Product Description

Praise for persuasion the art of getting what you want

"Dave has exposed the secrets of the most powerful persuaders in the world. This book is a step-by-step guide to changing minds and deeply influencing people in person, in print, on the air, or anyplace else you need to persuade. This book makes persuasion so easy and predictable that it may be the most dangerous persuasion book ever written . . . especially if it ends up in the hands of your competition."
—Mike Litman, CEO, Connect To Success, Inc. and coauthor of Conversations with Millionaires

"Dave Lakhani tells you everything you've just got to know about persuasion in this book. It is written provocatively, yet clearly. And it is sure to open your mind while enriching your bank account. I highly recommend it. Fasten your seatbelt when you read it. It takes you on a thrilling ride!"
—Jay Conrad Levinson, "The Father of Guerrilla Marketing" and author of the Guerrilla Marketing series of books

"Dave Lakhani understands persuasion like few do and is able to break the process down so anyone can understand and use it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who hopes to improve their ability to sell, market, advertise, or negotiate."
—Chet Holmes, Fortune 500 superstrategist and author of the Mega Marketing, Business Growth Masters, and Guerrilla Marketing Meets Karate Master sales programs

"Man, talk about persuasive. Dave convinced me to read and review his book, and I don't even like the guy."
—Blaine Parker, author of Million-Dollar Mortgage Radio

"Too few books actually put into practice what they promote. Dave Lakhani breaks the mold with this satisfying, powerful read."
—John Klymshyn, author of Move the Sale Forward

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26994 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From the Inside Flap
Did you know that the outcome of most persuasive events is determined before you ever say a word?

You may know how to sell, but you were probably never taught how to persuade. In this book, persuasion expert Dave Lakhani breaks down the persuasion process into easy-to-use steps. You'll learn not only how to persuade, but the biology and psychology behind persuasion.

In business, persuasion is key to every aspect of sales, marketing, and negotiations. This book reveals today's most effective persuasion techniques for business professionals. While it focuses on the business arena, these principles of persuasion can easily be successfully applied in your personal life.

Though the techniques are similar, Lakhani draws a hard line between persuasion and manipulation, with the primary distinction being intent. True persuasion is based in truth, honesty, inquisitiveness, and the ability to tell a powerful story and to meet the expectations of those you're trying to persuade. Good persuasion is a practiced art—a carefully orchestrated dance between you and the person you are persuading.

In Persuasion, Lakhani teaches you the steps in that delicate dance, showing you how to apply proven persuasive principles to common business challenges. Inside you'll find:

• A map for the persuasive process, from beginning to end
• A set of persuasion tools and a blueprint for using them
• Seventeen specific persuasion tactics designed to instantly persuade
• The Persuasion Equation
• The Six Tenets of Persuasion
• Steps for becoming a persuasion expert in just thirty days
• Quick Persuaders— tools you'll master and useevery day

The book itself is exceptionally persuasive. It uses hard science to support its theories, citing the opinions of noted neuroscientists, psychologists, and influence professionals and features examples of persuasion at work in sales, copywriting, advertising, negotiations, and personal interactions. It shows you how to persuade your audience in small, simple steps that proceed to the desired result. Because today's prospects are sophisticated and technologically savvy, there's information on tech-savvy persuasion methods for use with Web sites, in blogs or teleseminars, or by Podcasting to a targeted audience. Learn exactly how to get your message through the electronic clutter facing decision makers today.

If you've been successful, you've probably intuitively used some of these persuasion techniques before, but this book will mentor you through a dramatic increase in your ability to persuade. Imagine how successful you'll be when you know how to strategically layer on tactic after tactic to methodically and effectively break down natural resistance, increase the emotions of acceptance and desire, and move the prospect to the right outcome—the outcome you desire.

