Jeffrey Gitomer is a familiar name in the business book world. He is the author of the top selling book on sales “The Little Red Book of Selling” and the follow up, “The Little Red Book of Sales Answers”. He is back with a new addition to his “Little Book” series with his new book, “Little Green Book of Getting Your Way: How to Speak, Write, Present, Persuade, Influence, and Sell Your Point of View to Others”. Recently, Bizbooktalk.com had the opportunity to attend Jeffrey’s “Little Black Book of Connections” seminar in Renton, Washington.

The seminar drew quite a large audience and the venue was packed with a diverse crowd, ranging from marketing and sales reps to local political candidates. Jeffrey’s presentation was full of advice and tips from his Little Black Book series as well as his Little Red Book series. His seminar included advice for:

• Networking for success - network more effectively by finding ways to add value first. Find out what is important to the person you are meeting/looking to meet and how you can help them.
• Using creative marketing methods so that you never miss an opportunity to engage with a customer - your business card, out of office email message and voicemail message are all channels for engaging with current and prospective customers. Make the most of these channels by exercising your creativity. For example, Jeffrey uses a customized coin as his business card.

Jeffrey’s presentation included a fantastic combination of useful information and humor, combined with a very engaging presentation style. If you have an opportunity to attend one of Jeffrey’s seminars in your area, you won’t want to miss the opportunity. His current seminar schedule can be found here.

Harvard Business Review recently devoted its annual bi-monthly 2006 summer issue to the subject of sales. HBR mentions that despite sales success as an obviously critical component to the growth of any business, it still lacks the rigorous research methods and understanding that traditional fields like marketing and economics enjoy.



Is it part schmooze, half art, part knowledge?

As an individual working in software and consulting marketing, technical sales lead generation is fascinating to me and I was curious about how a successful lead was nurtured and sowed in this unique arena. Brian Carroll’s “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale” provides great insight into this often poorly addressed process.

Carroll divides the book into three sections:

I. Fundamentals of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale
II. Lead Tactics for the Complex Sale
III. Lead Development for the Complex Sale

First order of business is getting marketing and sales to play together (always an endless challenge). Carroll encourages getting the teams to agree and work out a definition on what truly is an ideal lead and then flesh out this profile with as much information as possible. He goes on to point out that a “multimodal lead generation” program will be the most effective for filling the pipeline with sales leads. (Multimodal meaning the complete marketing mix of PR, Web, Direct Mail, Phone, Email, Events, etc. all working synergistically to drive home the same message).

Note: For you marketing history buffs this is consistent with what the famous Northwestern marketing professor Don Schultz aptly titled Integrated Marketing Communication in the late 1980s.

All good marketers are obsessed with testing and measuring and complex lead generation should be no different. From here messages and tactics can be tweaked with the sales and marketing teams working consistently on improving results.

Carroll finishes the book by examining each different tactic in depth. By treating each of the multimodal arms separately, the reader comes away with a solid understanding and an easy way to reference the information when working on a specific part of the marketing mix.

The anemic treatment within the business press of technical sales and marketing topics is frustrating. “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale” goes a long way to correct this problem. Hopefully, we’ll see Carroll lend some insight into the next HBR article dealing with technical sales.

This is one book that has the power and the practical insights to change how you deal or interact with people. Of all the business books that I have read, this is at the top of my favorite list. This book is worth reading and re-reading. It is a very easy read that explains lucidly the science behind the art of influence and persuasion. The book is very conversational in style and you will have many moments of “Aha’s and Oh-oh’s”. This book teaches you how to be more influential and persuasive in dealing with people and at the same time teaches you how to protect yourself from the unscrupulous people that try to use the influence tools on you in an unethical way. Have you ever had the experience where you wanted to say or do something in a situation but ended up doing quite the opposite (thanks to the savvy influence of the person on the other side)? If you read this book, you will be able to recognize the tools and techniques that are being used on you to influence your decision.



The author outlines the following weapons of influence (his term) in his book:

Reciprocity: People are more prone to feel obliged to return favors offered to them. Influence professionals try to use this principle of reciprocation that is hard wired into the human psyche by trying to garner disproportionate results in return for a small initial favor. A good example of this cited in the book is the clever application of this principle by Hare Krishna society. Krishnas while soliciting for donations, as a first step give a small gift like a flower to the target person before requesting a donation. There by making the target obliged to give a donation in return for the unsolicited gift that was just accepted.

Commitment and Consistency: People are prone to follow through on a commitment that has already been made. Influence professionals exploit your desire to be consistent by getting an initial compliance on a trivial request and later expanding this compliance to a similar request that is much larger in scope and sometimes remotely connected to the original request. They know that once you have committed to an initial request, you are most likely to follow through on their other requests because of your desire to appear consistent.

