twinkling below you shout "1,2,3, Go… " I feel the same way as I contemplate jumping into regular blogging after being lazy and sporadic and reliant on 140 bursts on Twitter. So here goes; this is my dare to blog something every day for a week. I’ll start with what I’m reading this summer. I’ve got a huge stack and it’s wildly diverse. One of my goals is to read as much creative nonfiction as

Very cool. Based on the social technographic framework laid out in Groundswell.This is also cool because it illustrates how you can market with useful sharable "content" and sell without (being too obvious about) selling. Note the link to the $749 report you can buy, etc.

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If you're over 40 (or 50), you may think a new book titled Me 2.0 and written by 20-something Dan Schawbel is not for you. Think again. Especially if you're a baby boomer, over 50 and heading into the home stretch of what you hope will be a creative retirement. Dan is young but he's super savvy about a phenomenon called personal branding. The phrase was first used over a decade ago by management guru Tom Peters. If the words set your teeth on

Did I not say that 2009 will be the year of video? Watch below as David Meerman Scott launches his new book, World Wide Rave, in this terrific video just posted to YouTube.

David Meerman Scott's new book, World Wide Rave (to be published March 3, 2009), is a gem. He kindly sent me a galley copy. It's a small book (the new new thing in biz books) and beautifully designed by the talented Doug Eymer, who has also created David's free e-books. When I gave David's previous book, New Rules of Marketing and PR (now a bestseller), a thumbs-up, I noted that part of its appeal is that he writes in a conversational, bloggy