Purple Cow
The cult classic that revolutionized marketing by teaching businesses that you’re either remarkable or invisible. Few authors have had the kind of lasting impact and global reach that Seth Godin has had. In a series of now-classic books that have been translated into 36 languages and reached millions of readers around the world, he has taught generations of readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. In Purple Cow, first published in 2003 and revised and expanded in 2009, Godin launched a movement to make truly remarkable products that are worth marketing in the first place. Through stories about companies like Starbucks, JetBlue, Krispy Kreme, and Apple, coupled with his signature provocative style, he inspires readers to rethink what their marketing is really saying about their product. In a world that grows noisier by the day, Godin's challenge has never been more relevant to writers, marketers, advertisers, entrepreneurs, makers, product managers, and anyone else who has something to share with the world.
Stats for nerds
29recommend
64mentions
44people
2007–2025years
69% recommend25% neutral6% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I spent the first chunk of my career doing sales (2nd half spent in software engineering). Theres a lot of good books out there but you're going to find a lot of the direct advice to be non-applicable (as I'm sure you can pick up from the comments). Most of the Literature out there is directed at professional sales people, who for the most part are non-technical, have the backing of a marketing org, and are also different than a founder. Anyway, heres a reading list. Most of the trainings I've been a part of were custom built to the org or market, and frankly I learned more from Rules of the Game by Neil Strauss. I did enjoy "the Wedge" training by Randy Schwantz... that one you should do the video not the book. It also sounds like you could use some marketing stuff so I'll throw some of that in there too.
In no particular order, and please keep in mind this is off the top of my head:
* Influence (the classic)
* YC videos (e.g. https://youtu.be/0fKYVl12VTA?si=I9uylXSRyOf1nXRv, https://youtu.be/DH7REvnQ1y4?si=Ke858PmaaBr5ar-e, https://youtu.be/hyYCn_kAngI?si=sO_co6kbDaNn3cql, etc)
* Thinking Fast and Slow
* Purple Cow
* Clayton Christensen stuff
* Spin Selling
* Challenger Sale
* Guerrilla marketing (for the mental muscle)
* Jeffrey Gitomer (basic but useful)
* Lean Startup (for positioning)
* Charisma Myth
* Minimalist Entrepreneur (bits and pieces)
* The presentation secrets of steve jobs (just a good book on presentations, framed around Steve Jobs to sell more)
For what its worth this question comes up fairly often. It seems like technical people would like a "technical people" guide on how to do Sales and marketing. Does that sound useful to anyone?
- Effectuation - I felt comforted knowing that I wasn't the only one struggling.
Purple Cow - It's classic but seems quite relevant to AI era.
- I like books that are actionable. Lots of books are inspirational but not that useful (e.g. crossing the chasm). I run a curriculum in my company which uses a few books I have read over the years.
emyth revisited (how to think about and structure an org)
getting to yes (negotiation)
influence the psychology of persuasion (negotiation)
spin selling (enterprise sales, supplanted by sandler)
You cant teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar (sandler sales)
5 dysfunctions of a team (one of the best leadership books)
first break all the rules (management)
accounting for dummies
purple cow (differentiation)
blue ocean strategy (differentiation)
traction (strategy/operations)
rocketfuel (strategy/operations)
for professional services:
managing the professional services firm
getting naked
- That's hard to answer because there are so many different types of books. E.g. I like this one a lot, it's basically a summary of the most important academic papers about what makes online communities successful:
https://www.amazon.com/Building-Successful-Online-Communitie...
But I also like Seth Godin's books a lot, e.g. All Marketers Are Liars, Free Prize Inside, and Purple Cow.
A lot of my reading on web stuff has been vaguely in those categories though, in terms of either academic research, academic theory, digital ethnography stuff, psychology and sociology, marketing theory/praxis, plus whatever I've read on design and UX.
I would say the single book that founders in the tech industry would benefit from reading the most is probably Punished By Rewards by Alfie Kohn. I feel like every other startup puts themselves out of business by fucking up on the super basic things that book discusses. I end up having to explain it to people all the time.
- "Business" is a broad topic, and trying to understand all of the different facets of it, in depth, in a short order of time, is probably not possible. But you can certainly get an overview of the different aspects and start getting a feel for what areas appeal to you, and get the foundation you need to grow from.
There are a lot of different ways you can accomplish this, ranging from reading books, taking classes, watching videos, talking to people in person, attending meetings, listening to podcasts... even watching television programs.
I'm in a meeting right now so can't focus a lot of attention on this right this second, but I'll drop a couple of thoughts based on my own experience. Later I'll try to come back and edit this, or reply to it, with some more thoughts.
Books:
1. The Art of the Start by Guy Kawaski
2. The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank
3. Crossing The Chasm - Geoffrey Moore
4. Purple Cow - Seth Godin
Consider also biographies of business figures you may be familiar with, and historical accounts of important events in the business world.
Podcasts:
1. The Stanford "ecorner" Podcast series. https://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts/
Classes:
1. You might consider something like BUS-101 "Introduction to Business" or whatever at a local community college if that's an option. If you were to go that route, I'd also recommend taking a "Intro to Marketing" and "Intro to Business Law" courses as well. Those three topics give you a lot of foundational knowledge.
2. I have not done this yet myself, but taking an Accounting class (or two) has often been recommended to me, and I do believe it's a good idea. Accounting is the "language of business" in many ways, and understanding cash flow, profit and loss, etc., are pretty important concepts for any business-person.
TV shows:
1. There are a lot of TV shows that are both entertaining and also contain useful exposure to various aspects of business and can be somewhat didactic. Of course the challenge may be picking out the real parts from the bits that are dramatized / fictionalized to an excessive degree. That said, consider some shows like Halt and Catch Fire, Billions, Power, Dallas, etc.
Events:
1. (Once they start occurring again) Consider attending networking events that may occur near you, that are "business oriented". That can cover a lot of ground, but you can meet a lot of people, start building a network of connections, possibly find mentor(s), etc. I'd mostly avoid sales / lead swap specific groups for now, as well as most "startup oriented" events, and look for something more general. Events put on by groups like the local "Chamber of Commerce" etc. are usually good.
- My #1 recommendation would be to read Seth Godin, he has a blog[1] and he writes daily. More often than not, each week he has a piece of advice that ends up being really valuable.
One day after reading his blog for several months, I asked myself -- if this is what he offers for free, I wonder how good his books must be! And that's how I started reading his books. I would recommend you Purple Cow, Ideavirus and Permission Marketing, but most of them are very good.
