Mark Donnolo - The Innovative Sale: Unleash Your Creativity for Better Customer Solutions and Extraordinary Results

This book is the result of a team effort built upon the inspiration of my associates in business and the arts, as well as numerous experiences working with sales teams and sales executives in leading companies over the past few decades.

Collette Parker, who leads SalesGlobes content and communications, was vital to the success of this project. As a fellow pioneer, insight specialist, process guide, and editor, Collette helped bring our sales creativity approach to the page. Thank you, Collette, for being part of the fabric of our team and for your continued commitment to excellence.

Our SalesGlobe team and partners provided valuable input on content for this book. Carrie Ward plays a critical role in leading and developing client solutions that help us advance our thinking and create client results that, in the end, are what we are all about. Thank you, Carrie, for forging ahead with a relentless focus on doing something great. Ron Cox, an insightful client in our companys early years, later became a partner in consulting and an innovator on our team, pushing divergent thinking in a client environment of premature convergence. Dr. Donna Chlopak provided seasoned insight as we developed the Innovative Sale Assessment to understand the sales teams Creative Quotient for Sales. Colleen Cavanagh helps us to always be highly responsive to our clients and put our best face forward.

Thanks, too, to the AMACOM editorial team who helped us make the book a reality. Bob Nirkind saw the vision for The Innovative Sale while giving us the crisp critiques to strengthen the story. Louis Greenstein shared our enthusiasm and worked into the depths of the manuscript to make it better, word by word.

Thank you also to Alan Gibbons, David Alexander, Goutam Challagalla, Jun Kim, Mark Hawn, Warren Shiver, Mo Bunnell, Al Kabus, Summer Bondurant, Frank Lloyd, Steve Bistritz, Eddie Birchfield, Rick Reynolds, and Glen Kallas for their contributions through our client work and collaboration on strategic initiatives. Thanks to the executives in this book who gave their time to share their approaches to innovation and its application to sales. Their experiences are vivid illustrations of the power of creativity to get sales results.

This book is built upon my personal adventure from the world of the arts to the world of business. There are some important people on the design side who helped me understand the integral role that design plays in our lives and our world and how creativity is naturally present in business and sales, waiting for us to apply it. Ken Hiebert, Hans Allemann, Chris Zelinsky, and Bill Longhauser gave me the design foundations and helped me channel my creative energy. Keith Godard, Stephanie Tevonian, and Hans Van Dijk gave me a start in the real world in New York and helped me challenge the design rules I had learned. Alan Siegel, Scott Lerman, and Ron Manzke showed me the application of design in a global business setting. My fellow board members at The University of the Arts, led by Ron Naples and Sean Buffington, demonstrate the dedication to not only advancing the arts but also to continuing to strengthen its relationship with and relevance to business.

My family has supported my drive and quest for creativity over the years. My parents, Paul and Christina Donnolo, helped me to set my sights high. My wife, Blythe, has been there with me throughout. My daughters, Isabel and Olivia, give it all a purpose.