I read a lot of business and marketing books (actually, these days I listen to more books on Audible than I read).
And I've been meaning to tell you about this one for a while. Last week, it helped me save £6,058. And a few weeks before, it saved me a few more thousand pounds.
This is the book:
It's perhaps the most compelling book on negotiating I've ever read.
The author, Chris Voss, is a former FBI hostage negotiator. In fact he changed how the FBI negotiates with kidnappers.
And his techniques are utterly applicable to marketing, business, staff. And just generally running your MSP and life.
In the book he teaches you how to negotiate better, using kidnapping stories to illustrate his examples. This isn't just theory - there are specific techniques and phrases for you to use, in certain situations.
You need to read it 😃
Here are some examples of how I've used it recently.
Example: On Monday, I managed to get a response from a prospect I've been chasing for a while. They weren't returning my calls or emails. So I sent them a short email with a very specific 7 word subject line, straight out of this book. They got back to me within the hour.
Example: Last week I was negotiating a year long contract with a supplier for a new project I'll be launching in the summer. As a reminder, I listened to a summary of the book on the drive to the meeting. And again, using some very specific phrases created by Chris Voss, I drove down the price. Which will save me £6,058.
Example: At the end of March, I was negotiating the purchase of a new piece of land for a property development project. The headline price had been agreed; we were just discussing the details over WhatsApp. Again, I used Chris Voss's specific words and phrases in my replies, and saved a few more thousand pounds... without damaging my relationship with the vendor.
If I have one gripe about this book... it's that the audiobook version isn't available in the UK on Audible. Be careful if you look it up on Audible, as the versions available are just summaries.
I'm sure you can find the full audiobook with some Googling.
Update November 2019: It is now on Audible in the UK: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Never-Split-the-Difference-Audiobook/1473575346
