I’m a big fan of Harry Beckwith’s writing. Loved Selling The Invisible and What Clients Love. You, Inc. is no exception. It has short, little chapters jam packed with good ideas.
Ideas like…
“Try to reduce your average sentences to eleven words. If you must write a large block of copy, try to place a short one in front of it and behind it.
While speaking, practice your pauses. If making an important point, precede it with a pregnant pause, which alerts you listener: “This is important.””
Why?
So “your point has time to take root.”
Also…
Audiences “have been conditioned by television. Every twelve minutes a commercial allows them to take a break. This has conditioned them to twelve-minute bites.”
Or…
“We feel we know people who are similar to us because we know something of ourselves. We feel we can predict their behavior and reactions because we can predict our own.
That makes us comfortable.
Because first impressions deeply influence everything that follows – more than most of us realize – you must find common ground quickly. Try to find it before you actually meet.”
I use the last point to great success. The hubby and I love to travel so that is usually one common ground we can find with others. I’ve also worked in many, many different industries. But I try not to talk much about myself (after all, I know all about me), I use our common ground to ask semi-intelligent questions of the other person.