Paths to Persuasion: How to Sell to America's Toughest Executives

Rating:
Summary: A great review by Rob Nissen of Warner Business Books...
Review: "The 5 Paths To Persuasion: The Art Of Selling Your Message" by: Robert B. Miller and Gary A. Willliams with Alden M. Hayashi, Publisher: Warner Business Books, ISBN: 0-446-53239-8, (...)
Shades of Dick Tracy, Captain Midnight, Buck Rogers and all the Super-Heros of yesteryear! The 'Secret Decoder Ring' we used to decode the message from our heros is back and updated to help you succeed in business.

What these authors have done is to put the 'decoder ring' of knowledge of how to sell anything to anyone into our tool box by characterizing decision-makers into one of five major categories, people who are either charismatics, thinkers, skeptics, followers, or controllers. They then spend the rest of the book clearly identifying characteristics of each of these 'individual s', identifying what they seek and what they avoid, then outlining exactly how you and I should go about persuading that class of person that you have the best idea, product, service, etc since the invention of sliced bread.

At the end of each section there is a chart designed to help us prepare for our encounter with pre-meeting, in-the-meeting, and post-meeting plans. There's even an 'Approach Profile' for each type of person that list the topics to avoid and those that can help us close deals.

In Part 3 the authors give us their 'Secret Decoder' information that helps us correctly classify the 'other guy'. There's even a section that helps you minimize classification errors.

Oh, and by the way, if you are a decision maker for your company you might want to read this book to help you understand your own decision making processes to better serve your firm. After all, half the battle is won when you know what kind of weapons your competitor will be using. Great book. I give it 4 1/2 stars. (Only the Bible and the Constitution receive 6 stars.)

Rating:
Summary: Very readable , informative and thought-provoking
Review: As a rule I rarely pick up this type of book. But given the fact that I earn my living in sales I thought that this particular offering just might be worth my time and attention. And while this book tends to focus on people consummating million dollar deals I still found the information contained within to be quite relevant despite the fact that my average sale is in the hundreds of dollars rather than in the millions.
Robert Miller and Gary Williams classify decision-makers into 5 distinct categories. Chances are pretty good that most of us has had dealings with each type of individual at some point in our working lives. You will learn the charactoristics of Charismatics, Thinkers, Skeptics, Followers and Controllers. The information contained here will assist you in identifying which one of these groups a current or potential customer might belong to. And if you are hitting the proverbial "stone wall" with a particular customer you just might be able to devise a new stategy to deal with that individual based on the lessons taught in this book. The concepts presented here may also come in handy the next time you are angling for that promotion or raise you feel you deserve. Knowing which category your boss fits into can be invaluable in those types of situations.
I found this book to be exceptionally well written and at no point along the way did the authors lose my interest. I would heartily recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Very readable , informative and thought-provoking
Review: As a rule I rarely pick up this type of book. But given the fact that I earn my living in sales I thought that this particular offering just might be worth my time and attention. And while this book tends to focus on people consummating million dollar deals I still found the information contained within to be quite relevant despite the fact that my average sale is in the hundreds of dollars rather than in the millions.
Robert Miller and Gary Williams classify decision-makers into 5 distinct categories. Chances are pretty good that most of us has had dealings with each type of individual at some point in our working lives. You will learn the charactoristics of Charismatics, Thinkers, Skeptics, Followers and Controllers. The information contained here will assist you in identifying which one of these groups a current or potential customer might belong to. And if you are hitting the proverbial "stone wall" with a particular customer you just might be able to devise a new stategy to deal with that individual based on the lessons taught in this book. The concepts presented here may also come in handy the next time you are angling for that promotion or raise you feel you deserve. Knowing which category your boss fits into can be invaluable in those types of situations.
I found this book to be exceptionally well written and at no point along the way did the authors lose my interest. I would heartily recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Fast & Rich
Review: I found this to be an excellent read and full of rich insights about how to customize the way we communicate. I read it on a single plane ride and it's already paid off for me on selling my ideas internally.

