What people say and do in the most innocent situations can speak volumes about their real selves. (Location 134)
People-reading is a matter of opening up your senses to what is really going on and converting this insight into tangible evidence that can be used to your advantage. (Location 163)
‘Learn to be a good listener.’ (Location 201)
Tags: listen
‘Watch your listen/talk ratio.’ (Location 202)
Tags: listen
One final question of ego needs to be considered, and that is your own. Nothing blocks insight into other people more than your own ego. Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, and how these are likely to slant your reaction to others. It is difficult to be effective if your conclusions about what makes someone tick are based on your ego rather than on his. (Location 269)
Tags: ego
People who are impressed by the superficial should make you wonder how easy it would be to pull the wool over their eyes in a business dealing. (Location 283)
People often reveal their innermost selves in the most innocent of situations. How they deal with a waiter or an airline attendant can provide a fascinating glimpse beneath the surface. How impatient they are in a particular situation, or how upset they get over a minor error can prove invaluable knowledge later on. (Location 311)
STEP 1: LISTEN AGGRESSIVELY Listen not only to what someone is saying, but how he is saying (Location 389)
Tags: listen
STEP 2: OBSERVE AGGRESSIVELY (Location 391)
You will automatically learn more, hear more, see more – and make fewer blunders. (Location 396)
Tags: listen
STEP 7: BE DETACHED (Location 413)
When the other person gets a little hot under the collar, he or she is going to be more revealing than at almost any other time. If you come back with an equally heated response, you will not only be less observant, you will be revealing just as much about yourself. (Location 414)
Tags: reacting, emotion, detach
If you don’t react you will never over-react. You will be the controller rather than the controlled. (Location 419)
Tags: reacting, detach
Coco Chanel once said that if a woman is poorly dressed, you notice her dress, and if she’s impeccably dressed, you notice the woman. (Location 543)
If you promise someone you’ll deliver something in a week and it gets there a month later, it’s worse than your not having promised it in the first place. (Location 600)
One of the best ‘long-term’ favours you can do for someone is to act as someone else’s middleman – putting together two parties in whom you have no immediate interest. Both parties will remember. (Location 623)
Expanding on an existing business relationship is almost always easier than starting a new one. (Location 655)
Tags: networking
All things being equal, people will buy from a friend. All things being not quite so equal, people will still buy from a friend. Make friends. (Location 678)
Tags: networking
‘Mentorism’ is simply a matter of seeking advice and direction from someone you trust and respect. (Location 694)
Tags: mentor
I don’t think there is any way I can over-emphasize the importance of confidentiality in business. (Location 702)
Tags: confidentiality
It’s this simple: if you violate a confidence, the act will eventually come back to haunt you. (Location 705)
Even if you think you know where someone’s loyalties or self-interests lie, don’t assume that a request for confidentiality will be honoured and don’t commit it to paper, period. (Location 713)
Tags: confidentiality
Note:
Common sense aside, then, the most important asset in business is a sense of humour, an ability to laugh at yourself or the situation. (Location 722)
Tags: laughter
Laughter is the most potent, constructive force for diffusing business tension: so be the one who controls it. (Location 724)
Tags: laughter
Finally, humour is what brings back perspective, which, next to profits, is the easiest thing to lose in business. (Location 732)
Tags: laughter
‘Principle’ is too often a convenient cover-up word for bruised ego. (Location 743)
Tags: ego
‘Everyone makes errors. It’s when those errors are repeated that it becomes a mistake.’ You don’t have to be perfect, but you should learn from your imperfections. (Location 787)
Tags: learning
As a general business rule I am dedicated to the importance of acting instead of reacting – and so never over-reacting – to or within any business situation. (Location 855)
Tags: reacting
As Gary Player once said, ‘The harder I practise, the luckier I get.’ (Location 871)
Tags: luck, quotes, favorite
The group that is ‘naturally lucky’ can see the tiniest crack and turn it into a crevice. (Location 874)
Tags: luck
‘Getting lucky’ is mostly a matter of recognizing when you have been. Knowing then how to turn it into an edge is the easy part. (Location 876)
Tags: luck
omniscient: (Location 1035)
Note: knowing everything
‘How and where can I make the most impact in the least amount of time?’ (Location 1140)
Tags: priotitise
A company is usually bought for one of two reasons: either because it is successful – which means the best you can do is make it slightly better – or because it is unsuccessful and the buyer feels he can turn it around. (Location 1187)
Tags: selling
Boredom occurs when the learning curve flattens out. (Location 1217)
Tags: learning
good general common sense rule of timing is: don’t blurt out anything. (Location 1351)
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. (Location 1396)
Tags: persistence
