Imagine all the social networks failing at once. What would you do differently with your time if you weren’t spending time on social networking? Would it be more or less productive?

Thanks to GigaOm I learned about Jeff Bezos’ obsession in a footnote he wrote to Amazon’s 2008 letter to shareholders:

” At a fulfillment center recently, one of our Kaizen (continual improvement) experts asked me, “I’m in favor of a clean fulfillment center, but why are you cleaning? Why don’t you eliminate the source of dirt?” I felt like the Karate Kid.“

Amazon’s obsession with continual improvement has permeated their culture and made them a great company.

Here are just a few dangerous obsessions holding back many of our readers from more success:

• Data collection obsession – 79% of businesses obsessively capture Internet traffic data, yet only 30% of them changed their sites as a result of analysis.
• Keyword obsession – Keywords don’t fail to convert. We fail to convert visitors for that keyword.
• Short copy obsession – Of course people won’t read your copy if it isn’t relevant.
• Search Engine obsession – SERP rankings are crucially important but I never met a search engine spider with a creadit card. What happens after the searcher clicks through matters just as much.
• Shiny new object obsession – It’s the corporate version of ADD. Companies get distracted with the newest new new thing, invest lots of energy into it then they have unrealistic expectations of success.

What are your company’s obsessions? Are they useful or harmful?

Here are other apps besides OnTarget that are using Google Analytics’ Data Export API.

Here is OnTarget for Google Analytics:

OnTarget provides full optimization, testing, and improvement cycle recommendations on how to improve goals online and increase conversions from marketing campaigns. Clients determine how many resources can be devoted towards optimization each month. FutureNow’s analysts deliver a to-do list of suggested improvements matched to client goals via the OnTarget interface. These changes are tracked using Google Analytics and the impact is fed directly into the next round of ensuing recommendation.

We’ll be announcing lots of cool new features and soon you’ll see specialized OnTarget for Retail and OnTarget for Lead Geneartion products. Just stay tuned…same bat time..same bat channel.

According to the Omniture survey:

• Marketers picked cost per click and click through rate as among their top metrics to optimize search campaigns instead of deeper metrics such as return on ad spend, cost per customer (or sale) or profit per order
• 43 percent of e-commerce respondents do not know how to accurately measure profit per customer (or order)
• 67 percent of respondents indicated not having enough time to effectively manage campaigns as their top issue in search marketing, while only 35 percent use an automated bidding solution

Are you surprised? We aren’t; check out the 7 Deadly Sins of Web Analytics.

Every day leading companies strut their James-Bond-cool stuff, showing off their sophisticated tools and fancy talk about ROI.

It’s hard to take them seriously knowing that underneath that James Bond tuxedo their diapers are soiled.

In 1998 we were frustrated because companies didn’t understand their conversion rates. In 2009 we remain frustrated.

Much less than 1% of the thousands of companies we’ve spoken with are the exception.

Do you have any insight as to why marketers remain enamored of the shiny new object but reject focusing on the fundamentals?

___________________________________

P.S. Josh James, the CEO of Omniture, in January of 2005 said “Web analytics can pay for itself with a single business improvement — so the real question is how quickly can companies make data-driven decisions? This willingness to change will ultimately dictate time to ROI.”

Tom Crandall in his iMediaConnection SEO column explains “why the traditional thinking on ‘cheap’ no longer applies”. I think he’s right for several business categories but not all.

Our new service OnTarget is by far the least expensive and most effective proven system for companies to continually improve their conversion rates.

So why don’t we just call OnTarget cheap?

Hmmm… The answer is simple.

We never want the type of client who is looking for “cheap” analysis and recommendations.

Does your business need clients who are looking for cheap?

“…at no time does a brand own a customer. That chain is cut loose too easily. Brands that approach the online marketing space for customer ownership will be disappointed. Come looking for that precious bit of attention, and marketers get paid in full.”

Yesterday Ice.com, an OnTarget client and #144 on the Internet Retailer 500, surprised us. Shmuel Gniwisch, CEO of Ice.com told a reporter at Internet Retailer about OnTarget:

…attributes to it a 20% increase in conversions after one week, including sales it can track to its call center after the online jeweler followed OnTarget’s recommendation to make more prominently feature a toll-free number on its home page. “We are on it, and we are hooked,” says CEO Shmuel Gniwisch.

