Sales and Sales Management Blog

May 18, 2012

It’s Time We Get Right with Our Words

Filed under: career development,Communication,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 11:35 am
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Almost every sales seminar or workshop I go to and the majority of sales books I read at some point talk about the need to address the prospect’s or client’s emotional side; that sales, all sales, are at their heart emotion based decisions.  And with that statement, for many the doors to manipulating the prospect are flung wide open.

Language and emotion are so important in sales yet we seem to take them so lightly.  Most sales books, seminars, and courses spend little to no time addressing language and how to use it ethically.

Most of us pick up our use of words and language on the fly, not really understanding the forces behind it.  If we discover something that seems to work we use it, never asking whether it is a legitimate use of language or whether it is nothing more than a cheap way to manipulate.

I suggest that every seller take the time to head back to your local community college or the university in town and take three courses that will help you clarify how you are using the words you use–and in addition will give you some powerful new tools to use when putting together your prospect solutions, not to mention the advantages you’ll gain in terms of constructing your presentations.

The first course would be a good course in Rhetoric.  Many schools call their basic composition class a rhetoric class.  That isn’t the class I’m speaking of here.  Rhetoric is the study of the art of argumentation and discourse with the aim of improving one’s ability to persuade, influence, and motivate–ethically.  You’ll acquire tools that will help you become a better communicator and you’ll be able to recognize some of the flim flam manipulation strategies used in marketing (and heaven forbid, by sellers also).

Next I would suggest an Introduction to Logic course.  Although it is true that emotion plays a strong part in the sales process, so does logic, especially in more sophisticated sales environments.  A course in logic can help attune you to how easy it is to go awry when constructing an argument.  You will learn about deductive and inductive reasoning along with consistency, validity, and completeness, as well as learning about logical fallacies of which there are a ton.  And to your delight, you’ll have the joy (sarcasm here) of analyzing syllogism after syllogism after syllogism. The important thing is you’ll learn how to recognize logical inconsistencies and how to construct an argument that holds together and leads to a logical conclusion.

After your introductory course I’d advise you go one step further and take a symbolic logic course.  You’ll get further immersed in the rules of logic and go well beyond the syllogism.  After this class you should be able to recognize logical fallacies and be able to knock those false arguments down.  (And if you’re not good at or are afraid of math you need not know that this is a course taught in conjunction with the math department and is usually a senior level math class.)

Of course none of these courses are necessary to be a seller–or to be a top seller.  But I guarantee they will make you a better seller.  Take a look at your local college or university’s offerings and register for a class next fall.  You will be glad you did (but maybe not until after the semester).

April 11, 2012

Lessons for Sellers from the Unsocial Media

Filed under: Communication,Sales 2.0 — Paul McCord @ 4:14 pm
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Is it just me or are others finding that they’re getting more and more brazen sales solicitations of various kinds from their new “friends,” “followers,” and “connections” than in the past?

It seems that when I friend or follow or connect with someone I’m far more likely now than in the past to get a direct message or inmail or email thanking me for following and “as a special gift” they offer me a super duper deal on their services or books or whatever. 

Often I’ll get an inmail thanking me for the connection and since they know that I’d love to follow their company page on Facebook they’ve taken the liberty to provide the link. 

Other times it is an outright blatant solicitation to sell me something without even the guise of a special offer. 

And sometimes it’s more subtle with an invitation to get to know one another on the phone—that within 30 seconds becomes a hard-line sales pitch.

It may simply be because more and more sellers are using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media and they’re ignorant of proper social media etiquette.

But it might also be a symptom of something more fundamental–the hazard of using a medium that is inherently unsocial—a computer.

Rude and obnoxious anonymous postings on forums and blogs have long been issues, along with the occasional in your face attempt to sell from a new friend, follower or connection. 

I’ve always chalked up the clumsy sales attempt as simply an etiquette error.  The rude and obnoxious comments on blogs and forums I’ve assumed was simply a result of having the luxury of being anonymous combined with “talking” to an inanimate computer screen.