Extend, renew or renegotiate a contract when the other party is the happiest, not when the contract is about to expire. (Location 1405)
Tags: selling
Note: Engage in contract talks when the client is happiest
Just as you should renew a contract when the client is the happiest, sell one when the prospective buyer is unhappiest with your competition. (Location 1413)
Tags: selling
The best person to sell to is someone who has just arrived at a new company or is just leaving. (Location 1448)
Tags: selling
Silence is what keeps you from saying more than you need to – and makes the other person want to say more than he means to. (Location 1492)
Tags: silence
If you ask a question on a particular subject and the answer is unsatisfactory, the best response is none at all. (Location 1502)
Tags: silence
Know Your Product; Believe In Your Product; Sell With Enthusiasm (Location 1569)
Tags: selling
Part of knowing your product is knowing all the reasons someone might not want to buy (Location 1584)
Tags: selling
In determining the value of what you’re selling, it’s helpful to ask yourself some of these questions: How unique is it? Can they buy it for less from my competitor? If so, are there some real qualitative advantages to my product? Can I sell it for more to their competition? How badly or how quickly do they need it? What would it cost to replace it? Are there any precedents that can help me? Is there a ‘passion factor’? Suppose you got a craving to buy an ice cream cone, and when you get to the shop you discover the price has doubled. Are you still going to buy it? Is this a one-time deal, or is this the future? (Location 1745)
Tags: selling
Find out what they want to buy. If you don’t know, ask, and let them tell you. (Location 1787)
Tags: selling
Find out who does the buying. Every company has its system, procedures and pecking order for making decisions. Don’t always buck it. (Location 1790)
Tags: selling
There is nothing easier than selling someone his or her ‘own’ idea, which is what this becomes. (Location 1818)
Tags: selling
Until you are ready to get to the ‘show’ part of the show and tell, keep your visual aids out of sight. (Location 1927)
Note: When giving a presentation keep your visual aids out of sight until they are needed
What, When, Where, How Exclusive And How Much? (Location 1937)
To what degree does the buyer wish (and are we willing) to shut out the rest of the competition? (Location 1951)
Tags: selling
Very often, it’s a good idea to let the other party take first crack at the terms and numbers. At the very least it tells you something about what he’s thinking. (Location 1969)
Tags: negotiation
When confronted with naming your terms or price, counter by recalling a similar deal which establishes your ‘ball park’, albeit the best possible ball park you wish to be in: ‘When we recently sold “X” to company “Y”, we received “$Z”.’ (Location 1975)
Tags: negotiation
Round numbers beg to be negotiated, usually by counter-offer round numbers. Odd numbers sound harder, more firm, less negotiable. (Location 1980)
Tags: negotiation
I find it helpful to try to figure out in advance where the other person would like to end up – at what point he will do the deal and still feel like he’s coming away with something. (Location 2014)
Tags: negotiation
The best way to find out the ‘magic point’ of a negotiation is to ask – if somewhat indirectly. We try to get a sales estimate: ‘By affiliating so-and-so with your product, how many units do you anticipate selling?’ (Location 2017)
Tags: negotiation
Managing a mature company is not just a constant process of breaking out of archaic structures and antiquated policies. You also have to be consciously, actively and aggressively punching holes in the company’s conventions and conventional wisdom. (Location 2464)
Tags: ceo
Companies, by nature, are conservative. People resist change, particularly in the working environment. (Location 2467)
Tags: work, change
Managers must seek a different kind of satisfaction. They have got to be able to build up people and give them responsibilities, to find ego gratification in training, directing and overseeing others. (Location 2487)
Tags: management
‘The more distasteful a task, the further down it is going to be delegated.’ (Location 2495)
Tags: delegation, favorite
I have four general philosophies for dealing with employees: 1) Pay Them What They Are Worth; 2) Make Them Feel That They Are Important, yet 3) Make Them Think For Themselves, and 4) Separate Office Life From Social Life. (Location 2585)
do the things that everyone else has to do at the times when everyone else isn’t doing them. (Location 2839)
Tags: favorite, time management
The whole solution to mastering time is to do the things you planned on doing when you planned on doing them, and for no longer than you planned on doing them. (Location 2847)
Tags: favorite, time management
organize for the next day at the end of the previous day. (Location 2872)
Tags: time management, favorite
Learn everything about the people you are dealing with, including the way they like to do business and their own time management habits. (Location 2904)
I seldom accept any phone call. I would rather deal with it in my own time and when I can focus my attention on the call rather than on what it is interrupting. (Location 2910)
Tags: time management
‘If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll end up somewhere else.’ (Location 2919)
Tags: favorite, goals