Do CFOs Need to Know How to Market and Sell?

So not many CFOs are interested in reading books on marketing and selling professional services, right? Maybe they are...

Are CFOs interested in reading about how to market and sell?  I think they should be for two reasons.  First, they need to understand their company's marketing and sales cycle and be able to offer strategic input into that part of the business.  Second, not "knowing" how to market and sell is a cop-out most CFOs hide behind.  That attitude is short-sighted and will keep a CFO from becoming the best executive he/she can be.

Since the beginning of my career in the 1990s, I have been a student of sales and marketing, especially in the professional service space since this is where a lot of my career has been.  I decided to create a list of my favorite books on this subject since I have been sharing it with more and more people recently.  Here is the list, in no particular order, with a link to Amazon that will tell you more about each work and the contents therein:

1.  Conceptual Selling: The face-to-face sales formula that helps leading companies stay on top – This was the second or third sales books I read (it is an oldie but a goodie) when I took an advanced sales and sales management course during my business undergrad at BYU.  It opened my eyes to how to succeed at sales.

2.  Professional Services Marketing: How the best firms build premier brands, thriving lead generation engines, and cultures of business development success – just the results of a study the authors conducted on the different methods that buyers use to find potential service providers makes this book worth the read, let alone the rest of the valuable content.

3.  Marketing Your Services: For people who hate to sell – One of my favorite parts of this book is how it teaches the educational approach.  This refers to approaching others in a non-pushy, relationship-building, helpful, and consulting way.

4.  Trust-Based Selling: Using customer focus and collaboration to build long-term relationships - I appreciate what this book teaches about focusing on the customer using the principle that we enrich our own lives when we focus on others.  Collaboration and transparency are also strong messages of this book, which are critical in the professional services marketing and sales and cycles.

5.  Silver Bullet Selling: Six critical steps to opening more relationships and closing more sales – I am a big fan of what this book teaches about pre-call planning and follow-up.

6.  Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants: Breakthrough tactics for winning profitable clients – I am converted to what this book calls the 800-pound gorilla of marketing professional services.  I’ll let you read the book to find out what it is.

7.  Secrets of Question Based Selling: How the most powerful tool in business can double your sales results – I think the author identifies 156 secrets throughout this great resource.  Here is just one gem – Without needs, there are no solutions; and without solutions, it’s virtually impossible to establish value.

8.  Million Dollar Consulting: The professional’s guide to growing a practice – This is one of my favorite resources.  Just one quick quote from it: “Paradoxically, the longer you take to establish a solid, trusting relationship with a buyer, the faster you will obtain high-quality business.”

9.  Rainmaking Made Simple: What every professional must know – Two of my favorite pieces of advice from this book are the statement that the largest single failing of professionals going into marketing meetings is their lack of preparation and this quote: “If you always seem to be bombarded with objections, you are probably making the classic selling error of telling more than asking.”

10.  Integrity Selling for the 21st Century: How to sell to people the way they want to buy – I think my favorite part of this book is the way it teaches that selling is not about being something or someone we are not.  It’s about being ourselves and doing the things that we know to be right, including looking out for and serving the best interest of our clients.’

I could certainly keep going, but I will stop here for now.  Does anyone have a book they would like to recommend?