Customer Reviews

Jump Start Your Business Brain: Win More, Lose Less, and Make More Money with Your New Products, Services, Sales & Advertising

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Perhaps you have already read Hall's previous book, Jump Start Your Brain (1996) to which David Wecker was a contributor. Most of the core concepts introduced in that book are developed in much greater depth in this sequel. However, Hall makes a much greater effort to explain their direct relevance to achieving business success. He shares "good news" in the Introduction: "Business success is not random. There are patterns in the universe of business. There are reproducible scientific lessons and laws that, when applied with diligence, can help you win more, lose less, and make more money with your new products, services, sales, and advertising efforts." Contrary to Darwinists, Hall rejects the term survival, replacing it with "thriving" through the effective use of data-validated scientific laws. Although he states that small business owners are the "focal point" of his book, I believe that literally anyone can benefit from this book who needs to formulate better ideas within a competitive marketplace.

These new ideas need not be limited to "new products, services, sales, and advertising efforts." On the contrary, they could also help substantially to improve the cycle time and first-pass yield of a process to produce new products and services, to increase both sales and profits, and to maximize the impact of marketing (i.e. creating demand for) whatever is offered for sale. In addition, effective application of "reproducible scientific lessons and laws" can generate new ideas which help a company to strengthen its relationships with customers, vendors, and strategic allies as well as with its own employees or "associates," as they are called at companies such as Wal-Mart and JCPenney.

Hall introduces and then explains what he calls "The Three Laws of Marketing Physics" in Part I (Overt Benefit, Real Reason to Believe, and Dramatic Difference) in Part II and then what he calls "The Three Laws of Capitalist Creativity" in Part II(Explore Stimuli, Leverage Diversity, and Face Fears). If I understand Hall correctly (and I may not in some instances), he works with a rather inclusive definition of "scientific" which bears greater resemblance to the thought processes of a Benjamin Franklin and Eli Whitney than those of, lets say, Frederick W. Taylor and W. Edwards Deming. Moreover, writing with what I characterize as a "Batman Style" (i.e. Pow! Bam! Gadzooks!), he seems to attach much greater value to enthusiasm, indeed PASSION! than he does to highly structured deductive and inductive reasoning. Hall asserts that ideas "are the only true fuel for winning customers and growing profits." How they are generated is determined by both attitude and process. With regard to scientific laws (however derived), they "provide a foundation for making decisions and taking action in the face of chaos."

Throughout this book, Hall includes all manner of exercises by which to "jump start" a brain. (FYI, each brain has about 12-trillion cells and is capable of 10,000 connections -- neurons forming synapses -- with other cells. To jump start is to expedite as well as increase such connections.) In Chapter 10, "How to Fuel Your Brain for Maximum Productivity," Hall includes several "Practical Tactics" such as those which can help anyone to break "mental constipation," "walk the talk," and complete a "mind dump." The extent to which a brain can make connections is determined almost entirely by the quantity and quality of what is available to connect. Hall recommends various specific strategies and tactics by which to increase, constantly, the number of one's "connectibles."

Near the end of many of my reviews, I ask "For whom will this book be most valuable?" With regard to this book, that is an easy answer to provide: Anyone who has a brain and wants to make much more effective use of it.

If your primary interest is in increasing "creativity" and "innovation" within primarily a business context, I highly recommend this book as well as Lynne C. Levesque's Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents, Joey Reiman's Thinking for a Living: Creating Ideas That revitalize Your Business, Career, and Life, Stephen M. Shapiro's 24/7 Innovation: A Blueprint for Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Innovation, and Roger Von Oech's Expected the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus. If I were to buy only one of these books, Hall's would be my choice.

If your interest is more general in nature, check out Bernie DeKoven's The Well-Played Game: A Playful Path to Wholeness, Guy Claxton's Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less, Michael Michalko's Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius, and Roger Von Oech's A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior to Be More Creative and A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative.

Doug Hall has mellowed somewhat from his earlier works and is more focused on bottom line results in creating products/services and creating marketing messages. Before he could be "bounce off the wall creative." His prior book "Jump Start Your Brain" is also excellent, but this one is better. Start with this one first. Then get the previous one if you can.

If it weren't for the Foreword by Tom Peters, I would have rated this book a 10 in a scale of 1 to 5. So, I guess it is just a 7 on a scale of 1 - 5 since I had to suffer through one page of capital letters from Tom Peters glowing praises of this book. Can Tom Peters ever write a sentence without using all caps?

Fortunately, the writing style of Hall is very readable. In fact, this is much better than his previous books. In my copy, every page has many underlinings and comments or notes to myself.

If you are in the process of creating a marketing campaign, or creating products/services, you really need to read this book.

