I've read and reviewed a number of Kevin Hogan's books, this one is probably his best work (along with Irresistible Attraction). What sets this book aside from every other sales book I've read is the brilliant weaving of hypnotic stories with truly razors edge scientific advances in behavioral genetics.The authors of this book have the greatest respect for salespeople and go so far as to say, "Salespeople make the world go around. Without the salesperson, nothing happens...no one gets paid." Clearly Hogan and Horton are salespeople themselves. They tell their stories in a most elegant and unique fashion. More importantly, those of us who sell for a living, sense an understanding that is rarely experienced in books that beat "overcoming their objections," "scripts" and "close hard close often techniques."
There is no question that what makes this book stand out are the three chapters about how to ask questions and present information based upon people's genetic bias. Hogan goes into great detail about sex and selling, the flight/fight response, the drive to eat, connect and acquire...and he details how you communicate so you push all the right instinctual buttons at the right nanosecond. I confess I had never considered these concepts...ever. I've been to see Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins and Zig Ziglar numerous times. They are all incredible, but even they don't have this material...or if they do, they haven't presented it to my knowledge.
More specifically Hogan breaks down the genetic biases of individuals into key drives and desires which he claims are not original to his thinking but collected from William James and Stephen Reiss. However, with the credited assistance of Hogan's colleague Richard Brodie, they ambitiousl detail utterly new ways to get inside of the mind of your customer and show exactly how to help that customer see your product in it's best possible light.
Hogan's co-author Horton, contributes with NLP techniques, many of which we have seen and several we haven't. I took my NLP training in Chicago and now I wish I would have taken my training with Horton as his contributions are significant to this book. I'm not an afficianado of the martial arts but I felt his metaphors from his experience in the martial arts were useful in understanding the sales process.
This book only has one weakness and that is that it reads unevenly at times. It sometimes feels as if you are reading a long article after another long article. However, this criticism is really to be taken in the context of its enormous contribution to the field of selling and really to every salesperson out there.
Selling Yourself to Others is based on selling with integrity and yet offers you scientific insights into the human mind that make you feel like you can turn the keys at will. After you read this, you will probably get pangs of guilt for having so much power. Once you get over it, you have a manual that likely won't be matched for many years.
There are also a number of truly funny stories that made me laught out loud. This is a serious book about how to sell but once per chapter you simply find yourself unable to control yourself with laughter. This is amazing stuff. Hogan's best work.
Five stars.
