Rating: 
Summary: A Pretty Good Sales Book with a Few Small Flaws
Review: From reading this book, I believe Kevin Hogan is a gifted persuader and has a lot of knowledge to offer. His well-organized book provides numerous examples of techniques that will work in many situations. It's also research-based, and there are a few things here that I haven't seen anywhere else. In short, if you want a library of good books on persuasion, then this book will make an important contribution. However, if you want the best book on persuasion, this is not it."Psychology of Persuasion" has several relatively small weak points that might prevent you from buying it.
1. First, although the book is well-organized, the writing itself tends to stray at times. Perhaps because professors are accustomed to abstruse writing, it's difficult for them to write cogent sentences.
2. Hogan wrote this book with a sales perspective. Although he suggests that a person could use his techniques in other situations, he often leaves it to the reader to forge those connections.
3. Much of the dialogue sounds stilted, largely because it might remind you of a bad car salesman. Don't get me wrong: The techniques are sound; it's just that many of the examples lack a natural voice. On the flip side, a few of the examples are amazingly good and completely natural.
4. Lastly, Hogan goes out of his way to inform us of Biblical examples. Although the examples are mostly pertinent, some sound a little forced and a tad evangelical. This may make some people nervous in a book about persuation. Overall, this book is very useful, but a good editor could make it a lot more fun to read. It's due for a reprint, and I hope that Hogan adds some polish for the next edition.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best
Review: Hogan presents a solid approach to selling and influential communication that blends ethical influence and outcome oriented thinking. That's not easy and it's done with elegance. The most important information for the salesman is in sending a powerful and passionate message. Hogan draws on his own personal experience, research from University studies and from his mentors like Ziglar, Hopkins and Tracy. The book could be updated but as far as reading something that really is going to make a difference in your income, this is it.
Rating: 
Summary: [The Psychology of Persuasion]
Review: I approached this book with the utmost curiosity and soon began to wonder if it was actaully a fictional comedy. This book is filled from top to bottom with false analagies, weak conclusions and flat-out naive discussions. He actually compares, at one point, an airline pilot to Saddam Hussein in that they both manipulate aerodynamics, one with a plane and the other with SCUD missiles!! He also quotes others as saying "knowledge is power" only to forget that he himself wrote earlier "Knowledge itself is not power!" Perhaps, though, the most inane quote is the authors own.
"Of all the creatures on Earth, only man was designed to communicate effectively."
Obviously National Geographic has grossly mis-represented the entire animal kingdom, then.
Anyone who is remotely interested in psychology already knows the content of this book by simply living day-to-day. It's value can be replaced by any armchair philosopher from Apalachia. In the end, this book attempts to explain the simplest forms of common sense with seemingly high concentration on the motives of car salesmen, the influence of celebrities and the authors own ineptitude towards the meaning of persuasion and psychology in general. [...] But the joke's on me, I bought it!!
Rating:
Summary: Powerful in Print and in Person
Review: I bought the Psychology of Persuasion because Kevin Hogan spoke at our annual conference last week. The book actually lives up to the presentation he gave. The body language material in The Psychology of Persuasion is complementary to Dr. Hogan's presentation and provides the reader with ideas and techniques I had never heard before. I've been selling insurance for 13 years and I have never read a book that was so geared to the salesperson and yet just as easily can be applied in any setting. The Psychology of Persuasion is well written, easy to understand and has plenty of reasons to be on the desk. (Power words, hypnotic language, body language, gathering intelligence, closing, and some really fascinating "mastery tools." Highly recommended!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I picked this one of a shelve in a sumer-cabin I was staying at and could not put it away until I had finished it. I think everyone can benefit from the advice in it. Even though some of the advice is common sense it is still valuable and worth reading over and over. I don't work as a salesperson but I think this book can help me with my career, that is if I can remember the advice given in it.