But I’m beginning to think that there is a deeper inherent problem with social media than simply learning proper social media etiquette–and that problem is the impersonal nature of the computer itself.

Even though intellectually we know our emails, direct messages and inmails are going to another human, we are interacting with an inanimate object to talk to someone we do not know and whom know little to nothing about. 

Our message is then received by someone who is looking at an impersonal screen while reading the words of someone they do not know and many very well have never heard of before.

That is not a humanizing combination.  In fact, it makes it easy to dehumanize the other person because in a sense we’re not talking to a person until we get to know them a bit on a personal level.

In addition we may have a tendency to misinterpret the other person’s meaning when they friended or followed us.  Maybe they were looking to make a connection not because they were chomping at the bit to buy our stuff. 

But when dealing with a faceless person who we do not know and who we only have the barest of connections with it is easy to forget about their side of the equation and go full bore to satisfy our wants and needs.

The  direct messages, emails, and inmails we receive from other sellers should teach us a couple of hard and fast lessons:

  1. Slow down and consider why the other person might be wanting to connect with you—and realize that more than likely it isn’t because they’re dying to buy from you.
  2. Use the same rules of engagement you’d use if you met the person at a social gathering.  People are looking to make connections for all kinds of reasons but no matter the reason, trust and respect must be earned and built and that takes time.

Forget trying to push your wares or your website or your Facebook page as soon as you connect with someone.  Don’t screw up your new connection by immediately sending an unwanted, self-serving sales piece.  You may be typing to an inanimate computer screen, you may not know much about the person you’re writing to, and you may be anxious to make a sale, but the one thing you can count on is that whomever you’re writing to won’t appreciate being treated like a dollar sign to be rung up on the cash register.

March 28, 2012

George Orwell’s Negative Influence on Sales Language

Filed under: business,Communication,sales,sales psychology,selling — Paul McCord @ 10:35 am
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The coincidence of timing: My friend Dan Waldschmidt published a post yesterday on why words matter.  After reading my post on how words a misused, I’d encourage you read Dan’s to see how words should be used.

What words do you use to describe yourself and your products and services?  Are there words you intentionally try to keep out the mind of your prospects or clients?  Do you use euphemisms instead of plain English when making a presentation in order to try to elicit a particular feeling or response from your prospect?

As salespeople, we’ve been taught to frame our conversations and presentations in ways that lead our prospects and clients to the conclusions and decisions we wish them to arrive at.  In order to do this, we are advised by some to refrain from using certain words that may evoke a negative reaction—or to use words that will evoke a negative reaction, depending on what we want our prospect to think or feel.

Much of this advice is based on the idea that if we control the conversation we control the prospect’s attitude, thinking, and ultimately, their decision making process.  In other words, by carefully controlling the words used in the conversation, we can control the prospect’s thought process. 

Some sales trainers even go so far as to recommend we not bring up potential negatives—don’t address a non-existent objection so as not to plant a potential objection in the prospect’s mind.  Or if an objection is raised, deflect it and return to the presentation or closing the sale.  Gloss over the objection and it will go away.    

It seems George Orwell has become the director of sales training.  Orwell’s Newspeak is now the new “sales speak.”  No longer is communicating with a prospect as a rational human sufficient; now we are exhorted to in essence treat them as nothing more than a computer, inputting only the data we want them to compute–as though if we don’t give them the words, they won’t be able to think the thoughts we don’t want them to think.

Orwell believed that words are the keys to thought.  If the words don’t exist to communicate a particular thought or concept, it isn’t possible to think the thought or concept.  Consequently, if you can control the words someone has available to them, you can control not only what they think, but eventually how they act.  Orwell later repudiated the concept.  Unfortunately, a version of this concept has become quite popular in some areas of sales training.