From the Back Cover
Praise for persuasion the art of getting what you want

"Dave has exposed the secrets of the most powerful persuaders in the world. This book is a step-by-step guide to changing minds and deeply influencing people in person, in print, on the air, or anyplace else you need to persuade. This book makes persuasion so easy and predictable that it may be the most dangerous persuasion book ever written . . . especially if it ends up in the hands of your competition."
—Mike Litman, CEO, Connect To Success, Inc. and coauthor of Conversations with Millionaires

"Dave Lakhani tells you everything you've just got to know about persuasion in this book. It is written provocatively, yet clearly. And it is sure to open your mind while enriching your bank account. I highly recommend it. Fasten your seatbelt when you read it. It takes you on a thrilling ride!"
—Jay Conrad Levinson, "The Father of Guerrilla Marketing" and author of the Guerrilla Marketing series of books

"Dave Lakhani understands persuasion like few do and is able to break the process down so anyone can understand and use it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who hopes to improve their

ability to sell, market, advertise, or negotiate."
—Chet Holmes, Fortune 500 superstrategist and author of the Mega Marketing, Business Growth Masters, and Guerrilla Marketing Meets Karate Master sales programs

"Man, talk about persuasive. Dave convinced me to read and review his book, and I don't even like the guy."
—Blaine Parker, author of Million-Dollar Mortgage Radio

"Too few books actually put into practice what they promote. Dave Lakhani breaks the mold with this satisfying, powerful read."
—John Klymshyn, author of Move the Sale Forward

About the Author
DAVE LAKHANI is the President of Bold Approach, Inc., a business acceleration consultancy. A successful entrepreneur, he is a popular speaker on persuasion, in- fluence, sales, marketing, rapid ideation, and business acceleration. Always alert to the latest means of reaching and persuading potential prospects, Dave writes a blog that gets more than 10,000 visitors a week. You can read it at howtopersuade.com.

Customer Reviews

I hate to write this review
It's very bothersome to write a review that is going to largely be positive ...when that book directly competes with your own...for sales!

Former cult member, Lakhani starts with the dark side of persuasion then quickly moves into distinguishing the difference between manipulation and persuasion. Best is his step by step guide to manipulation. Very well done!

Many in the field of persuasion miss the crucial art of story. Lakhani does a nice job of giving his insights into one of the most difficult tasks a communicator has...to have a story persuade.

The next thing I like in Art of Persuasion is Dave's outline of how to become an expert (guru) in 30 days. Expert status ==> credibility ==> more successful influence.

Another nice step by step outline is for changing beliefs. Easy to adopt and use.

Each chapter in the book is well thought out and presented concisely and with clarity.

This is an excellent primer on the art of persuasion and I recommend you pick it up today.

Kevin Hogan
Author of The Psychology of Persuasion
and
The Science of Influence

Read and Be Persuaded
If we want to be more effective in almost any area of our lives - whether as a leader, team mate, coach, marketer, or parent, being more persuasive can help us be more successful. For this reason I have become a student of persuasion and influence in the past few years.

This book is one of my new favorites in this topic area.

It talks about persuasion not from a theoretical perspective but from a real-life, "here's what you can do" perspective. There are three chapters in particular that lead me to recommend this book so strongly.

1. The first two chapters contrast manipulation from persuasion are very insightful and helpful to you as you consider the motives and intentions that you might have in a persuading situation. In my experience many people feel that if they work on becoming more persuasive in any sort of systematic way, that they will become manipulative. These two chapters will help you think that distinction through for yourself.
2. The chapter on the persuasion formula. By the time you get to this chapter none of the components of his formula will surprise you, but a formula is always helpful way to summarize things in our head (no, I'm not going to tell you what it is).

If you are drawn at all to the topic of persuasion, I highly recommend reading this book. It is well written, easy to read, and my copy already has marks and comments throughout - a good sign that it will be well used part of my library for a long time to come.

What An Eye Opening Book
This is my first review, I never write them, but this book impacted me in a way that compelled me to say something.

I actually got to hear Dave speak last night at the local Barnes and Noble and I have to say, I left with my head spinning when I realized exactly how persuasion happened and how easily people are persuaded.

I realize that virtually everything is persuasion . . . and that there really is a difference between persuasion and manipulation which Dave makes really clear in the book. As a point of demonstration in the book, he actually shows you precisely how to manipulate another person. At first I wished he'd have left that out of the book but I quickly realized that it would actually protect me from falling victim if I was more quickly able to identify manipulation attempts.

I went to the author's signing at the store because I'd already read the book, but it is so powerful that I just ordered three more, one for each of my sisters. Seeing Dave in person let me see just how persuasive someone can be in person and reading the book made me rethink how I'll write to my clients in the future.

This book is powerful, I'll definately be able to sell more in my business by understanding the persuasion equation and the six tenants of persusion.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand persuasion or understand how to persuade better. This is the best book I've read in a very long time.