Social Proof: People are more likely to follow the actions of people that are similar to themselves. This is especially true in conditions of uncertainty where people are likely to use others actions to decide how they themselves should act. Influence professionals use this principle by way of fake advertisements that have average-person-on-the-street testimonials.

Liking: People are likely to agree or say yes to a request from people that they like. People tend to like people that are attractive, that are like themselves, that are friendly, that are complimentary, that have common goals, that make them laugh etc. Influence professionals use a combination of these techniques to appear more likeable and as result increase the odds of you saying YES to a request.

Authority: People tend to put more faith in authority than anything else. People are easily persuaded by people that appear knowledgeable, credible and authoritative on a particular subject. Influence professionals try to benefit from this principle by invoking the pretext of authority or expertise on subjects that they have very little understanding of.

Scarcity: People are likely to want something more strongly when it appears to be dwindling or scarce.

Mind you, this book is not an expose on influence or compliance professionals but rather a very good explanation on how and why people are influenced. Once aware of these principles, you can use them in an ethical manner to influence others and at the same time be able to guard yourself against these same principles when applied by others to exploit you.

Finally, here is a link to an excellent review of the book and an interview with the author Dr Robert Cialdini by Guy Kawasaki.

Note: There are two versions of the book and I happened to buy the older version of the book called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” instead of the newer version which goes by “Influence–Science and Practice”. My review is based on the older version. Amazon reviews indicate that both versions are pretty much identical.

When Americans are asked what their greatest fears entail, public speaking consistently beats out death. Think about that…more people are afraid of talking in front of people than passing from this mortal coil. Yet research shows a direct correlation between income and the amount of presentations a person gives. Overcoming the fear of public speaking and becoming adept at it has a definite financial advantage.



Carmine Gallo’s “10 Simple Secrets of the World’s Greatest Business Communicators” seeks to provide straightforward tips on how to improve everything from your delivery style to nutrition tips. (Yes, even nutrition tips.)

Analyzing the presentation styles of current business rock stars like Apple’s Steve Jobs and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Gallo points to the importance of using passion and vision to immediately hook audiences. He also advises readers to generously sprinkle in interesting stories as a way to hold an audience’s attention throughout. This dovetails nicely with what Daniel Pink mentions in “A Whole New Mind.”

While the book’s advice is very straightforward, you should read it for the exercises at the end of each chapter. It’s rare for a business book to be an interactive experience - by having to brainstorm and apply the lessons of each chapter you can build a basic presentation skill set and be miles ahead of your peers. Gallo even provides references on his website to some of the world’s best presenters which does wonders by letting you observe a sensei in battle.

One topic I wish the author would have explored in a little more detail is how some of these superstar speakers overcome and deal with their nervousness. Gallo does recommend preparation as the best panacea but I have an upcoming presentation to a tough audience and no matter how hard I’ve worked on it, I still feel a twinge of anxiety every time I think about it.

Gallo finishes out with plenty of encouragement and the idea that a good presenter can be molded over time.

“10 Simple Secrets of the World’s Greatest Business Communicators” is a great book for anyone looking to develop or further hone the all important skill of presenting. If careers can be made in a moment, make sure you are prepared to present your case convincingly.

Have you written in your WUP lately?



Surely that question makes no sense, but after reading “The Radical Edge” by Steve Farber it will. His previous book, “The Radical Leap” taught us the LEAP principle. This time Steve provides the steps to reaching the Radical Edge:

• Writing in your WUP
• Stoking Your Business

“Do what you love in the service of people who love what you do”

• Amp Your Life

“Find your frequency”

• Change Your World

“Define what you mean by ‘world’ and get clear on how you want that world to be different from the current reality”

Through his entertaining, and humorous writing we are shown how to apply each of these principles to our lives. If you feel you are in a personal ‘rut’ this book will surely give you the tools to break out of it, and move to the Radical Edge.

Everyday you are faced with situations where you need to use persuasion. Need extra time on your latest project at work? You’re going to need to win your boss’s approval. Trying to get that last sale to meet your monthly quota? You’re going to need to convince the customer that they need your product.

Dave Lakhani’s Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want lays out the blueprint for developing
your persuasion skills. Each chapter seamlessly describes the notions behind what moves people to be persuaded. The human desire for the sense of exclusivity, seeking familiarity with others, and our never ending curiosity are just some of the topics discussed. Throughout the book I found myself reflecting about situations I’ve been in which could have been aided with Dave’s advice. Although one may think that this book is catered towards sales professionals, it’s not. Dave has written this book for all audiences. From the high school student who is in debate club, to the CEO wanting to polish his negotiating skills, Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want is fit for all.

Be sure to check out Dave’s blog How to Persuade for the latest discussion on persuasion techniques and trends.