If you know who Jeff Hayzlett is, it is probably from his appearances on television or his Twitter footprint. But the chief marketing officer of Kodak is now venturing into the wonderful world of analog with his new book, The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing?, being released by Business Plus in May. And he has done something in that book that I wish more authors would do. He has included an appendix in which he lists his "Business Library 'Must' List." It gives you an idea of what has influenced him most over the years (and, just maybe, an idea of what to expect from his book). It includes:

• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson

• Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough & John Helyar

• How to Win Friend and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't by Jim Collins

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R Covey

• The Practice of Management by Peter F. Drucker

• The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don't Work and What to Do about It by Michael Gerber

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

• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M Goldratt & Jeff Cox

• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

• Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca with William Novak

• What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis

• Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. by Mitch Joel

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids about Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T Kiyosaki with Sharon L Lechter

• Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business by Jay Conrad Levinson

• Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition by Harvey MacKay

• The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

• In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies by Tom Peters & Robert H Waterman

• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

• Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J Trump with Tony Schwartz

• The Art of War by SinTzu

• Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton with John Huey

• Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar

Not only does his book get extra points from me for including a list of his favorites, Hayzlett himself gets extra credit for using a Garrison Keillor quote to introduce the list: "A book is a gift you can open again and again."

SalesHQ has posted a list of their 20 Must-Read Sales Books. Like any good list, there is tried and true as well as some less-knowns.

1. Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer [1]
2. The Game by Neil Strauss
3. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
4. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cold Calling by Keith Rosen
5. Sales 2.0 for Dummies by David Thompson with Elaine Marmel
6. How to Master the Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins
7. Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith [1]
8. The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy
9. Attitude 101 by John C. Maxwell
10. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson
11. Dog Eat Dog and Vice Versa by Jerry Rossi
12. Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Zigler
13. Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas Freese
14. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
15. Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath
16. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie [1]
17. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
18. Covert Persuasion by Kevin Hogan
19. The Definitive Book of Body Language by Barbara Pease
20. Raven by Tim Reiterman

Each book has 50 to 100 words of commentary, so jump over there if you are interested.

I found out about the list from a blog post by Josiane Feigon at Cubicle Chronicles. She laments, "Why is it that anytime someone assembles a list of the best sales books that Zig, Tom, Og, Jeffrey, Dale and Brian have to be on that list?". You can read further about her likes and dislikes.

I like that she pointed me to the list.

1 - This is a book from The 100 Best Business Books of All Time

Jack and I have been working on an idea for about two years. We thought it made sense to put our knowledge about business books into a book of our own.

Today, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time was released by our wonderful friends at Portfolio.

Taking some of the advice from the books we have chosen, we are going to do what Zig Ziglar and Jeffrey Gitomer talk about in both of their books.

We are going to "ask for the order". What I mean is that you have been a follower of 800-CEO-READ for any period of time, you know what we are about: we sell business books and promote great ideas.

Our book is our best effort yet at helping you find the books solutions to the problems and challenges you face, while presenting opportunities you may not have considered before.

We want each of you to buy a copy of The 100 Best.

There are many places you can do that - Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or your local indie bookstore.

You can also order it from us. You'll pay the full retail price of 25.95, but you will get a bag of extras that are only available through 800-CEO-READ:

• You'll received a shiny, hardcover of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time autographed by both Jack and Todd
• We will include a copy of "Conversations about The 100 Best Business Books of All Time". This is an audio CD that Jack and I did, which has 12 tracks, each about 6 minutes in length, where we talk about the books and the key concepts in each of the chapters of The 100 Best.
• You will receive a copy of In The Books 2008, our annual publication whose purpose is to highlight the best of the year in the genre of business books.
• After placing your order, we will email you "the lost chapter" from The 100 Best (it was not really lost, we ran out of room in the book). We have compiled a 39 page chapter of Industry Books that everyone in business should read. This chapter comes in a simple to download pdf document and shares all of the design characteristics of the original book.

So, order your copy of The 100 Best.

If you need to hear from some others, here are a few:

• Eddie Evans from Reuters - "Business Books: They read them so you don't have to."
• Gloria McDonough-Taub from CNBC - "You may disagree with their selections and that's fine, we all have our favorites--BUT--they've made some really smart choices that truly help the reader, the book fans, unlike the Oscars where they always get it wrong."
• Maureen McKay at Reader's Digest - "...a strong, engaging overview of some of the best business books published in recent years."
• Andrea Learned at Learned on Women - "As Jack puts it in one of his reviews: "There are books that break new ground and then there are books that show you a new way to think about the basics." Jack and Todd's book does both (and inspires you to keep on reading...)."
• My Fireside Chat with Lisa Haneberg at Management Craft (26 minute podcast) Matt May at Elegant Solutions - "I appreciate the leg-work and diligence and pure sweat that must have gone into what would to me seems a Herculean task."

You can find the entire list of the 100 books at 100bestbiz.com. You can also download the introduction to The 100 Best and two sample reviews from The Essential Drucker and To Engineer Is Human.

A compelling offer, followed by testimonials, and finished off with free samples of the final product.

How can you resist? :)

Welcome to our first posting of "Ask 8cr!" - a new section of our blog where we've created a forum to find out what kinds of issues and challenges people are having in the workplace. We'll then take these issues and apply a business book we feel offers a viable solution.

We sent a note out to a wide variety of people and the response has been great. The first challenge we'll address is sales related. Here's the note we received:

"My biggest challenge is getting my sales staff to be more effective -- some need better time management skills, some need to dig into the information more thoroughly to understand our competition in each deal so we know where we stand and what we need to do to earn the business, all need better closing skills." - Deanna

A thorough but common scenario - how can one close the sale after they've worked so hard to get it? Time management, competition analysis, and customer understanding and relationship skills all play a part. It's not an easy answer, and instead of looking for a quick fix, let's look to a classic: Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale.

This 400+ page book covers everything, from psychology, attitude, technique, listening, overcoming objections, and using technology in the process. Through these points he identifies methods that every sales person can apply to close the sale, from being alert/observant, loving your job, getting the customer involved, breaking the cost down to what he refers to as "reduction to the ridiculous," and giving the customer a reason to buy. He states, "Any time you can give a prospect an excuse and a reason for buying, and make it easy for him or her to buy, the odds are great the sale is yours for the asking." Throughout the book, Ziglar offers many examples of how to create these "reasons" for the prospect. These are important - no one wants to feel like a sucker in hindsight. By giving customers good reasons to buy, they'll always feel good about what they purchased and why they did. Absorbing these stories is insightful, and easy to start practicing on your own.

As with many Ziglar books, he addresses the issue, but in a way that goes deeper than simply telling you how to get someone to buy something. Ziglar knows that there's got to be something in it beyond this for the sales person. Otherwise, the work will get old quick. As a salesperson, how can you internally work through fear, how can you realize what's in it for you (beyond money), and how can you push forward even when things are going well (instead of sitting back and relaxing)? Part business professional, part guru, Ziglar nails it with statements like "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

Anyone in sales has dealt with the issue of how to close more, and all sales managers have wondered how to help their sales people close more (maybe that's a polite way of putting it!). Zig Ziglar offers some great insight into the task at hand and beyond; a broad understanding to bring fulfillment to the sales rep, their manager, and importantly, the customer.

What's your challenge at work? Send it to me at jon (a) 800ceoread (dot) com and we'll address it in a future posting here.