And Harry J.Friedman is very good at it. Someone once said, "Harry is the kind of guy who would sell someone a kickstand and then a $3,000 bicycle to go on top of it. "What makes him and his bookon retail selling so unique is his uncanny ability to turn shoppers into buyers, and teach others how to do the same. "No Thanks, I'm Just Looking" will give you the inside scoop on how to skyrocket your career with a system of practical money-making steps that are easy to learn and fun to use. No theoretical mumbojumbo oroutdated 1940s methodologies.Unlike most sales trainers who are obsessed with handling objections and tricky closing techniques, Harryconcentrates more on "front-end selling." He'll show you how to get past customer resistance - that "I don't like you and I don't trust you" defensive shield thatcustomers are seemingly born with. And he'll show you how to probe more effectively so you can find outexactly what your customers want so that all you have to do is deliver it. The essence of front-end selling is having your customers say "I'11 take it" before you everhave to ask "Will you buy it?"The fun really begins, however, when you learn his unique version of the trial close - how to routinely add on additional merchandise, while you're closing thesale on the main item. This will put you in control of the sale and set you up for the final step which will reduce returns, build referrals and increase your repeat business.This book will save you countless hours of trial and error experience and allow you to focus on the things that really work. It will become your retail bible as you read it over and over. And each time you do,you'll turn up another batch of gems that just keep making you money.

    This is the book for you because it will help you hit the ground running once you get your license. It is written by an actual, active Realtor. Mario Jannatpour is with RE/MAX Alliance in Louisville, Colorado and what he writes about is based on his experience of what it takes to be successful today as a Realtor. Mario has been a Realtor since 2002. Reader Review: Are you green in real estate or a veteran? Do you know what buyers and sellers are looking for when they are looking at you? What qualities differenciate you from your competition? Mario has helped pin point what today's buyers and sellers are looking for in their real estate agent giving relavent information as well as insight on how you should handle different situations. We all know that honesty is the best policy yet the profession of representation is riddled with pot holes where one can stray. This book will help any new agent or seasoned agent gain a true north when dealing with clients. Mario's first book, Must See Inside, was a great introduction to the real estate business and with this book, The Honest Real Estate Agent, Mario dives deeper on how to "be" a real estate agent which means doing the right thing, always! I sincerely recommend this book for anyone who is getting into the business and wants to get a firm handle of how to "be" great at your job. Addy Saeed, RE/MAX Active Realty (Toronto, Canada)

    We put out fires. We deal with emergencies. We stay downstream, handling one problem after another, but we never make our way upstream to fix the systems that caused the problems ... [This book] probes the psychological forces that push us downstream--including 'problem blindness,' which can leave us oblivious to serious problems in our midst. And Heath introduces us to the thinkers who have overcome these obstacles and scored ... victories by switching to an upstream mindset.

    Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

    "This book is a guide to how we do product development at Basecamp. It’s also a toolbox full of techniques that you can apply in your own way to your own process.Whether you’re a founder, CTO, product manager, designer, or developer, you’re probably here because of some common challenges that all software companies have to face."

    Many people in management positions are feeling fed up, burned out, and unhappy at work: the constant pressure and stress, the unending changes, the politics . . . People are feeling they can’t give much more, and their performance is suffering.But it’s work, after all, right? Should we even expect to be fulfilled and happy at work? Annie McKee answers with a definitive yes. She makes the most compelling case yet that happiness—and the full engagement that comes with it—is more important than ever in today’s workplace. Based on extensive research and decades of experience with leaders, this book sheds new light on the powerful relationship of happiness to individual, team, and organizational success.McKee’s research reveals that there are three essential elements that people must have in order to be happy at work:• A sense of purpose and the chance to contribute to something bigger than themselves;• A vision that is powerful and personal, creating a real sense of hope; and• Resonant, friendly relationshipsThe book is organized around these essential elements and shows how leaders can create and sustain them in the face of ongoing stress and pressure, as well as how to create a healthy, positive climate for their teams and other groups within their companies.How to Be Happy at Work will transform and enrich our understanding of what it means to be happy at work, and it will provide clear, practical advice and instruction for how to achieve this.