Rating:
Summary: Bible of Persuasion
Review: I saw Kevin Hogan speak last week. Excellent presenter. Dynamic and as knowledgable about persuasion as anyone I've ever listened to. I read his book this week and found it to match his character and integrity (and fun spirit) on stage. The book offers new insights for an investment counselor. Interestingly the content of his presentation didn't overlap the book in any way. That in itself was interesting. I think the book goes along side some of the names like Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn. I know I'll be reading his stuff for a long time to come. Pick up The Power of Persuasion and I believe you will close more sales and make more money. I'm making changes in my business already!
Rating:
Summary: Psychology of Persuasion better than the Field
Review: I saw the author at a seminar about selling skills at our company last week. So I decided to read The Psychology of Persuasion. I wish I had read the book first. I've read a lot of books about influence and selling. Hopkins, Ziglar, Childini, Tracy, Aronson. This one isn't better than all the rest in all respects but it is probably the best of the field overall. Here's what I liked about the book:
1) It is organized better than any book on persuasion. You can follow the process of influence step by step. I've never seen anyone do that before. 2) The material in the book is collected from the authors personal experience as a salesperson and a cluster of scientific studies. 3) The author directs you to other sources that are credible and useful. 4) You learn about body language and proxemics which was really helpful. I learned so much in this chapter. My only gripe is I wish there was a lot more of this. 5) I've never seen any sales or influence book talk about gathering intelligence. This was an eye opener and something I frankly hadn't thought about. 6) I thought the Win/Win theme stressed throughout the book was very important as it keeps persuasion in the context of ethical influence. 7) I liked the appendixes about ethics and brainwashing. These could have been full chapters and I would have been even happier! This book really doesn't have any big flaws. I would have liked to have seen more on body language and more on the closing aspects of influence. Aside from that, this really is a great book. It helped put in perspective all the new material Dr. Hogan talked about at our company sales meeting.
Rating: 
Summary: Strictly for the bored sales professional
Review: It appears that Kevin Hogan's goal in the Psychology of Persuasion is to give you the tools necessary to make you a better communicator and persuader. Hogan divides the process of persuasion in several different parts. He starts you off with what he calls the foundation and fundamentals of persuasion. He then moves on to preparation and presentation which all then should lead you to results.
For myself, I was disappointed with most of the book. The tools he gives are very poor summaries of information found in better books. The only word that comes to mind is Frankenstein. These summaries are a hodgepodge of ideas that I didn't think could be mangled so efficiently. He supplements these summaries with really basic real life examples like buying a house. Most of these examples are from the perspective of the salesperson.
As a teacher and parent, I was hoping for more innovative ideas that I can use to be a better communicator with my kids and colleagues. I didn't. The best part of the book was the quotes he put in at the beginning of every chapter.
Rating:
Summary: A Pretty Good Sales Book with a Few Small Flaws
Review: Kevin Hogan's The Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your way of Thinking is an absolute treasure of insight into the human character and mind. His win/win scenarios and positive self-talk and thinking are great reminders and inspirations to every person no matter what their occupation. If you are looking for a book that can allow you to learn the secrets to success through postive communication and interpreting the cues of your client or anyone, this book is for you. A very good read and an absolute must for every salesperson's library.
Rating:
Summary: Yes
Review: Kevin spoke at the Round Table last month and he was amazing. He pounded out two solid hours of persuasion without a second of B.S. No product promo. No buy it later. Strategy after strategy. Method after method. I went home. Bought Psychology of Persuasion and Talk Your Way to the Top. I've read them both and I can tell you that this is excellent material. I've been selling financial products for almost 10 years. My focus has been insurance and The Psychology of Persuasion is one of those books that is going to help me get to the top.
I liked his fresh take on nonverbal communication. I liked his ethics. When you read Psychology of Persuasion by Hogan you learn to influence with integrity. I'm a master practitioner of NLP and I have never read anything like what was in the advanced section of this book. There isn't one word about NLP in the first 180 pages then you get sort of a specialized master course in NLP and it's applications in persuasion.
When Kevin was in Anaheim, he did mention that he thought Psychology of Persuasion was ready for a revision. I guess I'm happy to have read and learned a heck of a lot from the original.
This is a really good book for salespeople and business people. Enjoy.
DT
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