Rating:
Summary: A great book; much better than the title.
Review: It's easy to see this as one of the old '# rules of whatever' books. But its not. The 5 paths refer to 5 different ways that most people make decisions. By paying a little attention to people you'll realize that certain approaches work better with each person.

The book teaches us how to recognize a person's style and play to it. Fair warning; recognizing a person's style is the toughest part. But if you have regular interaction with a person you'll get it.

The book was accessible, easy to read and easy to put into practice, though I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be about it.

Rating:
Summary: A persuasive presentation of invaluable information
Review: Miller and Williams (with assistance from Hayashi) provide a highly entertaining as well as informative explanation of why it is imperative to understand five different decision-making styles: Charismatic, Thinker, Skeptic, Follower, and Controller. It is important to understand, however, that someone such as Herb Kelleher who has a charismatic personality (and is included among the examples of Charismatics) ensures that associates rigorously examine whatever is proposed to him so that his impulsive tendencies do not result in bad decisions. This is a key point. Your initial approach to a Charismatic should take into full account an interest span which resembles that of a flash bulb: "Give the headlines first, stay grounded no matter what, address risks up front, and follow through, follow through, follow through." With a Charismatic, conclusions must come first and delivered as headlines and bullet points. "After they've grasped the big picture, they want to immediately talk about implementation." NOW. The way to make your point with a Charismatic is through freewheeling, open discussion. Aha! Got it!

But wait. As Miller and Williams then explain, once the Charismatic seems convinced, be prepared for others (probably Thinkers and Skeptics) to protect their boss from making a poor decision. In fact, the boss requires them to do so. She or he knows the vulnerabilities of a Charismatic, as do they. A decision-making process must not be confused with the personality type of the decision-maker. "Charismatics expect you to wait patiently for them to make a final decision while they have others pore over the details of your proposal." It would be a mistake, therefore, to assume that the Charismatic's initial enthusiasm (albeit genuine) means that a final decision is imminent and favorable.

Miller and Williams identify twelve attributes which are important in how people make decisions: Risk, Responsibility, Competitiveness, Rebellion, Impulsiveness, Persistence, Fear and Uncertainty, Self-Absorption, Playfulness, Education, Intelligence and Facts, and Bargains. Obviously, each of the five types of decision-maker considers (to varying degrees) all of the twelve and then attaches relative importance to them. (See page 11 for a "Summary of the Five Styles of Decision Makers.") Throughout their book, Miller and Williams explain how to prepare for a meeting with each of the five, then how to conduct yourself during that meeting, and finally how to follow-up. To repeat, decision-making is a process which frequently involves several different people who may well have differing styles. This is precisely what Michael A. Boylan has in mind (in The Power to Get In: A Step-by-Step System to Get in Anyone's Door So You Have the Chance to... Make the Sale... Get the Job... Present Your Ideas) when discussing "the circle of leverage" factor.

It would be a mistake to assume that this book is primarily (if not exclusively) about closing a sale. In fact, its greatest value is derived from what it reveals about effective persuasion which includes but is by no means limited to the sales process. In the strongest possible terms, I highly recommend this book to (literally) anyone who needs to become more persuasive. Thus viewed, this book can be of great benefit to those involved in commerce, of course, but also to educators, clergy, healthcare providers, journalists, public officials...you name it. Before you next attempt to "sell your message," indeed to convince anyone of anything, read this book.

Will it be THAT helpful? Yes.

Rating:
Summary: The best of times - the worst of times
Review: OK, I know it's Dickens, but it really does apply to this book.
The "best of times" refers to Chapter 1-12 and 15-16.
The "worst of times" refers to Chapters 13 and 14.

Now, you might think that 2 duff chapters out of 16 isn't bad - but here's the rub: Chapters 1-12 tell us about 5 styles of decision-making in business and how to deal with each of them effectively in a sales context. Chapters 13 and 14 supposedly tell us how to recognise which decision-making style our potential customer uses.
So you see the problem. The details of the 5 styles were derived from the statistical analyses of "1,684 executives through e-mail, fax, phone, and in person" over the 2.5 year period January 1999-June 2001. But simply knowing about the 5 styles isn't much use if you don't know which style a given customer prefers. Unfortunately, as we are told on a number of occasions, determining someone's decision-making style by no means a piece of cake.

