...in the immortal words of Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross. No matter what sale you're closing, these books will help you write and communicate persuasively:

Little Green Book of Getting Your Way

Advertising Secrets of the Written Word

The Irresistible Offer

Words that Sell

A few weeks ago I received a call from a marketing manager of an event planning company. She was obviously frustrated. Her email promotion of a leadership seminar had failed miserably. Time was running out before the event date. She needed answers fast. So she asked if I would review the piece and get back to her with recommendations.  Continue reading...

"Two peoples divided by a common language." George Bernard Shaw said this about the British and the Americans, but the same can be said of anoraks and suits.  Continue reading...

How do you effectively communicate -- sell -- your ideas in the marketplace? Anne Miller, a speaker, author and corporate trainer, answers this way: Think in metaphors. Metaphors? Review a speech by Ronald Reagan, Jack Welch or Steve Jobs -- or other legendary communicators -- and you'll read prose laced with imagery and analogies that drive their points home. As the author of Metaphorically Selling, Anne teaches businesspeople to put metaphors to work in their own communication. We spoke to her about her approach:  Continue reading...

What if I told you there was a simple, sitting-under-your-nose technique that would increase your writing speed, improve your coherence and dramatically enhance your audience's ease of reading. Would you use it? Yes, you'd say. Tell me more! But listen, my friends, you already know about it. I'm talking about bullets, the unsung heroes of the print world. Why are bullets so effective? Glad you asked!  Continue reading...

Most emails are badly written. No surprise, perhaps, since we write more emails than anything else. By 2010, the business world will have produced 27,000 billion gigabytes of email. So what goes wrong?  Continue reading...