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A review by kair
Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal by Oren Klaff
3.0
A few good points delivered like a bad America’s Got Talent audition.
There’s one specific paragraph from the egomaniac author that sums up the book pretty well. After winning a big airport deal he goes on to say:
“…for me the journey back from the desert was complete and my methods were validated. They weren’t just a personal collection of pitching notes stuffed in my notebooks, it wasn’t just thousands of index cards in my office, it wasn’t just a bunch of academic notions or theories and it wasn’t just a checklist of do-s and don’t-s. Much of the way that calculus is a system of solving math problem or that civil engineering is a system for building bridges, my strong method was now a system to get deals done.”
If the author wasn’t sure before then I guess this one win against *two* other contenders totally solidifies his assumptions and speculations into a scientific theory. Much like calculus. What a bunch of bullsh*t.
In fact, nearly all of the example stories that the book is based on are, while entertaining, spinned to prove the existance of his one true method. And I imagine in the Nordics, or anywhere where you’re not dealing with old-school alpha-male jack-ass executives, he would be laughed/thrown out of the room on many of these occasions.
I have to admit there are some very useful tips in the book (less is more with presentations, emotions play a strong role in attitudes and perception, stories increase impact, the structure of the pitch etc - hence the three stars), but the author’s overflowing self-confidence in proclaiming this to be a scientific universal method of winning every deal just makes this a though book to go through for anyone that knows a thing or two about persuasion techniques. Reminded me of [b:The Laws of Human Nature|39330937|The Laws of Human Nature|Robert Greene|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521561132l/39330937._SY75_.jpg|60958057] in that sense.
There’s one specific paragraph from the egomaniac author that sums up the book pretty well. After winning a big airport deal he goes on to say:
“…for me the journey back from the desert was complete and my methods were validated. They weren’t just a personal collection of pitching notes stuffed in my notebooks, it wasn’t just thousands of index cards in my office, it wasn’t just a bunch of academic notions or theories and it wasn’t just a checklist of do-s and don’t-s. Much of the way that calculus is a system of solving math problem or that civil engineering is a system for building bridges, my strong method was now a system to get deals done.”
If the author wasn’t sure before then I guess this one win against *two* other contenders totally solidifies his assumptions and speculations into a scientific theory. Much like calculus. What a bunch of bullsh*t.
In fact, nearly all of the example stories that the book is based on are, while entertaining, spinned to prove the existance of his one true method. And I imagine in the Nordics, or anywhere where you’re not dealing with old-school alpha-male jack-ass executives, he would be laughed/thrown out of the room on many of these occasions.
I have to admit there are some very useful tips in the book (less is more with presentations, emotions play a strong role in attitudes and perception, stories increase impact, the structure of the pitch etc - hence the three stars), but the author’s overflowing self-confidence in proclaiming this to be a scientific universal method of winning every deal just makes this a though book to go through for anyone that knows a thing or two about persuasion techniques. Reminded me of [b:The Laws of Human Nature|39330937|The Laws of Human Nature|Robert Greene|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521561132l/39330937._SY75_.jpg|60958057] in that sense.