Firstly, "To classify people's decision styles, you need to look at how they make BIG decisions" ("BIG" is in italics in the book). So, not just any old decision is suitable for analysis, only the BIG ones. But how do you find out how YOUR customer makes 'big' decisions? In the book it's easy. Many of the examples are drawn from the pages of the HBR, Fortune, BusinessWeek, etc. and feature such well-known figures as Larry Ellison, Martha Stewart, Alan Greenspan, etc.
And for those who weren't so prominent, their details were obtained through interviews.
How many of YOUR clients are so prominent and their decisions so well documented? And how many of the less prominent would respond favourably to the request to interview them to identify their decision-making style so you can sell more products/services to them?

Not that the book tries to cover this up. "Categorizing people's decision-making styles takes considerable effort and time" (page 188); "classifying someone's decision style is a complicated, iterative process" (page 194). and "Because everyone contains elements of all five styles, accurately determining someone's default mode of decision-making is usually a complex process, requiring much observation over a long period of time" (page 202).

Which begs another question - if your sales are mainly or entirely in the sub-$100,000 range, where do you get the resources to indulge in long, complex studies of your potential customers?

Of course the book includes the mandatory business tool/model which supposedly helps to reduce the complexity of your task. Unhappily, the model seems to have sprung a leak.
"The Behavioural Dial", as it's called, is based on the assumption that two characteristics - risk and responsibility - provide a short cut to analysing someone's decision-making style. However no one seems to have noticed that the "Dial", as presented, is only accurate in regard to "responsibility". In the case of "risk", the model only works if you ALREADY KNOW whether the potential customer is, or is not, a "follower". But we are told that this is the hardest group to identify, one of the reasons why we're using the "Dial" in the first place.
You get the point!

With respect, in the event of a reprint someone might want to consider the possibility that the two axes of "The Behavioural Dial" should be "responsibility" and "persistence". This would make it internally consistent, and by replacing "thinker" with "follower" at the center of the "Dial" we get a visual indication of why people using the "follower" style are "prone to being miscategorized as Charismatic, Skeptics or Thinkers" (page 124).

Which brings me to another concern.

At the start of the book we are advised that the five categories - Charismatic, Controller, Follower, Skeptic and Thinker - are relevant to decision-making styles and are NOT personality types. In Chapter 14 we are warned that a "common mistake" when analysing someone's style is, "... confusing personalities with decision-making styles. The two are only partially correlated and only in a limited way" (page 202).
Good advice. Yet the language in the book often blurs this distinction and I frequently found myself having to put the book down for a moment to refocus on the fact that the book is ONLY about styles of decision-making. It is my impression that the writing, good and flowing though it is, could have done a lot more to avoid any such confusion.

So, bottom line, I would still buy this book DESPITE its flaws, because it seems to me that it says some useful things about various types of decision-making, and in Chapters 15 and 16 shows how that information can be used to advantage when we AREN'T trying to identify the style of a particular individual - when making presentations to groups of people, for example.

Anyone buying this book might want to notice how often the identification of someone's styles is done in hindsight, even by the authors: "A former colleague of ours, whom we've known for years, has always loved new ideas. ... [he] also has a vibrant, energetic, charming personality, which only seemed to confirm that he's a Charismatic decision maker.
"Recently, though, we've come to realize that he can't be a Charismatic because he's a blamer. ... The lesson is this: Not everyone's personality is going to match their decision-making style. By assuming that it will, you could easily misclassify someone and, worse, you could continue to hold on to that mistake even after there's conclusive proof to the contrary."
So, top marks for honesty, but another reason to wonder just how effective this model is likely to be, as it stands.

Readers owning, or thinking about buying, this book may also be interested in another approach that also addresses persuasion skills, but offers a far more flexible methodology because it deals with individual behaviours rather than trying to create meta categories. The book is Shelle Rose Charvet's "Words that Change Minds" (ISBN: 0787234796), based on the LAB (Language and Business) profiling tool.