Great Demo! Reading List – Recommended Remarkable Books

A number of folks have asked for a Reading List (books that I often reference in Great Demo! Workshops) – here is a starter list.  You’ll note I’ve largely omitted books on sales methodology and presales-specific books – all great to read, of course – this list is designed to broaden and expand our thinking beyond our day-to-day activities!

Brain Rules:  John Medina

http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Rules-Principles-Surviving-Thriving/dp/0979777747/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375213373&sr=1-1&keywords=brain+rules

How information is received, filtered and stored – should be required reading!

Made to Stick:  Chip and Dan Heath

http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375213446&sr=1-1&keywords=made+to+stick+why+some+ideas+survive+and+others+die

Great for understanding Storytelling and key Storytelling elements.

Crossing the Chasm:  Geoffrey Moore

http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0060517123/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375213492&sr=1-1&keywords=crossing+the+chasm+geoffrey+moore

Technology Adoption Curve, Early Adopters vs. Majority and impact on demos.

Predictably Irrational:  Dan Ariely

http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-Decisions/dp/0061353248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375213541&sr=1-1&keywords=predictably+irrational

People make decisions in strange ways – very intriguing!

To Sell Is Human:  Daniel Pink

http://www.amazon.com/Sell-Human-Surprising-Persuading-Influencing-ebook/dp/B0087GJ8KM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407512057&sr=1-1&keywords=to+sell+is+human

Wonderful ideas on how people persuade others (aka “selling”).

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information:  Edward Tufte

http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407512279&sr=1-1&keywords=the+visual+display+of+quantitative+information

Excellent treatise on presenting data and information – extraordinarily important for dashboards, visualization tools and related.

Blue Ocean Strategy:  W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Uncontested-Competition-ebook/dp/B004OC07F8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407512537&sr=1-1&keywords=blue+ocean+strategy+book

Terrific strategies for creating new markets and new categories (more targeted at marketing and business development folks).

The Long Tail:  Chris Anderson

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Tail-Endless-Creating-Unlimited-ebook/dp/B000JMKSE2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407512639&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Long+Tail

Again, more for the marketing and business development sides of the house, but really interesting exploration of how many small things can add up to some really big things…

The Tipping Point:  How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference:  Malcolm Gladwell

http://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference-ebook/dp/B000OT8GD0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408643249&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Tipping+Point

Provides a great understanding of the impact and mechanics of word-of-mouth.

Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus:  Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell

http://www.amazon.com/Unleashing-SUPER-Ideavirus-Seth-Godin-ebook/dp/B003WUYQFA/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408643400&sr=1-2&keywords=unleashing+the+ideavirus

More excellent ideas on applying word-of-mouth approaches.

The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited:  Emanuel Rosen

http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Buzz-Revisited-Word---Mouth-ebook/dp/B001NLL6QM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408643540&sr=1-1&keywords=the+anatomy+of+buzz+revisited

The previous two listings describe what kinds of remarkable things can be accomplished via viral marketing; this book covers how to accomplish it!

Great Demo! (aw, shucks…):  http://www.amazon.com/Great-Demo-Stunning-Software-Demonstrations/dp/059534559X/sr=8-1/qid=1167092168/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7071427-1649501?ie=UTF8&s=books

Terrific book by unknown author on demos…