Like Orwell’s world of 1984, some view the world of sales as an arena where words are not simply powerful in influencing thought and behavior; they are the creators of thought and behavior.  If we don’t say it, the prospect will never think it.  If we can frame it using the words we want, the prospect will never think of their own words to describe it or question it.

Rather than trying to communicate, we are told by some that if we create the conversation we wish to have with the prospect, the prospect will unknowingly go along with us.  If only we learn the right words and phrases to use—and the words and phrases to avoid, we can direct the prospect to the ”proper” decision.  Selling in this view is simply an exercise in rhetoric.

So, we learn the right words and the right phrases; we engage the prospect by making sure we eliminate any words that might evoke thoughts, feeling, or concepts we don’t want them to have; and we ask for the order.  Instead of the automatic ‘yes’ we expected, we hear a resounding ‘no.’

What could possibly have gone wrong?  We did everything right.  We used the right words; we avoided the wrong ones.  We were careful to implant the ideas, concepts, and emotions we wanted the prospect to have.  We executed perfectly.  And they said no.  How could this possibly have happened?

Could it be that they did the unthinkable–they actually thought words and concepts that we worked diligently to keep out of their head?  Despite our best efforts to implant the right “data,”  when we pushed the “enter” button they exercised independent thought and rejected our attempt to manipulate their decision making process?

Is it possible the words we use aren’t as important as the communication and connection we make with the prospect?  Is it possible that our attempt to finesse the prospect by trying to direct their thinking through the careful manipulation of language isn’t as effective as we have been lead to believe?  Is it possible that less rhetoric and more communication would serve us better?  Could it be that more listening, more understanding, and more straight answers to prospect questions could prompt more trust in the prospect?

Maybe it is time to rethink the Newspeak of selling and learn instead to listen, to answer honestly and forthrightly, to drop the euphemisms and begin once again communicating with prospects and clients using plain English.  Maybe rather than the belief that the words we use will create the reality we want in the prospect, we should seek try to understand the prospect’s needs, wants, and issues and try to present our best solutions to those needs and wants as honestly and forthrightly as possible. 

The Orwellian experiment has been tried—and failed.  Orwell recognized the failure of the concept before he died.  Certainly, many trainers in the areas of communication and persuasion recognize the legitimate uses of rhetoric in the sales process.  Yet, there are still large numbers of trainers selling the Orwellian concept of easy sales through language manipulation and its false promise of controlling prospect thought and behavior.  There is a difference between the legitimate use of persuasive influence and the intent to deviously manipulation. 

We are selling to independent beings who exercise their capacity to think autonomously of our attempts to stage-manage their actions and decisions.  Our words can influence, they cannot create the reality we want.  Our words can help create an image, they cannot eliminate independent thought.   Our words can create conversation, dialog, and real communication, they cannot produce a pre-determined outcome.  The sooner we recognize their independence, the sooner we can get back to creating relationships built on trust, not on linguistic manipulation.

February 1, 2012

Killer Communication Strategy

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 4:18 pm
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So many prospects and clients to kill, so little time.  But don’t worry; salespeople all over the world are doing their damnedest to kill as many prospects and clients as possible every day.  Their weapon of choice?  Communication—or more specifically,  communication fraud.

I suspect you are like me, getting dozens of emails, phone calls, snail mail letters, and even face-to-face meetings with sellers who seem to have only one goal—waste as much of my time as possible.  They email and call wanting to know if I’m doing OK, or if I need anything, or if they can show me a new product or service without having the slightest idea if I could actually use it.  Some call to simply let me know they’re still around and want my business.

Many of these intrepid sellers have bombarded me with so much time wasting junk communication that they’ve taught me to completely ignore them.  When I see an email or letter from them or if I get a voice mail message from them I know that I need pay absolutely no attention to them.  Their time wasting communications have completely killed me off as a prospect—and, worse, I’ve even had some sellers kill me off as a client because of their insistence on trying to waste my time.

Sellers work hard to find and connect with quality prospects and then to win them as clients.  Why in the world would they want to then commit prospect and client genocide?