Conversion optimization is not a project it’s a process of continuous improvement that never, yes never, ends. We write about client gains every month because documentation beats conversation!

Kudos to Avinash Kaushik’s “Aggregation of Marginal Gains: Recession Busting Analytics!” blog post; it’s a good read and it should help people become more realistic about their expectations for conversion rate improvements. Of course, there will always be those who want their money for nothing but while Bryan has often been a lonely first voice in the wilderness Avinash tends to represent an early mainstream voice.

If you do the work the conversion gains will come, sometimes large, sometimes small but they come, I hope you too can document wins month after month. Let us know if you need help.

I’ve noticed from many of my marketing colleagues that money for nothing is the order of the day; maybe it’s the hard times. Seth Godin blogged yesterday about getting rich quickly, Brian Clark blogged about making money from blogs, and just this week I saw and replied to Mary Schmidt’s status on Facebook say “Mary is working on a fun client project – how to grow/get the word out without spending any money? Hmmm…”

The common thread is that some companies are just begging marketers/ vendors / consultants etc. to lie to them. We get that too, demands we guarantee 100%+ increases in conversion rates without them having to invest hardly any time, resources or money.

There are NO magic bullets. When things come fast and easy they leave even easier more quickly.

Isn’t word of mouth (”WOM”) free? WOM isn’t exactly free, but it can be. If you want to generate WOM do something remarkable for your customers. After all, WOM is driven by things people can remark on, hence the term remarkable. Focusing on how your businesses can be remarkable rather than creating remarkable marketing campaigns is way harder but it produces permanent long-term results.

There will always be new shiny object peddlers and marketing guru charlatans who entice desperate, greedy or ignorant people with happy talk. I wish that wasn’t so, but it is. Please take my advice; if something sounds too good to be true then it is.

=======

P.S. Would you like to know what I tell potential customers?  You might consider it self promotional so stop right here if you don’t care to read it.

I’m going on record to say that if you want to increase your conversion rates There will be no gimmicks, no empty promises, no broken budgets and no illusions.

 I won’t guarantee a thing. I won’t blow smoke.

 I won’t even try to convince you. FutureNow has the track record, the skills and the experience but it could be useless to you, unless you commit your time, money and resources.

That may sound harsh but if you are still determined to improve your conversion rates then you can set the pace, the budget and your goals. FutureNow will help you stay on target.

I no longer think about the selection, convenience, service, price, “free” shipping or much else when I shop at Amazon. Even New York State’s insistence that Amazon collect sales tax did not break my habit. Not everyone is in the habit though. Amazon is pushing hard to addict as many people as possible. Gaining market share during a recession is the name of the game and Amazon wants to hook people now so they will be loyal customers like me when the economy recovers.

In “Amazon Prime Squeezes Already Struggling Rivals” by Matt Pace on the Compete.com blog he writes an extensive analysis that I encourage you to read:

What impact on members’ shopping habits does Prime have? Does it drive heightened Amazon loyalty? Consider the following observations of Prime member shopping patterns in December:

-  49% of the time Prime members shopped online, Amazon was at least one of the retailers they visited (compared with 29% for non-members)
-  40% of the time Prime members shopped online, Amazon was the first retailer they visited (compared with 24% for non-members)
-  53% of total online retail purchases made by Prime members in December were made at Amazon.com (vs. 29% for non-members)

You can read the rest of Matt Pace’s analysis here.

I have a question for you, not whether or not you’re an addict too, even though I’m curious. My question is: What can you do to squeeze your rivals to gain market share and are you doing it?

In the spirit of continuous optimization, may we have 5 minutes of your time to watch the video and maybe let us know what you think before we work on our final version?

P.S. Please don’t forget to sign up for free Webinar with guest Jim Sterne: Turn Web Analytics Into 2009 Revenue.

More than five years after helping to establish the Web Analytics Association has Bryan finally gone completely nuts?

Has Bryan given up on Web Marketing and Analytics: Process, Talent & Tools?

Has Bryan turned on his friends and now hunting for Avinash, Eric, Jim and all these other analysts?

Ed Wu, the Super Web Analyst, explains it best. You can find out if Bryan Eisenberg is trying to kill web analysts by simply clicking through this link.

