Book Review: "Sticking Point Solution" by Jay Abraham

In tough economic times it is particularly important to be on top of one's game in the workplace. Regular reading of business books is a good habit. Management consultant Jay Abraham's "The Sticking Point Solution" tackles the problem of stagnation--his term for when companies get stuck and fail to grow. Abraham straight forward approach is to tackle a broad spectrum of areas but to then give very specific tips/suggestions for each. This approach is probably most useful for entrepreneurs or senior executives at small companies who have company-wide responsibilities.

One of the most useful areas for me was with regard to business development where the basic message gets to the core what to look for in strategic relationships.

A common misperception is that you have to spend lots of cash to inject new life into your existing business. It simply isn't true. What you have to do is learn how to harness and access other people's efforts and assets. What is it you want? Whatever you want, somebody else has it in excess capacity.

Abraham then gives an example of how he did that in the collectibles industry where he was able to gain 250,000 new customers and not pay a cent in advertising. (You'll have to read the book to see how he did it but it was surprisingly simple and obvious.) If you look hard enough, no matter what you need there is someone who has excess capacity in that very item. While this might seem obvious when reading, I can attest to how few times I've seen a CEO at a small company truly leverage this. Instead they try and do it themselves or turn to the same sources as everyone else in the industry.

There were equally strong insights for marketing, the sales lead qualifying and overall strategy.

This is not the book that will change an entrepreneur's life nor is it filled with "ah ha!" moments. But it is a good candidate to be one that becomes filled with notes in the margin, highlighting marks, and post-its consisting of ideas that the reader wants to put into action. If that's not the definition of a good read then I'm not sure what is.

Amazon Link: The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth InTough Economic Times