Obviously, their intent isn’t to become mass murderers, but that is the final result of many sellers’ communications.  Their killer communication strategy is to unintentionally kill off massive numbers of their prospects and clients by teaching them to ignore any of their communications. 

So many sellers think of communication as nothing that important.  Their object is to keep their name in front of the prospect or client and to that end they feel a need to contact the prospect or client even when they have nothing of import to communicate.  Actually and more correctly, they feel the need to draw attention to themselves even when they have nothing of value to communicate.  And even more correctly, they are just too damn lazy to find something of value to deliver to the prospect or client. 

In other words, their killer communication strategy is tell their prospects and clients in no uncertain terms that they just aren’t important enough for the seller to invest the time and energy necessary to add value for them.

Now that’s a killer communication strategy.

There is a very simple communication rule that I teach my clients:  every communication you have with a prospect or client is teaching them to either pay attention to you because you bring value to them or to ignore you because all you do is waste their time.  In other words, every communication you have with a prospect or client is teaching them that it’s worth taking your phone calls and reading your emails because they know you’re not going to waste their time–or you’re teaching them to avoid you because you have nothing of value for them. 

The next time you pick up the phone or write an email or want to schedule an appointment, ask yourself one simple question: “am I adding value to them or to just me?”  If your honest answer is that you’re only adding value for yourself, don’t make the call, don’t send the letter, don’t send the email until you have taken the time to make sure you’re adding as much or more value to them as you are for yourself.

January 23, 2012

Dealing with Uncomfortable Questions from Prospects and Clients

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,politics — Paul McCord @ 12:20 pm
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Once again we are in the middle of the presidential political season.  For the next few months the Republicans will have center stage as candidates wrestle with one another to gain the Republican nomination to run for President.  Once that contest has been decided the focus will shift to a tussle between the Republican nominee and President Obama.

Whether we tend to be politically active or not, we will all have opinions about the candidates and issues involved in political combat this year.

We’ll also have some—hopefully just a very few–prospects and clients make comments about these people and issues or, worse, ask us directly about our opinions regarding them.

When these uncomfortable topics come up what should our response be?

As salespeople we spend a great deal of time trying to develop relationships built upon trust, honesty, and openness with our prospects and clients. We claim that we want to build relationships with our clients; we want to get to know them as people and not just as potential purchasers, and that we want to create friends, not just accounts.

Many of us go to great lengths to learn how to read body language, to communicate in a manner that caters to the prospect’s personality type, to read the unspoken signals the client sends through how they dress, how they decorate their office, what they drive, and what they do for recreation and relaxation. Our goal we say is to treat the prospect as a whole person.

Nevertheless, our holistic approach to sales is one sided. Most of us have been taught to avoid the social and political issues that could offend a prospect or client.  Let the conversation get close to the area of political or social opinion and all the sudden we’re no longer too anxious to build the relationship on honesty and openness. Rather than being open and honest when these subjects come up we try mightily to obfuscate or avoid.  The last thing we want is for our prospect or client to know where we actually stand on a candidate or issue.

Consequently we’ll spend the next few months doing a delicate dance of avoidance, trying to offend no one while insisting that we are open, honest, trustworthy individuals, intent only on meeting the prospect’s needs and becoming trusted advisors. We’ll try to build relationships based on getting to know our client while allowing them to get to know only what we have determined is safe for public consumption and that will allow them to get to know us only superficially. We’ll try to balance on the head of a pin, afraid that if we reveal ourselves as a politically or socially aware person we’ll offend, we’ll step on toes, we’ll lose a sale.

In my opinion–and experience–not only is this behavior disingenuous, but it is itself destructive. Prospects and clients expect each of us to have opinions and they are quite aware that those opinions may be counter to their own.