There are a lot of objections to linking, especially linking off the website. The web & the HT in HTML is all about links.

I won’t go there today.

This blog post about New York Times columnist Frank Rich titled “Frank Rich: Why I Link” is worth reading.

Why has Rich embraced linking when his peers have not? “The theory was: Why not be as transparent as possible by showing sources, when we could?” he told me recently.

That’s a philosophy followed by much of the rest of the Internet; it’s the very foundation of blogging. But most newspapers — including their top columnists — haven’t signed on. read more here…

I would like to see more journalists linking to their sources, providing background and generally acting like if they knew their work was going to appear online. What do you think?

]]> http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/12/22/linking-matters/feed/ 7 http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/12/07/no-more-consulting-indigestion/ http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/12/07/no-more-consulting-indigestion/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:20:46 +0000 Jeffrey Eisenberg http://www.grokdotcom.com/?p=2241

Have you ever received great advice from a consultant but couldn’t implement it?

A recommendation is just advice, no matter how excellent, until you implement.

It’s only when you implement a recommendation that you reap the rewards.

Even when you know the advice is great you can get consulting indigestion.

You, the client, in consuming…

Have you ever received great advice from a consultant but couldn’t implement it?

A recommendation is just advice, no matter how excellent, until you implement.

It’s only when you implement a recommendation that you reap the rewards.

Even when you know the advice is great you can get consulting indigestion.

You, the client, in consuming the advice can be the log jam or the hero of every consulting engagement. It’s rarely the consultant that makes the difference. If you choke or get indigestion then consulting leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Just-In-Time Optimization

We have always tried hard to screen for toxic clients with unrealistic expectations. Our NPS scores are excellent and our client successes speak for themselves.  Nevertheless, the most common lament among our clients isn’t about us it’s about them. They simply don’t have extra resources or time to implement everything we recommend.

We could ask our customers to change or we could change.

We chose to change!

Instead of providing you with a gut busting all-you-can-eat buffet we’ll provide you only the healthiest tastiest morsels of advice that you can actually consume and we’ll do it for much less money.

Think of it as just-in-time optimization. You tell us how much time and resources you can devote and we’ll prioritize our recommendations based on how much impact it will have towards reaching your goal.

You get analysis and recommendations without the considerable expense of having to hire an analyst.

We’re Not Crazy

Well at least we’re not dangerous, except to your competitors.

OnTarget, our new software-as-service model allows us to automate a great deal of otherwise costly consulting tasks that don’t provide as much value to you.

With OnTarget you get:

1. Our expert analysis of your online lead generation and sales efforts;
2. The best recommendations you can actually implement with an estimate of time & resources required;
3. Pricing based on your ability to implement (starts as low as $1,000 a month) so that you achieve the highest return on investment of your time, money & resources.

We are launching the OnTarget program this week. We will be busy revising our website all week but you can preview the OnTarget service description.

If you want to know more or want to inquire about our reseller program please contact us.

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Bryan wrote in Understanding and Aligning Social Media:

“The biggest problem I have with the term “social media” is that it isn’t media in the traditional sense. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the others I don’t have the word count to mention aren’t media; they are platforms for interaction and networking. All the traditional media — print, broadcast, search, and so on — provide platforms for delivery of ads near and around relevant content. Social media are platforms for interaction and relationships, not content and ads.”

We’re not alone in saying it. Ted McConnell, General Manager-Interactive Marketing and Innovation at Procter & Gamble Co., was quoted in AdAge from a talk to the Digital Non-Conference, a program by Cincinnati’s Digital Hub Initiative presented by the Ad Club of Cincinnati:

“I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

“You can do really amazing things. But I’m not so sure I want to be targeted like that. … I don’t think everything every consumer says to someone else and writes down is somehow monetizable by the media industry.”

Thanks for saying that Mr. McConnell!

Building and deepening relationships is hard work, just ask Mack, not simply something you can buy like media.

We can’t change the name at this point but what can we do to give companies more realistic expectations?

What can you say when the owner of a company that had a 4.12% conversion rate improves it by 17% to 4.82%  in less than a quarter and says “we’re sort of disappointed“?

Even when clients can’t commit very much budget or resources to execute our optimization recommendations they may still have very high expectations.

Has FutureNow became a victim of of our own success? Our process has made FutureNow very successful; we have many third-party documented case studies where our clients achieved extraordinary results.

