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Rating: 
Summary: Duped by the cover
Review: 'Closing a Deal', 'Asking for a Raise', 'Buying A Car' on the cover sucked me in to buying this book. However, I didn't find much correlation between hostage negotiation and the business world other than some obvious points (i.e. do your research). The book had some funny stories but more from an entertainment perspective than a learning tool.
I think Mr. Misino did a poor job in correlating hostage negotiations to the business world.
Rating: 
Summary: basic to intermediate, but alwasy entertaining
Review: I bought this book for business but when I started reading it I realized that it was aimed more at a general, everyday audience. As such, it gives a very good overview of negotiating and emphasizes the basics very well. Advanced negotiators may see it as more of a refersher course. I thought the idea of splitting the roles of the team up were pretty useful, and I hadn't actually thought of it that way before. (But probably had done it.) But even if I hadn't learned anything, I'd say the book was entertaining as all get out. The stories he uses to illustrate his points are great. Highly recommended, especially for people who are a little put off by the idea that negotiating is war (it's not).
Rating:
Summary: Tangentially interesting
Review: I saw the movie "The Negotiator" on TV last night and the title of this book grabbed my attention this morning. This is a very quick-read book, with a casual style. You can practically hear Mr. Misino's Bronx accent in the text. In fact, it would take a little convincing that this isn't simply a transcript of one of his consulting workshops. Mr. Misino is relatively entertaining, but I'm not convinced that he is also an educator.There are a few of his hostage negotiation stories sprinkled in as flavor, but often the point is not terribly clear. Chapter 10 attempts to tie his topic to the real world by illustrating how to negotiate for a car and a house but doesnt seem to show much negotiation after all ... just how to research a good price and then stick to your price demand. This could be a really great, powerful book if it were better organized and edited. The casual style tends to ramble in circles around the two main points: 1) Know what you want ahead of time. What is and isnt negotiable, and what your plan B is.
2) Negotiation is establishing rapport, getting information, and getting the deal. Quite a bit of text is spent on building rapport, including how to listen actively and get to the first "yes". Less focus is put on how to gather information relevant to business deals (or any deals that dont involve hostages), and very little focus is spent on getting the deal. The book description from the publisher is a good outline of the book's meat ... if you've read the description, you wont really need to read the book. So while I can see that this would be an interesting read for those in training to be hostage negotiators, the connection to business negotiation is extremely tenuous.
Rating:
Summary: Tangentially interesting
Review: I saw the movie "The Negotiator" on TV last night and the title of this book grabbed my attention this morning. This is a very quick-read book, with a casual style. You can practically hear Mr. Misino's Bronx accent in the text. In fact, it would take a little convincing that this isn't simply a transcript of one of his consulting workshops. Mr. Misino is relatively entertaining, but I'm not convinced that he is also an educator. There are a few of his hostage negotiation stories sprinkled in as flavor, but often the point is not terribly clear. Chapter 10 attempts to tie his topic to the real world by illustrating how to negotiate for a car and a house but doesnt seem to show much negotiation after all ... just how to research a good price and then stick to your price demand. This could be a really great, powerful book if it were better organized and edited. The casual style tends to ramble in circles around the two main points: 1) Know what you want ahead of time. What is and isnt negotiable, and what your plan B is.
2) Negotiation is establishing rapport, getting information, and getting the deal. Quite a bit of text is spent on building rapport, including how to listen actively and get to the first "yes". Less focus is put on how to gather information relevant to business deals (or any deals that dont involve hostages), and very little focus is spent on getting the deal. The book description from the publisher is a good outline of the book's meat ... if you've read the description, you wont really need to read the book. So while I can see that this would be an interesting read for those in training to be hostage negotiators, the connection to business negotiation is extremely tenuous.
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