What are we communicating to prospects and clients when we try to sidestep discussion of the issues or candidates? Some will immediately assume we’re avoiding the issue because we hold opinions we believe are counter to theirs—so whether their assumption is correct or not, by avoiding the discussion we risk offending the prospect by unintentionally communicating a contrary opinion to theirs. A few may assume that we’re not informed well enough or care enough to have an opinion. Most will assume that we’re simply trying to play the game, trying to be ‘real’ as long as that reality doesn’t involve anything of substance in our personal lives.

Conventional wisdom has been to avoid political discussion at all costs. Conventional wisdom comes from a time when the emphasis wasn’t on building long-term, trust based relationships with prospects and clients.

I’m not advocating you initiate political and social discussion, but avoiding it isn’t going to advance the relationship either.

Seldom have I found discussing these issues to be, well, an issue. I have lost a few sales that I can trace to these types of discussions, but I can identify many more sales I’ve made where the sale had its roots in a willingness to answer questions—especially uncomfortable questions–honestly. 

As long as you are respectful of the prospects point of view, have reasoned arguments for your stance, and don’t engage in inflammatory or degrading language, there is no reason to fear alienating a prospect or client. In fact, if you can intelligently discuss the issues in light of how they may impact your prospect’s business, you may find that your discussion instead of being a potential minefield may be one of the most compelling reasons to do business with you.

Prospects and clients not only respect honesty, they also respect salespeople who understand their business and the future prospects for their business. By demonstrating an understanding of how political, economic and social issues may affect your prospect’s future, you demonstrate an intimate knowledge of their business—and prospects love to do business with people they trust and who really understand their problems, issues, and opportunities.

Follow Paul on Twitter: @paul_mccord

January 18, 2012

July 21, 2011

Questioning the Value of Questions in the Sales Process

Filed under: attitude,Client Relationships,Communication,sales,Sales Process,selling,success — Paul McCord @ 10:17 am
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I had the honor yesterday of participating in a roundtable discussion organized and presented by Focus.com about the use of questions in the sales process. Moderated by Andy Rudin of Outside Technologies, the panel consisted of some outstanding sales minds:  Dave Brock of Partners in Excellence, Jack Malcolm of Falcon Performance Group, Dan Waldschmidt of Waldschmidt/Arp, and finally, myself, of course.

Our discussion addressed some of the most fundamental myths and misconceptions sellers have about the use of questions in sales.  In fact, we deconstructed the whole idea of questioning as the central aspect of selling.

By all means, all involved agreed that questions are an essential and important aspect of information gathering and rapport building.  Questions help open prospects up so we can uncover new information and help get to core issues and concerns.  Questions can help focus both ourselves and our prospects to dig deeper and look more closely at what’s really going on in a company.

But in the end, questions are only a tool.  They aren’t the be all and end all of our interaction with prospects and clients.

The problem is that some sellers have walked away from their training on questioning feeling that questions are the secret key to success or that in order to be effective sellers they must be ever conscious of asking the “right” question or the “right” kind of question.

That’s simply bull.

Our object with a prospect or client isn’t to ask questions, even though as mentioned above, questions are tremendous tools.  Our object with prospects and clients has to be to communicate—to connect with them in a meaningful way that helps us understand who they are as well as their problems, needs, and wants.

Communication demands far more than an ability to ask questions.  It requires that, as Dan Waldschmidt pointed out, we care—that we care about the prospect, about the issues, about our reasons for doing what we do, about who we are and who we’re dealing with.

Communication demands that we connect on both an intellectual and emotional level.  Communication demands that we go beyond the gathering of information and actually touch the other person’s humanity (as well as our own).

Yes, we did talk about questions and their importance.  But in the end, it was about one human connecting with another, not about how to ask the perfect question.

The real question ends up being why are you asking questions?  Is it to connect and build a bridge to help solve issues for a fellow human—or to get into someone’s wallet?  That, sellers, is the first question that must be answered.

