Little Green Book of Getting Your Way: How to Speak, Write, Present, Persuade, Influence, and Sell Your Point of View to Others [Hardcover]

 

 

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Years ago, I attended a reception in Washington (DC) honoring a British diplomat who was about to retire. At one point, I engaged in conversation with him and presumed to ask what was the single most important lesson he had learned after 30+ years of public service. He replied, "Always let the other chap have it your way." How simple! Only later did I realize that he was describing what Oliver Wendell Holmes once characterized as "the other side of complexity." And I think this is what Jeffrey Gitomer has in mind in this volume when suggesting how to speak, write, present, persuade, influence, and sell your point of view to others. That is an accurate subtitle because it correctly indicates precisely what this "little book" is all about.

Others have their own reasons for their praise of this book. Here are three of mine. First, I appreciate the visual format within which Gitomer presents his material. Key points are brilliantly displayed with a variety of colors, font sizes, use of bold and italic faces, and page location. Also, I appreciate the strategic insertion of dozens of quotations and insights, each of which is directly relevant to the given context. Here are three of my personal favorites:

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie

"Being a person of influence means that you have reputation, character, credibility, and stature enough that people will take your message seriously. [They] come from your track record and your success record combined with your perceived expertise." - Gitomer

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Finally, I admire Gitomer's characteristically pragmatic approach. All of his observations and recommendations are driven by his determination to explain "why" and "how." The narrative is mercifully free of general theories, pretentious rhetoric, and problematic assumptions. I hasten to add that there is a total lack of cynicism. He assumes that each reader has a point of view that is well thought-out, sincere, authentic, and worthy of careful consideration.

Argumentation is one of the four levels of classical discourse, the others being exposition (explaining with information), description (making vivid with compelling details, and narration (telling a story with a sequence of events or developing a sequence of separate but related ideas). The term "argumentation" is sometimes misunderstood to mean arguing when, in fact, its purpose is to persuade with logic and/or evidence.

Gitomer understands all this, of course, and effectively uses each of the other three levels of discourse when explaining how to "sell your point of view to others." (Be sure to check out the "8.5 key elements that make up your ability to persuade others and get your way" on Pages 40-41.) He also has a solid understanding of human nature. Therefore, throughout his narrative, he includes frequent reminders to take human skepticism, insecurity, and (yes) recalcitrance into full account. As indicated earlier, with all due respect to Gitomer's inventive mind and passion for communicating, he is ultimately a pragmatist. That is, he is almost wholly preoccupied with helping others to understand what "works," what doesn't, and most importantly, why.

More a quibble than a complaint, the next edition should have an index.

This may be a "small book" in certain respects but, one man's opinion, it offers a wealth of practical advice with eloquence and enthusiasm. Well-done!

Reading the Little Green Book left me with an overwhelming urge to go out and convince someone of something. Jeffrey Gitomer has a great talent for conveying enthusiasm in print: If you lack enthusiasm for persuasion, this book will be a five-star resource for you.

If you have never read anything about persuasion, this is also a great book to start with. By covering a broad range of topics, it will give you a philosophy that will be helpful as you develop your skills.

The book begins with a brilliant section about feeling convinced and motivated that you should get your way, taking positive thinking in a most useful direction. You could just read and reread that section every day and get great benefit from this book.

In element two "the fundamentals of getting your way," you'll get an overview of the rest of the book which addresses persuasion, connecting and interacting with others, presentations, public speaking, sales, writing, persistence, and eloquence.

The material is presented in simple ways with cartoons, huge letters as summaries, and lists to help you focus on what's most important. It's well designed to help you retain more. Part of that design is lots of repetition (such as you would find helpful in a speech). If repetition bothers you, realize what its purpose is. He also presents frequent opportunities to go to his Web site and get supplementary materials for those who want to drill in a bit more. I would have liked to see a little more of that material in this book since I was reading it when I was away from my computer.

The lessons in the book are mostly drawn from Mr. Gitomer's experience as a successful professional speaker and well-received author. That's both a blessing and a curse: You get a case study of his success . . . but the case study may not fit your style.

Here are two examples: He asserts that with enough preparation you'll never get nervous again. Well, many great speakers report that they get quite nervous . . . even when doing the same material for the 9,999th time. It would have been helpful if he had referred readers to The Sedona Method which is quite effective in releasing nervousness before speaking.

He also favors a certain type face for presentations that fits with his bold, passionate style. If your style isn't quite so bold and passionate, that type face may seem like a contradiction to listeners.

I also wondered how well read Mr. Gitomer is. In a number of places (such as his discussion of negotiating), he boils down the process into such a few points that I wonder if anyone would really understand what to do . . . yet he doesn't send you to any resources (such as Getting to Yes) that espouse the same principles along with more details.

To me, the most intriguing part of the book came where he listed some of his clients. Only one company was an overlap with any of the hundreds of organizations where I have spoken or provided professional services. That list made me think that perhaps there is a segmentation in what type of speaker different organizations like. Before you model yourself too closely on Mr. Gitomer, I suggest you see if your audiences are like his . . . or different.

Let's face it, there are quite a bunch of authors on the subject. What sets Gittomer apart from the others is the proximity the he creates between the reader and the book. Once again, easy to read, large fonts, funny drawings, quick tips and a marketing technique of his own to bring you to his website.

Jeffrey does not reinvent the world, he just makes it a smaller place to be. You will feel better equipped to meet prospective buyers.

My only two concerns are basically the fact that once you read one or two books of Jeffrey, you will feel that most of the stuff you read, you already have read into an other one of his books. Also, I feel there could be more pages.

It still is a good investment!

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