The holidays are a great time to take inventory of the past year, think about your plans for 2009 and catch up on your reading. 

Before you update your reading list, check out these 10 books that every marketing, sales and business growth consultant should know. Each is a must-read, but if you don’t have time for all of them, read the online summaries and understand the impact that each can have on your clients’ businesses and on your practice. 

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

This transformational guide delivers detailed explanations and case study examples about how to effectively communicate ideas to the masses. 

Apply their SUCCES principles to your clients’ messages and campaigns. 

Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction & Economics by Paul Ormerod. 

An intellectual (and dense) read by British economist Paul Ormerod, this book studies 100 years of data to determine why products and companies fail. You’ll be surprised at the results! 

Use to shape your CEO clients’ long-term perspective about their products and company.

 
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

It’s a classic with principles still relevant 20 years after initial publication. 

Review the concepts each year with each of your clients to refine their company or product strategy.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott.

A “new” classic, Mr. Scott delivers a step-by-step guide of how to transition from traditional interruption-based advertising to inbound marketing to reach buyers directly. 

Use this indispensible guide to plan your clients’ 2009 marketing campaigns

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin.

A quick read, Mr. Godin outlines how to leverage the internet to organize and lead people with a common interest. 

Understand the concepts and reconsider all of your clients’ customer retention programs and social media visibility.

Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

A best-seller from Harvard Business School Press, authors Kim and Mauborgne outline how to create a new market space to make competition irrelevant.

Apply their concepts and formulas during strategy sessions with your clients.

Marketing Champions by Roy Young, Allen Weiss and David Stewart 

This in-depth study illuminates what’s broken with the marketing function and corporate marketing department, and outlines the steps businesses can take to fix them. 

Use with your bigger clients to understand how to integrate the marketing and sales departments, and how to incorporate an effective marketing process into your smaller clients’ companies.

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.

This ground-breaking book predicts the new aptitudes that will be in the greatest demand in the U.S. after the transition from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.

Apply the aptitudes to your clients’ teams to determine who should be involved in future product development and campaign creative design.

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

Best-seller illuminates how ideas and trends gain popularity.  

Consider the case studies while designing product launches, defining target markets and creating new campaign concepts.

Mavericks at Work by William Taylor and Polly LaBarre.  
 

Review detailed case studies about innovators that went against conventional thinking to achieve phenomenal success. 

Consider each concept during any strategy or marketing campaign planning session.

And finally, the most important of all:

You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself by Harry Beckwith and Christine Clifford Beckwith.

Stories, tips and examples of how to effectively sell yourself in any situation. 

If you can’t sell yourself, how can you be a successful consultant? 

Happy holidays!