Visit the NEW Book Club each month for best-selling business books of special interest to executive women. You’ll get great insights and great savings—and a portion of each sale will support NEW’s education and networking programs.

Main Selection

The Quintessential Guide to Using Consultants

by David Zahn

HRD Press, 228 pp., softcover, $24.95*

Who better qualified to write a guide to using consultants than David Zahn, a featured speaker at this year's NEW Summit and a sales consultant focused on the CPG industry?

In this primer on consulting, Zahn notes the increasing use of consultants by companies with overworked executives and a lack of specialized employees. He starts at the beginning, defining the term consultant and outlining the types of consultants working today. He then explains the benefits that outside consultants can bring to a company, including objectivity, credibility competency and independence. There’s a even a checklist to help you determine if a consultant is right for you.

At the heart of Zahn’s book are chapters on selecting, contracting, managing and working with consultants. While some may find Zahn’s approach technical, the executive looking for a step-by-step roadmap to this complex process will be thankful for the detail and insight that the author provides.

Alternate Selections

Life Would Be Easy If It Weren’t for OTHER People

by Connie Podesta with Vicki Sanderson

Corwin Press, 194 pp., softcover

$22.85 at conniepodesta.com

This book explains how adult behavior is shaped in childhood and offer tips on avoiding the psychological traps that others have spent a lifetime learning. Most people hate confrontation, Podesta says, and difficult people use this knowledge to get what they want. By not confronting these manipulators, we reward their bad behavior. We can’t change difficult people, Podesta writes, but we can change how we react to them through firm, healthy and assertive communication.

She Wins, You Win

The Most Important Rule Every Businesswoman Needs to Know

by Gail Evans

Gotham Books, 190 pp., hardcover, $17.50*

Gail Evans knows about climbing the corporate ladder. She was the first female executive vice president at CNN, and she wrote the business bestseller, Play Like A Man, Win Like A Woman. In this book Evans expands on the empowerment theme: “Every time any woman succeeds in business, your chances of succeeding in business increase. And every time a woman fails in business, your chances of failure increase.”

Evans maintains that one of the reasons men still dominate the upper echelons of American business is that they work together. The author says women must build teams, form alliances, coach, mentor, lead, and network among themselves. Sound ambitious? Maybe. But Evans doesn’t ask readers to change the world, just themselves.

Just Ask A Woman

Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How They Buy

by Mary Lou Quinlan

Wiley Books, 260 pp. Hardcover, $27.95; Amazon E-Book, $19.0

Studies show that women shoppers are more perceptive, more sensitive, and often more loyal than male shoppers. And while women comprise just over 51 percent of the U.S. population, they make or influence 85 percent of all purchases.

“Brand therapist” Mary Lou Quinlan says women have a different “shopping list” than male customers. Women, for example, will not tolerate a dirty store. They crave comfort and they reward businesses that treat them with respect. This book is critical reading for marketers, brand managers and retailers who want to understand these powerful consumers ; it’s even more recommended for those who don’t.

Suggest a selection for the NEW Book Club. Email NetworkNews at editor@newnewsletter.org

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