Table of Contents
Part I Why Ditch the Pitch 1
1 The End of the Sales Pitch 3
But I'm Not a Salesperson 4
Detecting the Pitch 5
We All Have "Customers" 6
Why Pitches Don't Work 6
2 Replace Sales Pitches with Persuasive Conversations 11
Earning the Right to be Heard 13
Good Persuasive Conversations Are Diagnostic 18
Improvisation: The Key to Creating Authentic Persuasive Conversations 20
3 Improvisation Creates Persuasive Conversations 21
Humans Were Born to Improvise 22
What is Improvisation? 29
Part II The Ditch the Pitch Habits 31
4 Figure Out What's Going On 35
How to Start a Persuasive Conversation 35
Habit #1 Think Input Before Output 37
Practice: Be Alert 38
Practice: Say Less to Notice More 43
Practice: Turn Down Your Analytic Brain 47
Habit #2 Size Up The Scene 53
Practice: Know Who You Are With 55
Practice: Understand the Context of Your Conversation 60
Practice: Listen for the Game 65
5 Go with the Flow 67
How to Propel a Persuasive Conversation Forward 67
Habit #3 Create a Series of "Yeses" 69
Practice: Say "Yes, and…" 70
Practice: Work with What You Are Given 75
Practice: Ensure Your Customer Keeps Saying Yes 80
Habit #4 Explore and Heighten 83
Practice: Find Your Customer's Path 86
Practice: Get Rid of Your But 91
Practice: Make Accidents Work 92
6 Let a Shared Story Emerge Through Your Conversation 97
How to Create a Shared Story 97
Habit #5 Focus the Conversation on Your Customer 101
Practice: Make 95% of the Conversation about Your Customer 103
Practice: Obey the One-Paragraph Rule 106
Practice: Weave Your Stories Together 110
Habit #6 Don't Rush the Story 113
Practice: Don't Load the Slingshot 116
Practice: Leave Things in Your Pocket 118
Practice: Create Callbacks 119
Part III Putting Ditch the Pitch to Work 127
7 The Dimmer Switch 129
One Habit at a Time 129
Staying Fresh 133
8 The Relationship Conversations: "Let's talk about us." 135
Leading Your Customer to the Brink of the Relationship 136
Relationship Conversations in Non-Sales Situations 139
9 The Persuasion Ensemble: Selling Together 141
Try Not to Top the Other Person 143
Shared Understanding of the Principles 144
Give and Take Focus 144
10 Ditch the Pitch to Brainstorm Ideas 147
11 Go Ahead. Ditch the Pitch 149
Acknowledgments 151
Endnotes 153
Index 155
About the Author 163