Bryan and I spent part of the weekend discussing this. Bryan wanted to republish a ClickZ column “The 5 Percent Solution” but I wanted to address this issue more directly than we did in “How To Get Buy-in For Conversion Rate Optimization“. We never addressed the real issue: commitment.

What Are Realistic Expectations For Conversion Rate Optimization?

Sales people will dance around this issue but I won’t. It depends on you!

I have never seen a website where with the right amount of time, energy and resources you couldn’t get at least a 30% improvement in conversion, but 10% is a slam dunk even without our advice.

Time, energy and resources!?!

If you are willing to commit yourself, with or without expert advice, you can consistently improve your conversion rates. We hear virtually every day about people who read one of our books and publications and went on to make huge improvements to their business. They make us as happy as client successes do.

Nevertheless, if you are focused only on 100% improvements or better it’s hard to celebrate a 10% gain. How sad.

You need to walk before you can crawl. For every huge success we have there are dozens of other happy stories. That’s why I asked Bryan to give me a list of successes he collected recently from our analysts.

I want to celebrate these successes:

• Increased client’s overall website conversion rate 10.5%, resulting in $250,000 additional revenue annually.
• Optimized a checkout page to increase conversion rate by 6.25%, leading to $150,000 additional revenue annually.
• Increased overall conversion by 27.5% with an A/B test on the product page.
• Doubled the number of sales with a Shop with Confidence assurance test.
• Achieved an 8% lift in sales from redesigned product page.
• Increased overall conversion rate by 51.49% over a 3 month program.
• Redesigned homepage and category pages to increase overall sales by 6%.
• Helped client realize a 108% increase in sign-ups for an e-course.
• Making one change to the flow of a client’s checkout process increased shopping cart conversion by 6.5% leading to an estimated increase of $55,000 monthly revenue.
• As a by-product of our conversion recommendations increased organic traffic visits by 19.91%.
• Improved conversion on a client site by 24% simply by changing product page layout.
• Increased a client’s funnel conversion rate by 24.40%.
• Increased visitor registrations by 12.5% by recommending changes to landing pages and the flow of the sign-up form.
• Increased overall website sales conversion rate from 3% to 7%, that is 133%, over a quarter long engagement for an online jewelry retailer.

Every one of these stories is worth celebrating. I praise our clients for the hard work they’ve done. I want to praise them for their commitment. I want to encourage them and you to continue improving your website and campaigns.

Stop Wishing and Start Doing!

If you get a 10% improvement and add 10% to that and then 10% on top of that you’re well on your way to 100%. Make up your mind and get started. Devote the right amount of time, energy and resources. You’ll learn a lot on the journey and the destination is so worth it.

I hope that helps.

Bryan and I want to make sure that you not only survive but thrive. FutureNow has lots of testimonials but one from Matt Coffin hasn’t been published in years and is appropriate to share. We trained Lower My Bills to optimize by increasing conversion rates during those dark days and we want to think that as least in small part it’s why they flourished.

In 2002 FutureNow asked Matt Coffin, then CEO of LowerMyBills.com about a training we conducted in 2001:

Q: Was the Introduction to Conversion Rate Marketing course worthwhile?
A: Absolutely

Q: What was good about it?
A:  Actionable, logical, boost to morale – everyone excited about increasing conversion rate.  Presentation and recommendations based on experience – “which most consultants don’t have enough of”

You are always welcome to avail yourselves of our regular services by filling out any of our contact forms or calling us. However, if you need special attention then please contact me directly to discuss what we can do now to help you improve your results. You can reach me directly at 877-643-7244 ext 3307 or email jeff (at) futurenowinc.com.

* To learn more about the photo read What I Learned from the Dot Bomb Revolution.

• Customers will look for reasons not to buy.
• Retailers will offer incentives.
• Customers will look for value.
• Retailers will offer promotions.
• Customers will look for more information.
• Retailers will ask their customers to provide content.
• Customers will hold retailers responsible for their entire experience.
• Retailers will continue to work in silos.
• Customers will find new favorite retailers.
• Retailers will look for new traffic.
• Customers will demand more from each visit.
• Retailers will focus more intensely  on the +/- 3% they convert instead of the 97% they don’t.
• Customers have changed.
• Retailers…

Will retailers finally focus on optimizing their customer experience and improving their sales conversion rates? Many, perhaps most, won’t. It’s hard to build a culture of continuous improvement, especially under pressure. Some, a few, will. They will not only survive but they will also improve their market share and profitability.

