The Unfair Advantage: Practical Applications of NLP for Sales and Marketing

Duane Lakin

 Lakin Associates, US (1 Mar 2001)

Synopsis

The Unfair Advantage is a "workshop-in-a-workbook." It contains practical ideas and exercises for applying NLP (neurolinguistic programming) to sales and marketing. It includes "how-to" ideas for selling face-to-face, telemarketing, direct mail, and other real-world situations. Included are examples of scripts and techniques that have produced proven sales increases in direct sales and in telemarketing. It is a theory-free collection of techniques based on a workshop that has been presented to CEOs and sales professionals in over 500 companies in North America and England. This book is unique in its emphasis on proven practical techniques. It is not a "motivation" book, because successful sales results are all the motivation you need. The Unfair Advantage began when a client said, "We want to stop coming in second. Help us to learn how to be more persuasive." Over a fifteen year period, the programme grew into the content you will see in this book. Don't buy this book looking for easy answers. It still takes practice. But everything in The Unfair Advantage works and can work for you.

Reviews

Great NLP book for salespeople
Unlike most NLP books, this is targeted at one specific application area - sales. And it's definitely a workbook, large-format and spiral bound.

In fact, the publishers describe it as a "workshop in a workbook" and give it a hefty price tag to match. No matter - bite the bullet, treat it as an investment and shell out. If you are a sales professional who hasn't come across NLP before, implementing the techniques in this book will return your investment many times over.

As befits its target market, there is very little theory in the book - in fact it's mostly exercises. You'll have to do the exercises to get the benefit.

The book takes you through using NLP in face-to-face sales, direct mail, and (if you must) telemarketing. There's also some very sneaky objection-handling techniques.

Nothing new
Anyone with the most basic knowledge of NLP will learn nothing new from this overpriced volume.