    But if code isn't clean, it can bring a development organization to its knees. Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. But it doesn't have to be that way. Noted software expert Robert C. Martin presents a revolutionary paradigm with Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship . Martin has teamed up with his colleagues from Object Mentor to distill their best agile practice of cleaning code on the fly into a book that will instill within you the values of a software craftsman and make you a better programmer but only if you work at it. What kind of work will you be doing? You'll be reading code - lots of code. And you will be challenged to think about what's right about that code, and what's wrong with it. More importantly, you will be challenged to reassess your professional values and your commitment to your craft. Clean Code is divided into three parts. The first describes the principles, patterns, and practices of writing clean code. The second part consists of several case studies of increasing complexity. Each case study is an exercise in cleaning up code - of transforming a code base that has some problems into one that is sound and efficient. The third part is the payoff: a single chapter containing a list of heuristics and "smells" gathered while creating the case studies. The result is a knowledge base that describes the way we think when we write, read, and clean code. Readers will come away from this book understanding ‣ How to tell the difference between good and bad code‣ How to write good code and how to transform bad code into good code‣ How to create good names, good functions, good objects, and good classes‣ How to format code for maximum readability ‣ How to implement complete error handling without obscuring code logic ‣ How to unit test and practice test-driven development This book is a must for any developer, software engineer, project manager, team lead, or systems analyst with an interest in producing better code.

    While this advice may work for everyday life, it is, as Kim Scott has seen, a disaster when adopted by managers.Scott earned her stripes as a highly successful manager at Google and then decamped to Apple, where she developed a class on optimal management. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, the “radical candor” method.Radical candor is the sweet spot between managers who are obnoxiously aggressive on one side and ruinously empathetic on the other. It’s about providing guidance, which involves a mix of praise as well as criticism—delivered to produce better results and help employees achieve.Great bosses have strong relationships with their employees, and Scott has identified three simple principles for building better relationships with your employees: make it personal, get (sh)it done, and understand why it matters.Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Taken from years of the author’s experience, and distilled clearly giving actionable lessons to the reader; it shows managers how to be successful while retaining their humanity, finding meaning in their job, and creating an environment where people both love their work and their colleagues.

    Why? In a world where information refreshes endlessly and the workday feels like a race to react to other people's priorities faster, frazzled and distracted has become our default position. But what if the exhaustion of constant busyness wasn't mandatory? What if you could step off the hamster wheel and start taking control of your time and attention? That's what this book is about. As creators of Google Ventures' renowned "design sprint," Jake and John have helped hundreds of teams solve important problems by changing how they work. Building on the success of these sprints and their experience designing ubiquitous tech products from Gmail to YouTube, they spent years experimenting with their own habits and routines, looking for ways to help people optimize their energy, focus, and time. Now they've packaged the most effective tactics into a four-step daily framework that anyone can use to systematically design their days. Make Time is not a one-size-fits-all formula. Instead, it offers a customizable menu of bite-size tips and strategies that can be tailored to individual habits and lifestyles. Make Time isn't about productivity, or checking off more to-dos. Nor does it propose unrealistic solutions like throwing out your smartphone or swearing off social media. Making time isn't about radically overhauling your lifestyle; it's about making small shifts in your environment to liberate yourself from constant busyness and distraction. A must-read for anyone who has ever thought, If only there were more hours in the day..., Make Time will help you stop passively reacting to the demands of the modern world and start intentionally making time for the things that matter.

    By committing to the highest standards of professionalism - and creating the right systems to achieve them - he inspired thousands to embrace the core ideal of sheer unadulterated excellence. Schulze now shares his story, and his methods, so that the rest of us can be uplifted and taught by the master himself."Dan Cathy, chairman and CEO, Chick-fil-A: "Horst Schulze's influence on my family and our business is undeniable. His approach to customer service revolutionized the hotel industry and set a high bar for all of us. His new book, Excellence Wins, weaves Horst's personal story with the practical wisdom he's gleaned from an incredible career of servant leadership. It's a must read for leaders and anyone passionate about serving people."***Your blueprint for becoming the very best in a world of compromise.Horst Schulze knows how to win. In Excellence Wins, Schulze, in his absolute no-nonsense approach, shares the visionary and disruptive principles that have produced immense global successes over the course of his still-prolific fifty-year career.As the cofounder and former president of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., Schulze fearlessly led the company to unprecedented multi-billion dollar growth, setting the business vision and people-focused standards that made the Ritz-Carlton brand globally elite.Schulze's principles are both versatile and utterly practical to leaders of every age, career stage, and industry. You don't need a powerful title or a line of direct reports--you have everything you need to use them right now.Unleash the disruptive power of your true potential, beat the competition, own your career trajectory, and experience the game-changing proof firsthand: Excellence Wins.

