This book is a significantly revised and updated version of one that was published in 2002. It focuses on selling and insights into interpersonal selling – not really marketing – but hey, I am over trying to explain that marketing is more than selling in 2010.  If they don’t know by now they are not members of the AMI (and therefore won’t be reading this review).

The book is actually a very good read for all that it is not about marketing. It very simply (sometimes too simply for this over-read academic) explains the impact that brain science is having on the persuading professions. I put personal selling and advertising into the persuasion professions in this context.

Neuro science is an interesting area for marketing. Although this book presents very few facts about it, it does remind us of some of the basics of making people want what you want them to want. We are reminded that people are not always rational choosers or buyers and that emotions can come out of nowhere and change a purchase situation. 

The book presents these irrational aspects of consumer decision making as ‘speaking to the old brain’. That is the part of the brain that developed first and the one that is least understood (well, by those of us without MRIs to play with anyway). They make a list of stages of persuasion that will hopefully persuade people to behave in the way they want them to.

These are: Diagnose the pain, Differentiate your claims, Demonstrate the gain, Deliver to the old brain (look there ARE four Ps – except in this case they are Ds). They also present some evidence to back up these stages, which makes for an interesting insight into why some ads are more successful than others.

The next part of the recipe for success is the six steps of designing messages (this is very useful material when you read it, even if you are not in personal sales). The recipe is: design messages so that they are self centred (for the audience); provide contrast to other messages; make it tangible and simple; make the beginning and the end memorable; use visual stimuli and emotion. I love recipes for success – they are always presented as if they work every time. 

Now, while we know that it not true, there are some people who would benefit from reading this book judging by the ads I have seen lately anyway. If you are wondering why your latest campaign did not work as well as you thought it should, go get a copy.

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