Each different, but all powerful 

No B. S. Marketing to the Affluent by Dan Kennedy. As the book cover says, “Dan Kennedy is provocative, irreverent and sarcastic----but most important, he’s effective.”  If you wade through or skip through his 428 pages of insight, ideas and resources, and play the enclosed audio CD, you are bound to come up with dozens of ways to market your agency better.  The whole idea is to find gems that will produce new business and new income, of course. Check out his Web site: www.DanKennedy.com.  The publisher is Entrepreneur Press (www.entrepreneurpress.com).  

Character at Work Building Prosperity Through the Practice of Virtue by William J. O’Brien.  This is a “must” read for every business owner and manager, in our opinion.  Bill O’Brien served as president and chief executive officer of Hanover Insurance. Under his stewardship, the company rose from the bottom of the heap to the top---cited as one of the top 10 underwriting companies in a McKinsey and Company report released in 1994. The publisher is Paulist Press (www.paulistpress.com).  

Integrated Marketing Communications Putting It Together & Making It Work by Don E. Schultz, Stanley I. Tannebaum and Robert E. Lauterbaum.  This book is a jewel for every agent-marketeer. It emphasizes customer-focused marketing and ways to plan, coordinate and control your organization’s communications programs.  It is written in clear lay language by three academidicians, no mean feat!  The publisher is NTC Business Books, a division of NTC Publishing Group. 

EACH BOOK WAS A GIFT TO ME FROM GOOD FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES WHOSE BUSINESS CULTURES AND OPINIONS I VALUE DEEPLY---Don Cookson