We do work with a lot of retailers who are already devoted and several who we are helping to adopt a culture of continuous improvement. Still, it’s a relatively small sample size. Am I too pessimistic? Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong.

I welcome your feedback.

I read their book. It’s a great book. I’m just trying not to read any books that aren’t available for my Kindle. I love my Kindle! You just have to love a device that allows you to travel with an entire library and is even easier on the eyes than ink on paper.

I love my Kindle even more now since the newly revised Call To Action: Secret Formulas To Improve Online Results just became available for the Kindle.  I bought a copy and added the PDF of the index that you can download here. I now have the best version of Call To Action you can own.

During this session they’ll discuss optimizing headlines and calls to action and illustrate how to use these principles as they look at several case studies as well. Can’t make it at that time? If you register then you will also be notified when the recording of the webinar is available as well.

One lucky registrant will win a signed copy of Bryan and John’s new book “Always Be Testing.”

Have you registered yet? Know anyone else who should, please forward on this post.

FutureNow is part of the public company Future Now Group, Inc [OTC BB: FUTR.OB] and from time to time we are going to publicly disclose information on this blog. GrokDotCom has wider readership than any press release we could issue. Press releases do get wide “distribution” but distribution is not the same as readership. When we include our email channel, to our rss and blog visitors GrokDotCom has more than 100,000 unique readers per month.

Practicing what we preach means we can track the difference. When we wrote our press release about “Dr. Phil” project there wasn’t nearly as much response as when we blogged about it here. In fact, the reponse was so good that we added almost all the paid alpha-testing clients we needed. We could still use three more testers in lead generation and one more retailer with a considered purchase, contact us if you want to be an alpha-tester or even if you just need to improve your results. The trials are going very well and we’re on target to launch in beta next quarter. Oops Not really a slip of the tongue. The software- as-a-service line will carry the name OnTarget (TM) – powered by Persuasion Architecture (R).

The “Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer” launch and marketing are going full steam ahead. Bryan did get writer’s cramp while hundreds stood on line at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose to have one of the 500 books Google gave away autographed. The post-release reviews match the advanced praise and are so positive that I’m glad I didn’t co-author it or I’d have to blush.

Most importantly FutureNow’s thinking shined in the book. We’re proud of the interactive marketing optimization processes and systems developed by FutureNow. We get clients great results. In fact, I just confirmed today that we have another new client, working with our newest employee, who early on in their engagement already has a 142% increase in top line sales. Natalie is sharp and because she uses our processes she is able to deliver exceptional advice.

Without that advanced thinking we could never automate to the degree that our new SaaS lines allow us to. We are able to scale the development of quality recommendations. While that may put margin pressure on other consultants; that’s not our main goal. OnTarget is a highly disruptive business model. OnTarget will make it possible for many more small-to-medium size businesses to afford quality marketing optimization systems while being simple enough that they can effectively use it. That is why we are certain that OnTarget will increase the addressable market size dramatically.

Best of all, all that publicity is really being appreciated by our sales team who are rocking and rolling with the best pipeline FutureNow ever had and they are on target to exceed our quarterly goal for new contracts signed. That’s the kind of news no company ever gets enough of. Keep up the great work team!

That’s all for now. Now you can ask me how are we doing. Or you can wait to read the interview with The Wall Street Transcript that I’m doing this Friday.

“Fox News Channel wants more friends. But instead of reaching out on the News Corporation’s own social network, MySpace, the cable news channel is choosing to network on the site’s chief rival, Facebook.

Think it has anything to do with MySpace’s existing partnership with MSNBC? Fox says it has more to do with audience.”

This is a sign of the maturity of social media, but even more so of News Corporation’s new media sophistication.

Many of our readers are big fans of social networking sites so I want to find out your opinions. If you were in charge, would you have done the same? Would you have used both or perhaps even other sites? Do people want to find and consume news in a social network? Inquiring minds want to know.

