Heavy Hitter Selling:
How Successful Salespeople Use Language and Intuition to Persuade Customers to Buy

Harvard Business School Review

Like other marketing and sales books published recently, this one stresses the importance of human behavior. But unlike the others, it puts an emphasis on language. The first section deals with the human nature of communication.

It describes different layers of communication, including phonetics, content, purpose, and the way the mind uses and interprets language. "Heavy hitters," or successful salespeople, can structure their dialogue and create personal rapport with customers by borrowing ideas from neurolinguistics, the study of how the brain and the body work in conjunction with language.

The second section examines strategies for deciding which customers to target and which actions to take. The third section focuses on the power of persuasion, and touches on a deeper level of the meaning of language: the power of metaphor and language’s ability to appeal to emotions rather than logic. Though the author defines salesmanship principally as an art, he believes that art has a scientific element. Salespeople could well benefit by exploring scientific models of language. Practical exercises and a glossary make the book useful for everyone.

The Real Story of Informix Software and Phil White:
Lessons in Business and Leadership for the Executive Team

American Bar Association Review

In his engaging book, The Real Story of Informix Software and Phil White — Lessons in Business and Leadership for the Executive Team, Martin chronicles that story from an insider's perspective. For Martin, it is a cautionary tale that must be told against the backdrop of a unique chapter in Silicon Valley's history —a period that he terms "California's second gold rush."

After watching Informix grow from a hundred million to a billion dollars in sales, Martin witnessed key missteps by White that resulted in the company's "complete collapse —culturally, ethically and financially." Martin's first-hand account of these events expertly weaves together a history of the database industry, an analysis of the lessons learned from Informix's successes and failures, the legal and accounting issues behind the company's massive revenue restatement and White's securities fraud conviction, as well as a portrait of a leader he labels "the greatest salesperson I have ever seen." 

Martin's insights into the psyche of the CEO are also valuable (albeit, at times, somewhat disconcerting). The book's final chapter consists of an interview that Martin conducted with White immediately prior to his incarceration. While acknowledging some of his strategic mistakes, White nonetheless states, “ultimately, I still believe I didn't do anything wrong.... All I was trying to do was protect the company."

According to Martin, maybe the most important lesson learned is that history repeats itself. In his closing remarks, he offers this observation: most business leaders... are good people with consciences... However, the difference between greatness and infamy has never been smaller for today's business leaders. Under the business climate of Sarbanes-Oxley, officers risk losing not only their careers but also their freedom, every time they sign off on their company's numbers.