June 1, 2011

Guest Article: “Change Your Words, Improve Your Results to Increase Sales,” by Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Filed under: Communication,Handling Prospect,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:49 am
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Change Your Words, Improve Your Results to Increase Sales
 by Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Change or die writes Alan Deutschman. Yet many small business owners including crazy busy sales people continue to do what they have always done and then complain about not being able to increase sales.  This seems to be a continual whine especially from those engaged in coaching, consulting or those who provided other types of professional business services.

During the last couple of years as the market contracted due to global economic forces, more and more executives have faced early retirement to reduction in force. Many of these individuals have started their own consulting or coaching businesses, some by buying franchises and others starting from scratch.

With an even more crowded marketplace filled with hungry new small business owners, sometimes finding new clients willing to let loose of their profits to stuff into someone else’s pockets becomes a greater challenge.  So what is the eager entrepreneur supposed to do to avoid starving?

Maybe it is time to take a walk through a grocery store, some other retail store or even an automobile dealership to find that answer. What do you see?   Shelves, aisles and car lots filled with products. These products range from good, better or best. 

In grocery stores, you can purchase hamburger at 80% lean, 88% lean or 95% lean. Then you can hop over to your favorite retail store and find similar pricing.

Car manufacturers have this good, better or best product selection honed to a razor sharp edge. Even the most economical cars can quickly go from good to best with the additional equipment from automatic transmissions to sun-roof or is it moon roof?

What would happen if you or your organization embraced this good, better best approach with your pricing? And then instead of offering a multi thousand dollar project covering 4 months, provide monthly pricing for a six to 12 months. Given that execution is still a problem for many small business owners, by becoming a more long term supportive buying partner you have potentially demonstrated not only your value, but your understanding of your client’s cash flow.  You’re your trust and emotional connections have been even more firmly established. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Trust and emotions are Sales Buying Rules One and Two.

If a potential client wants to improve his or her situation, why should that want have a negative impact on his or her cash flow?  Of course, the ego driven, I need sales quota now individual sales person or sales manager may respond with “We don’t do that!” or “This is our firm and non-negotiable pricing!”  At this juncture, the salesperson or sales manager’s wants are going before the potential customer’s wants.  This desire is not a good way to earn a sale or better yet repeat business.

Case Study on Good, Better, Best

The Problem

A business coach required a quick infusion of new sales as cash flow was becoming a serious challenge.  He looked to using an assessment that had worked as a marketing freebie to build the relationship as a quick solution to securing additional quick revenue.

The Solution

By reconfiguring or repositioning the deliverables for this assessment into 3 tiers of good, better, best, he was able to provide additional value for each offering.  This reconfiguration allowed him to even increase his price for the best offering.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Reconfiguration or repositioning is one of the three factors in providing sustainable business solutions.

The Results

Within 3 days of this new good, better, best approach, he met with a potential client who had been referred to him. During the meeting, she asked if he had any information about this assessment. My client pulled out a one page marketing flyer that briefly explained the good, better, best solutions. His potential client read the information, then pulled out her checkbook and wrote a check for the best solution.

Beyond having a check in hand, the good, better, best solution reduced his sales cycle time by three quarters to two thirds.  Another result is the potential client had the perception the sales decision was all in her control.

Why Good, Better, Best Works

There are several reasons why the good, better, best approach works. First is the inherent preexisting value within each of the words.  Since people buy on value unique to them (the Third Sales Buying Rule), they have already predetermined the value associated with each of these three words.

Another reason are the words good, better, best elicit a far stronger emotional reaction than words such as option or alternative.  Since the Second Sales Buying Rule is people buy first on emotion, then justify that decision with logic, emotions are key.

Finally, this approach helps to overcome one if not more of the Five Sales Objections of you, your company, your solutions, your price and your delivery.

For the last several years, I have lived by this motto:  Change your words; Improve your results.  By understanding the impact of words and aligning my practice to those new words, I have been able to increase sales. Maybe it is time for you to consider a similar change in your pricing and business model?

Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Author of Be the Red Jacket  http://bit.ly/1Q9mnV219.508.2859– CT (nearChicago,IL)
www.increase-sales-coach.com

April 19, 2011

Master Your Sales Conversations–And Close More Sales

Filed under: Book Recommendations,Communication,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:25 am
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Ever feel like your sales conversations don’t go as well as you would have liked? Perhaps there was something nagging at you that made you think, “I could be doing something better. Something to win more and bigger sales, but I’m not sure what.”

No matter what you’re selling, at some point you have conversations with buyers. Much selling success is determined here. Over the years I’ve seen too many sales people, leaders, and professionals struggle to create sales conversations, kick them off well, uncover needs, create enthusiasm with the prospect, and win business. Without realizing it they make the same mistakes over and over again that end up losing sales.

My friends Mike Schultz and John Doerr, Founders of RainToday and Co-Presidents of the Rain Group, have just released  Rainmaking Conversations, which teaches you everything you need to know about leading masterful sales conversations.

This book gives you a practical step by step process to go from the first “hello” to “send me an invoice…let’s go.” Full of compelling stories, examples, and winning techniques, the book covers how to:

  • ·         Build rapport and trust early on in the relationship
  • ·         Uncover the full set of prospect needs (most advice and training only gives you half the story)
  • ·         Develop winning value propositions that get prospects excited to buy
  • ·         Apply the 16 principles of influence in sales
  • ·         Overcome all types of objections  (including price pressure) and move towards the close
  • ·         Craft compelling solutions and close the deal
  • ·         Avoid the most common mistakes that kill sales

The book walks you through RAIN Selling, an acronym that stands for Rapport, Aspirations and Afflictions, Impact, and New Reality. It provides a guide for the most important part of sales – the conversations you have with prospects and clients.

Rainmaking Conversations is hot off the presses, and it’s a great sales book. A classic in the making. To kick off the book launch, the authors have put together an amazing bonus package for those of you who buy a copy today.

 Pick up a copy today and you’ll get tons of bonuses including a special bonus from me! So get your copy at Amazon.com. Then stop by: www.RainGroup.com/Book/Bonuses to pick up all the bonuses.

I highly recommend it!

March 8, 2011

Book Review: Make What You Say Pay, by Anne Miller

Filed under: Book Reviews,Communication — Paul McCord @ 1:45 pm
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Although most of us use metaphors in our everyday conversations, we tend to use them as ineptly than a toddler trying to hit a ball with a bat—we hit one on occasion but most of the time we aren’t even close to hitting the mark.  Ah, but those few times we manage to construct a gem of a metaphor it feels great, and better yet, it really turns our words into precisely aimed darts that can really impact our audience deeply.

Uh, oh.  Like so much of the time when we try to use metaphors, I’ve wandered–from toddlers playing baseball to precious stones to messing with darts; can’t have toddlers throwing darts—too dangerous don’t you know.

This is where Anne Miller steps in with her newest book, Make What You Say Pay (CreateSpace: 2010).  Make What You Say Pay is a natural follow-up to Metaphorically Selling, Miller’s book that teaches us how to use metaphors. 

In Make What You Say Pay, Miller presents more than 50 case studies of how companies and individuals have successfully used metaphors to effectively and succinctly communicate their message.  This isn’t so much a “how to” book as a “this is what you can do, too” book.  Taken together, Metaphorically Selling is the “how to” and Make What You Say Pay is the case studies book.  And I think they really should be read in that order.

Miller’s examples range from making numerical information bearable to making complex concepts understandable to handling stressful situations.  Miller demonstrates through example after example how a simple metaphor can change lives and the fortunes of companies by making the obscure clear, by creating an deep emotional impact, or by turning a long explanation into a short, simple sentence.

If part of your job is communicating with others (and whose job isn’t, at least to some extent?), both Metaphorically Selling and Make What You Say Pay should be on your reading list.  Both are relatively short and to the point, but packed with real help for those who seek to have more impact on those with whom they communicate. 

Available from Amazon, Books-a-Million, Barnes and Noble and all fine booksellers.

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