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The best way for you to read this book
Iâm lazy. Thatâs why I read lots of business books.
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I once heard Drayton Bird make a surprising confession.
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âIâm lazy,â he said. âThatâs why I read lots of business books.â
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This sounded very strange to me. âWhy would someone lazy bother reading books?â I asked him.
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His reply made perfect sense, though.
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âMost people waste half their lives guessing what will work. They try, fail, and squander time and money for years making it up as they go along. Why guess when you can know from someone whoâs done it all before?
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âI can spend a day reading a book, do exactly what it tells me, and get it right first time. Thatâs why Iâm lazy. Iâd rather do one dayâs good work than twenty years of bad.â
BRILLIANT BUSINESS BOOKS
This made a lot of sense to me, though Iâm not too sure Iâd like to call myself lazy. I like time-efficient better.
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But itâs not only
time-efficiency I look for when I read business books. I want them to have the following attributes:
1. Most important: give me tips that are
all:
âą new (that I havenât heard before);
âą simple (so they are painless for me to implement);
âą relevant (so I can apply them to my business);
âą accessible (so I can understand them and put them to work easily); and
âą effective (i.e. they work).
2. The book must help me to be time-efficient when reading it. This could mean teaching me lots of things in a short space of time, or being clearly signposted so I can easily find the things that matter most to me.
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Are you like me? Do you want this book to do those things for you? I hope so. Because I have written the book assuming you do. And hereâs how âŠ
Attribute 1 - New, simple, relevant, accessible and effective tips
Every tip, hint or technique in this book has been carefully selected to be:
âą New - either my unique way of looking at things, or presenting in a new way the results of years of study into what persuades and stays in the memory.
âą Simple - one of my clients once said I give âannoyingly simple adviceâ. In his words: âI could have thought of every single thing you said, but never have. Nor has anybody else Iâve ever met.â Everything in this book is easy for you to incorporate into your standard way of working, and is fast-acting.
âą Relevant - unless yours is a strange kind of business Iâve never come across, everything in this book should apply to what you need to sell or persuade others about.
âą Accessible - throughout the book, youâll find lots of simple exercises so you can apply what I have said to your own business, to make sure this book becomes a practical guide, rather than a theoretical manual.
âą Effective - everything you read in this book works. It has been tested by the thousands of businesses I have worked with, so I know what happens when people implement the advice youâre about to get.
Attribute 2 - Time-efficient
This book is easy to read time-efficiently.
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If you like to read cover to cover, this book takes you on a journey. I start by showing you how to have far greater impact and get better results when you speak to strangers (at networking events) ⊠building up to how to present to groups, again with greater impact, and better results.
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However, if you have a more targeted, selective approach to reading - would rather zero in on what matters to you - Iâve ensured each section is totally self-contained, making complete sense on its own. That way, for example, if you only want to know how to be better at networking, simply read Section 4.
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But, however you read this book, to make sure you get the best out of it, there are two sections you must read âŠ
Getting going âŠ
If youâre planning to dip in and out of relevant sections, turn to the Contents on page ix and see where you want to go first. To remind you, all the sections are self-contained, so you can read them in any order.
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However, the two sections you simply must read for this book to get you the best results are:
âą Section 2: Why âthe Jelly Effect?â - This section explains the single biggest problem in business communications (as well as shedding light on the title of this book).
âą Section 3: The AFTERs - Of everything that I have ever taught any business person anywhere, the thing that has had the biggest impact on their success is the âAFTERsâ, which is a process Iâve developed to make communication more powerful. Because AFTERs are so fundamental to business communication and all the subsequent sections keep referring to them, the book wonât make sense unless you read this section.
These sections wonât take long to read, but give you an instant appreciation of what you need to do to get better results every time you speak to others.
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Why âthe Jelly Effectâ?
How many times have you been excruciatingly bored when listening to a presentation?
How many times have you been itching to get away from someone at a networking event, as they drone on and on?
How many times have you been aggressively sold-to and thought, âIâd rather be somewhere else ⊠anywhere else. Just not here.â
Iâll bet itâs hundreds of times. It certainly is with me. And with every person Iâve ever asked these questions to.
But, what about the other way around⊠when itâs you whoâs presenting, whoâs networking, whoâs selling?
Do you ever bore people to death? Do you drone on when you should shut up? Do you sell in a way that comes over as too aggressive?
Have you ever felt that sickening feeling when presenting: âOh no, Iâm losing the audience ⊠they look so bored ⊠theyâre looking round the room ⊠theyâre fidgeting ⊠and Iâve still got 10 minutes to go ⊠Iâll speed up and get it overâ?
When networking, have you ever seen the person youâre speaking to constantly glance over your shoulder to find someone else to talk to?
Or, when selling, have you ever known that your potential customer is just not interested? In fact, they have totally switched off âŠ
Again, I bet you have. Everybody has.
But why is this? Why doesnât business communication work? Why canât people keep their audiences listening to them?
Because of one simple reason:
Business people say too much irrelevant stuff
âą all the time
âą every day
âą to every type of person.
Think about it. Itâs true. Do any of these (totally irrelevant to you) things sound familiar?
âą presentations that begin with the presenting companyâs year of formation, number of offices and staffing levels;
âą networking conversations that include a lengthy description of the other personâs company, their product range, infrastructure and history; or
âą sales pitches that give a full, excruciatingly detailed description of how the product works (much of which you just donât need or even want to know).
Totally, utterly irrelevant to you. But you hear them all the time.
And, hand on heart, you probably do it too.
When you speak like this, itâs very much like filling a bucket with jelly, and flinging it at the other person, hoping some of it will stick.
Some will, sure. But most wonât. And itâs doubly inefficient. It wastes y...