Book Recommendations with Kory Dopp
Regional Sales Rep (& former National Sales Manager) at American Biotech Labs, LLC
- Please name the 5 books that have most influenced you as a salesperson and why did you name each of these books? (Please explain in detail)
Above the Line: Lessons in Leadership and Life from a Championship Season (by Urban Meyer)
This book taught me the importance of determining what your goal is, and then determining what efforts will be required to hit that goal. A couple good quotes stuck out to me from that book.
“If your habits are not in alignment with your dreams, you can either lower your dreams or elevate your habits.”
“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
“Under Pressure, you do not rise to the occasion; you rise or fall to the level of your training.”
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (by Simon Sinek)
This one challenges you to market your brand (be that either your product or your actual self) in such a way that you are focused on why you do what you do, instead of what you do. Rather than say “This product has features that no one else has, which makes our company the most innovative company out there” you instead say “our company wants to change the way people view technology. Because of this, we have developed a new product that has some ground breaking features.”
Skill with People (by Les Giblin)
This book helped me learn how to converse better with people. It pointed out that everyone has a tendency to like to talk about themselves. So, if in a conversation you focus on them and use questions to get them to discuss themselves, they will finish the conversation with a very positive memory of the conversation, and therefore of their time spent with you.
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High (by by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, & Al Switzler)
This book breaks down communication breakdowns and helps you control difficult situations so everyone involved walks away feeling like they grew from the experience.
Born to Win: Find Your Success (by Zig Ziglar)
There is no better inspirational speaker than the world renown Zig Ziglar. This is a great book to help find your internal motivation.
“I’ll add a 6th…”
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything (by Stephen M.R. Covey)
I first heard of this book when Stephen M.R. Covey gave a keynote speech at a seminar I was attending on sales/marketing. Trust is something that is incredibly underrated. People you work with can tell whether or not you trust them, and that helps determine how they treat the relationship going further. Sure, when you open yourself up and assume others will do what’s right, you will be wrong occasionally, and they will take advantage of you. But the growth and benefits will far out-way anything you lose from others taking advantage.
- Do you believe prioritizing time to read books or listen to audiobooks help you and your business/profession? Why or why not?
How do you make time to do so (or do you)? When do you read/listen to books?
I heard that one of the major similarities between extremely successful people (particularly millionaires) is that they are avid readers of non-fiction books. It makes sense that if you want to be like successful people, you do what successful people do. I decided I needed to carve out time in my day to read/listen to books. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find the time, but soon realized I already had the time, I just wasn’t using it wisely. My commute to work is only about 18–20 minutes. However, that comes out to be about 36–40 minutes a day. Combined with the fact that my audio book app allows me to increase the speed to 1.25 or 1.5, you’d be surprised how quickly you can finish a book. As for reading, that seems to be feast or famine. I will finish several books during a down week or two, then it will take me a month or two to finish the next book. It all ebbs and flows.
If you’d like to find out more about American Biotech Labs you can check out the following:
- YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN9P9LrTkNZfPyo2VT1doLg
- LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-biotech-labs/
- Kory’s email address: krdopp@gmail.com
- Kory’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kory-dopp-1867ba30/