Carolyn Gardner writes:

“According to Shop.org’s State of Online Retailing report for 2008, online retailers allocate 53% of their marketing budgets to online customer acquisition — driving traf­fic to a Web site or landing page. But when it comes to online customer retention, the marketing spend shrinks to 21%. Does this mean that any effort to convert visitors into customers must come out of the remaining 26% of budget? Because retention is all about building engagement and loyalty, this dispro­portionate spend and disregard for the sales funnel is alarmingly short sighted.

Acquisition strategies that drive traffic to Web sites designed for mass appeal are safe. But going a step further, by creating Web sites with “personalized content,” you improve engagement, retention and loyalty. Loyal customers typically buy and spend more than new customers, so shifting budget into engagement and retention should be a no-brainer. What, then, is the problem?

I think it stems from marketers playing it safe in the comfort zone of e-mail and search. E-mail and search have definite roles to play, but won’t address conversion. After all, what happens after the beckoned traffic arrives? Too often, engagement is weak and visitors bounce. With competition just one click away, there’s a very small window of opportunity. It can only be optimized with personalized content, displaying the right message to the right person at the right time, based on that person’s profile and behaviors. ” (read entire op-ed column)

We explained recently, in our newest whitepaper, how especially in a recession marketers can’t afford not to focus on conversion rates and gaining market share.

Do you need help fixing your sales funnel? We can help.

Customers will be buying subscriptions to a web-based expert software system  for continuous improvement of their online revenue goals. It solves the problem of how to prioritize and project manage online marketing optimization so that customers’ existing resources are focused on the changes that will have the largest revenue impact.

It doesn’t replace any tool you have today and it’s not consulting! It actually complements the resources you already use, because it’s software-based and requires only a minor amount of human intervention on our part to make sure the recommendations are top notch. Imagine having Bryan Eisenberg installed on your desktop.

We’re revolutionizing online marketing. Keep your eye on FUTR.OB.

Hmmm, I wonder if her name triggered some sp*m filters.

Check out this Paris Hilton Celebrity Review and let me know who you think will be next

Joe Nocera lists 14 books he likes in no particular order in “The Best Business Books Ever?”

“Liar’s Poker,” by Michael Lewis (even though I’ve since become convinced that the anecdote that gives the book its title never happened).
“The Devil’s Candy,” by Julie Salamon. (Greatest dissection of the movie business ever written.)
“The Box,”, by Marc Levinson. (Hard to believe you can write a great book about the rise and importance of the shipping container, but he pulled it off.)
“Indecent Exposure,” by David McClintick. (Published in 1982, it single-handedly created the business narrative genre).
“The Go-Go Years,” by John Brooks. (The best book by the most elegant writer to ever make business his subject.)
“The Kingdom and the Power,” by Gay Talese. (Yes, the subject is The New York Times, but how can you leave it off any list of great business books?)
“Titan,” by Ron Chernow. (Chernow’s magisterial biography of John D. Rockefeller.)
“Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich,” by Godfrey Hodgson, Bruce Page and Charles Raw. (Hard to believe that this committee of authors could write a sensational narrative about the rise and fall of Bernard Cornfeld, but that they did.)
“Disney Wars,” by James Stewart. (”Best corporate psychoanalysis I’ve ever read,” says John Huey.)
“The Informant,” by Kurt Eichenwald (Forget his Enron book, “Conspiracy of Fools.” This book, about the strange saga of Mark Whitacre and Archer Daniels Midland, is his masterpiece.)
“Father, Son and Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond”, by Thomas J. Watson and Peter Petre (The only great ghost-written C.E.O. autobiography ever written. No one else — not even Lee Iacocca or Jack Welch — even comes close.)
“When Genius Failed,” by Roger Lowenstein. (Another one of those “how-did-he-do-it?” books: this account of the fall of Long Term Capital Management, which by all rights should be a tough slog, is crackling good read.)
“Greed and Glory on Wall Street,” by Ken Auletta. (This book, about the crack up of Lehman Brothers, has a great cast of characters, starting with Steve Schwartzman.)
“The Smartest Guys in the Room,” by Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean. (O.K., O.K., they are former colleagues of mine, and I was deeply involved in editing this book — but I have to say, I think it turned out pretty well!)

I like this list a lot. Now I’ll check if the books are available in Kindle format yet.

It’s time to engage in some word of mouth marketing. Do you have any other business fiction books to recommend? Please let me know.