    It shows how poetry and practicality, far from being mutually exclusive, reinforce each other to give every aspect of our lives meaning and direction. For anyone who wants to deepen their connection to their life’s work—or find out what their life’s work is—this book can help navigate the way.Whyte encourages readers to take risks at work that will enhance their personal growth, and shows how burnout can actually be beneficial and used to renew professional interest. He asserts that too many people blindly trudge through a mediocre work life because so many “busy” tasks prevent significant reflection and analysis of job satisfaction. People often turn to spiritual practice or religion to nurture their souls, but overlook how work can actually be our greatest opportunity for discovery and growth. Crossing the Unknown Sea combines poetry, gifted storytelling and Whyte’s personal experience to reveal work’s potential to fulfill us and bring us closer to ultimate freedom and happiness.

    Written by the world's leading authority on buyer personas, this book provides comprehensive coverage of a compelling new way to conduct buyer studies, plus practical advice on adopting the buyer persona approach to measurably improve marketing outcomes. Readers will learn how to segment their customer base, investigate each customer type, and apply a radically more relevant process of message selection, content creation, and distribution through the channels that earn the buyers' trust. Rather than relying on generic data or guesswork to determine what the buyer wants, the buyer persona approach allows companies to ask the buyer directly and obtain more precise and actionable guidance.Buyer personas are composite pictures of the people who buy solutions, services or products, crafted through a unique type of interview with the people the marketer wants to influence. This book provides step-by-step guidance toward implementing the buyer persona approach, with the advice of an internationally-respected expert.Learn who buys what, and why Understand your buyer's goals and how you can address them Tailor your marketing activities to your buyer's expectations See the purchase through the customer's eyes A recent services industry survey reports that 52 percent of their marketers have buyer personas, and another 28 percent expect to add them within the next two years - but only 14.6 percent know how to use them. To avoid letting such a valuable tool go to waste, access the expert perspective in Buyer Personas, and craft a more relevant marketing strategy.

     They say you shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little . As a matter of fact, it's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it and it's worth doing right .Talking to customers is one of the foundational skills of both Customer Development and Lean Startup. We all know we're supposed to do it, but nobody seems willing to admit that it's easy to screw up and hard to do right. This book is going to show you how customer conversations go wrong and how you can do better.

     The Workbook's easy-to-use worksheets make efficient planning simple and practical and supports your success in three ways:Reflection: Think about your approach to leadership and become more conscious about how well you engage in each of the Practices.Application Apply the Practices and commitments to all your projects.Implications Record what you've learned about yourself, your team, your organization, and your project. Develop your leadership potential with The Leadership Challenge Workbook!

    You think you can solve your human error problem by telling people to be more careful, by reprimanding the miscreants, by issuing a new rule or procedure. These are all expressions of 'The Bad Apple Theory', where you believe your system is basically safe if it were not for those few unreliable people in it. This old view of human error is increasingly outdated and will lead you nowhere. The new view, in contrast, understands that a human error problem is actually an organizational problem. Finding a 'human error' by any other name, or by any other human, is only the beginning of your journey, not a convenient conclusion. The new view recognizes that systems are inherent trade-offs between safety and other pressures (for example: production). People need to create safety through practice, at all levels of an organization. Breaking new ground beyond its successful predecessor, The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error guides you through the traps and misconceptions of the old view. It explains how to avoid the hindsight bias, to zoom out from the people closest in time and place to the mishap, and resist the temptation of counterfactual reasoning and judgmental language. But it also helps you look forward. It suggests how to apply the new view in building your safety department, handling questions about accountability, and constructing meaningful countermeasures. It even helps you in getting your organization to adopt the new view and improve its learning from failure. So if you are faced by a human error problem, abandon the fallacy of a quick fix. Read this book.