People Buy You

The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Business

By: Jeb Blount

Narrated by: Mel Foster

The ultimate guide to relationships, influence, and persuasion in 21st century business.

What is most important to your success as a sales or business professional? Is it education, experience, product knowledge, job title, territory, or business dress? Is it your company's reputation, product, price, marketing collateral, delivery lead times, in stock ratios, service guarantees, management strength, or warehouse location? Is it testimonials, the latest Forbes write up, or brand awareness? Is it the investment in the latest CRM software, business 2.0 tools, or social media strategy?

You could hire a fancy consulting firm, make the list longer, add some bullet points, put it into a PowerPoint presentation, and go through the whole dog and pony show. But at the end of the day there will be only one conclusion.... None of the above! You see, the most important competitive edge for today's business professionals cannot be found on this list, your resume, or in any of your company's marketing brochures.

If you want to know the real secret to what matters most in business, just look in the mirror. That's right, it's YOU. Do these other things matter? Of course they do, but when all things are equal (and in the competitive world we live in today, things almost always are) People Buy You.

Your ability to build lasting business relationships that allow you to close more deals, retain clients, increase your income, and advance your career to rise the top of your company or industry, depends on your skills for getting other people to like you, trust you, and BUY YOU.

This break-through book pushes past the typical focus on mechanics and stale processes found in so many of today's sales and business books, and goes right to the heart of what matters most in 21st century business. Offering a straight forward, actionable formula for creating instant connections with prospects and customers, People Buy You will enable you to achieve a whole new level of success in your sales and business career. You'll discover:

• Three relationship myths that are holding you back
• Five levers that open the door to stronger relationships that quickly increase sales, improve retention, increase profits, and advance your career
• The real secret to making instant emotional connections that eliminate objections and move buyers to reveal their real problems and needs
• How to anchor your business relationships and create loyal customers who will never leave you for a competitor
• How to build your personal brand to improve your professional presence and stand-out in the market place

People Buy You is the new standard in the art of influence and persuasion. Few books have tackled the subject of interpersonal relationships in the business world in such a practical and down-to-earth manner, breaking what many perceive as a complex and frustrating process into easy, actionable steps that anyone can follow.

©2010 Jeb Blount (P)2012 Gildan Media

Solid advice for 2010

This book contained many timeless principles that I found to be very valuable. Specifically, the power of being likable, showing up with a smile, and always looking for ways to improve yourself.

There were, however, several things that seemed more appropriate for the world of yesterday; or, I suppose large industries that change very slowly. “Polish up your résumé, give them a good firm handshake, hand over your shiny business card.”

Overall, I would recommend this book, but maybe some of the specifics don’t apply to everyone.

Jeb keeping it simple, but effective!

after reading this book I have two distinct goals. The first, to simply listen better. to listen with the intent to understand actually care about what's coming out of the person's mouth in front of me. The second, is to ask better follow-up questions to let the person know I'm listening and to get them to talk some more so I can listen even further.

Other than that, short book, tremendous amount of awesome content and I look forward to reading it several times more.

Excellent

Dives deep into the root of how to win more deals. Have seen my close rates improve after listening to this and some of his other books, they’ve helped me learn what’s important to prospects.

Easy read (listen) actionable steps

Easy to follow, with excellent can do now action steps. Top shelf reading for the business executive

Good Read

The book starts slow, but the last few chapters are very valuable. Recommended read for young professionals