Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get regular publications for marketing online

Use email blasts and automated newsletters to get marketing and sales publications from resources that you know will send you news that's important to your business. Some publications focus on executive coaching to increase sales acumen while others will keep you informed of market trends. Spend your valuable reading time with sales training publications that you can put to use in your business to increase your sales.

I recommend: Advertising Age uses experts to write columns that can provide you with a wealth of information. And the magazine provides readers with regular reports covering the industry as a whole. BtoB is an online publication that is relatively new to the vast number of publications directing the sales industry.

Read together as a marketing team from the latest publications for sales

Read articles on marketing and sales news that cover the industry in detail. Include your team in the search for news and updates that could be vital to your operations. Make information gathering from magazines on marketing IT products and sales analysis an important part of your operation.

I recommend: Managers should regularly check out the trend pieces and information provided by Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Help your sales and marketing team keep up with the latest sales tactics in the trade show arena by subscribing to one of the publications put out by Exhibitor Online.

Join groups that provide marketing publications as a member benefit

Most trade associations produce valuable industry-specific sales publications that they know will affect your business because marketing industry professionals run the groups and have the same vested interest in the latest news. Get involved with your trade association, and take advantage of the group's marketing and sales publications.

I recommend: Get valuable industry reports on trends and statistics that affect your business through the latest publications put out by the CMO Council. Ask someone from your IT group to participate in and read the publications of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association for the latest IT news.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Ask your peers what new business marketing publications they are reading and try them out. Most publications will provide a free trial sample before you need to subscribe.

Guide to Sales and Marketing Publications

Learn how to build your own library of useful Sales and Marketing Publications

By John R. Hall

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Keep a library of marketing and sales publications on hand

The best publications for sales and marketing are those that you can use on a regular basis as reference guides for new hires, as well as refreshers for long-time employees. Keep your business library up-to-date and have the most useful sales training publications and marketing periodicals.

I recommend: Find some of the best and current marketing publications from the Free Trade Magazine Source where you can choose a business category and browse. A good sales training book for any library comes from author Van C. Deeb titled "Selling From the Heart."

Find a sales and marketing magazine to meet market needs

Publications for marketing should include advice on how to reach out and sell to small and medium sized businesses. There are many specialized marketing magazines and you can find just about any to meet your particular niche.

I recommend: IT professionals have a variety of resources including Channel Pro, which describes itself as an industry magazine "committed to providing targeted business and technology insights for IT channel professionals." Since a lot of your business marketing comes via your website, a helpful publication is Website Magazine.

Separate your sales and marketing focus

Make sure you don't confuse sales with marketing. You need marketing research to lay the groundwork for your sales. Understand that each offers separate and valuable tools.

I recommend: Lay the selling foundation by choosing a business marketing publication like B to B, which features good small business marketing tips. Then move on to tackling selling challenges by choosing Selling Power magazine, which lists its "Ten profitable ways to generate new business."

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  The best way to keep your business in tip-top shape is to use the tools available through specialized Sales and Marketing Publications, which can aid every generation of workers and every skill level.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Purchase publications for sales from discount sites

Buy hard copy sales and marketing publications from discount magazine sites. Save moderate to considerable amounts off of newsstand prices by purchasing from discount sites or purchasing in bundles to give you the greatest savings.

I recommend: Purchase discount magazines from sites such as Magazines.com. Magazines.com can offer you a moderate to substantial discount off of newsstand prices on business and personal publications. RobinsDesign.com can link you to marketing publications discounted on Amazon. This site is useful because it has already sorted out top names of publications for you to save you the search.

Find free sales and marketing publications

Have the most fun saving money on sales and marketing publications by finding no cost trade publications available as emailed newsletter or mailed hard copy subscriptions.

I recommend: Sales Resources offers free sales publications and magazines covering the topics of marketing, sales and customer relations management. Entrepreneur Media also gives you an extensive list of free marketing magazines and marketing journals. Take advantage of these no cost publications to further your knowledge and as a regular continuing education exercise each week or each month. Marketing Sherpa makes its marketing case studies free to non-subscribers for seven days after publication.

Read online publications for marketing

If you don't want to shell out the dough for a hard copy subscription, read the online version of publications for marketing. The online versions often have the same content, if not added features, that the print versions have, so they can offer excellent quality for continuing education and staying up-to-date.

I recommend: Subscribe to free publications like Sales Pro Magazine. Sales Pro Magazine not only has their current issue online, but also a quality collection of back issues available for download and printing. Read the online versions of magazines like Sales & Marketing Management Magazine. Take a look at the online issue of Selling Power.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Become a connoisseur of the sales and marketing magazine

When considering which publications for marketing to read, don't just pick up any old magazine off the shelf. You want to read the ones that your competitors -- or their marketing agencies -- are likely to look at.

I recommend: Pick up a copy of Advertising Age, a Crain Communications publication. This weekly is the Time Magazine of the advertising world. Everyone who is anyone reads it. You can order it in print or in digital form. If you're interested in marketing at trade shows, the next magazine you should take a gander at is Exhibitor. This monthly magazine is the premier source for trade show trends. It contains case studies and other practical information.

Check out marketing and sales publications in newspaper and newsletter form

Newspapers and newsletters are also useful business marketing publications, although they don't have as high a profile as the magazines usually do. The important thing here is to make sure these publications come from reputable sources so you can trust the information they contain.

I recommend: DM News is an excellent publication to look at if you are interested in direct marketing, which is targeting your advertising straight to the consumer. If you want to learn more about marketing on the Internet, look at the Web Marketing Association's free newsletter, Interactive Briefing. You can learn about upcoming competitions and trade shows related to your field.

Seek out sales and marketing journals

If you want deep analysis from your publications for sales, marketing journals may be for you. These journals contain long, in-depth articles and studies on sales and marketing subjects.

I recommend: The American Marketing Association publishes out the Journal of Marketing Research each month. Its focus is on market research, which includes ad concepts and new product development, with a concentration on the business side. Another interesting journal to look at is The University of Memphis' Journal of Advertising, which focuses on ad theory.