Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written and self-published a non-fiction book titled run_frictionless. run_frictionless offers business owners a framework to help scale their growing companies. Self-published six months ago, it has 30+ reviews on Amazon and Good Reads. And a near-perfect score of 5 stars on Amazon.
This is my first title. I have more titles planned.
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BIO:
Anthony has a decade of experience consulting to technology and software-as-service startups. Brands include salesforce.com, Google, SAP and IBM. He specializes in designing automated sales and marketing systems. He has consulted to SaaS vendors in the United Kingdom, Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, and Australia. Anthony has been a founder of two startups.
His first business, Firestarter, consulted on Facebook and iPad app development in South East Asia. The firm was acquired by Novus Media in 2010. He co-founded Futurebooks, an accounting firm servicing over 500 startups and ranked as Xero’s number one reseller in Asia.
When he’s not working, Anthony enjoys racing sports bikes and sailing boats.
Find him at linkedin.com/in/anthonycoundouris/
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
title: run_frictionless
I design and build sales systems for enterprise and startups across Asia Pacific. I’ve been doing this for a number of years. Each time I start a new gig I’m given three months to show results. So when I’m trying to free a founder or a sales team, I use the framework I designed called the 4Qs.
I first began writing about the 4Qs two years ago as teaching aid I could hand out to clients. I have rolled out the 4Qs to countless organizations. It’s my hope you learn the basics and walk away and implement the 4Qs in your startup. I have not been able to find a better framework.
The power of the 4Qs rests in its ability to create four, distinct quadrants, or windows, into an organization, such that all its people and processes can be grouped into one or more quadrants. The 4Qs educate people about how their role and processes touch a customer.
Watch the making off run_frictionless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePwAXI-8eP0
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love writing at cafes. Run frictionless was written in 11 cafes spread across 5 cities.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
run_frictionless was inspired by Silicon Valley giants Steve Blank and Marc Andreessen.
Steve Blank, in his book The Four Steps to Epiphany. Marc Andreessen, Silicon Valley investor and co-founder of Netscape, coined the phrase, “product-market fit”
What are you working on now?
I’m launching a new version of a service called a friction test. I’m also writing content for several smaller, follow up books, for power users of the 4Qs.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do not think selling books will make you money. It won’t. Unless you are a well-known author or have a well-known title (better still, both), you won’t make cash. There are more than 2 million books published each year in the English language.
Instead, consider writing a book for other merits such as influence, personal ambition, social giving, or just plain old fun.
What are you reading now?
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness
The Sales Development Playbook: Build Repeatable Pipeline and Accelerate Growth with Inside Sales Kindle Edition
Outbound Sales, No Fluff: Written by two millennials who have actually sold something this decade
Sales Differentiation: 19 Powerful Strategies to Win More Deals at the Prices You Want
Gap Selling: Getting the Customer to Yes: How Problem-Centric Selling Increases Sales by Changing Everything You Know About Relationships, Overcoming Objections, Closing and Price Kindle Edition
Author Websites and Profiles
Anthony Coundouris Website
Anthony Coundouris Amazon Profile
Anthony Coundouris’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account