I highly recommend this very practical book. And, the author comes across as a great teacher, consultant, coach, motivator and friend. He has an excellent background to teach this subject and his recommendations appear easy to apply.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

Last week I finished "Jump Start Your Business Brain" and gave a report to the marketing group. Upon review of our marketing efforts, we found that we were selling the features of lean manufacturing and not showing potential clients the benefits and competitive business advantage to be gained. We also decided to market with more clarity to the client "reasons to believe." We landed two new contracts this week. Could be a coincedence, but more likely a result from putting to use Doug Hall's techniques outlined in "Jump Start Your Business Brain." Look for Doug's techniques to be used on the TSD web site. I feel so strongly about Doug's book that I am going to recommend that TSD try and provide a link to Doug's web sites!

Doug Hall has distilled a lifetime of marketing research into this one book with the essentials on what a successful marketing campaign should contain. He does this with a dynamic use of statistics to supports his points and ancedotal evidence from his experiences in the helping businesses.

Designed for the individual that must build and manage the marketing program of his or her company, this book has ramifications that impact all levels of the hierarchy. It does so by reminding the reader that the business exists to serve a fundamental need of the client - and everybody must understand and be able to articulate what valuable purpose they serve.

Developed in two sections, Hall expands on how to generate better (more effective) marketing messages in the first and how to generate new ideas in the second. From the first pages, it is clear that this is a serious book of applied research. Jump Start Your Business Brain doesn't want you to win advertising awards; the best award is making more money with less, but better informed, effort.

The sections include small exercises to illustrate your current position and define your strengths and weaknesses. The clarity of the writing reatly assists in the process. Doug Hall doesn't leave you guessing about the application of his principles. He is very explicit in his statements and backs it with evidence. This isn't a "How-to" book, though; it's a "Why-to". As becomes clear as you read, when you develop the "Why-to", the "how-to" becomes apparent. After that, it's follow through.

The highest praise I can offer it is that I have used the principles to redesign my campaigns. I know my messages and more importantly, my clients now know my message.

My increased sales are a testament to Doug Hall's applied research.

The average 5-star rating that this book has received to date is interesting. My 2-star rating credits Doug Hall's follow-up to his classic "Jump Start Your Brain" text with introducing readers to basic marketing in an enthusiastic manner. However, unlike the first "Jump Start" book (refer to the associated 5-star review I wrote for that text), there really is no uniqueness to this book when compared to other business-related marketing books except for the style in which the material is presented. Hall constantly brings up his "Merwyn" probability success tool that is being sold to the reader as a good way to predict the outcome of their product ideas, but since it is a proprietary tool there is no concrete explanation of the analytics behind the tool. Often, the book seems like it is merely a 300+-page sales pitch for Merwyn (and by the way, there is even a coupon in the book to get a one-time discount on use of his tool through the author's firm). After reading "Jump Start Your Business Brain" line by line for the first few chapters, it became quickly apparent that there is definitely a large amount of non-value-added fluff in the material. I still highly recommend "Jump Start Your Brain", but I do not believe this new Hall effort is worth your time unless you are completely new to marketing theory.

We run a corporate learning center in rural Nova Scotia . Getting our message out as always been difficult. I have read many marketing books by academics Jump Start your Business Brain is not only the best book on marketing I have ever read it also has research and the the entrepreneurial methods of how to do it. It's fantastic I am just reading it for the second time. I would highly recommended it to anyone who wants to " to win more, lose less, and make more money. Charles Bower Ledgehill

Doug Hall's book is practical, but powerful advice. If your business could benefit from reaching more customers, more effectively-- read it!

The book contains short exercises that you can do with your company's product offerings, showing you how effective your external and internal communication strategies really are.

If you've never heard the terms "Overt Benefit", "Reason to Believe" and "Dramatic Difference" you're leaving business (and money) on the table.

I Highly recommend this book for leaders in all areas of the company!

I just posted this one on my Object Technology web site and every well rounded technologist should read it. A successful product is 80 percent marketing, 19 percent compelling implementation, and, as Einstein once said, 1 percent inspiration. So every technologist needs to understand marketing. But where does one look, when the average marketing book sounds either like warmed over pablum, or airheaded nonsense. Well, if you're going to read one book, take a look at the one Tom Peters begs you to read. It's based on real data, millions of data points, and communicates what's really important in a way that you'll won't forget it. Strongly recommended.

I greatly appreciated the author's humor and writing style in his earlier books and was happy to see a new release. The cover promised "Win More, Lose Less and Make More Money with your products, services," Mr. Hall keeps his word with a direct hit certain to bring you back to reality from whatever level of business "denial" you might find yourself in.

The author offers a full self-diagnosis plan with very specific advice, backed up with some painfully hard facts. I am reminded of an old quotation: "It's not hard to do the right thing. It's hard to know what the right thing is. And when you know, it's hard not to do it." As you read this book, Doug Hall will help you become utterly clear about what you should be doing and why. This is not just another business book; this book is an action plan.

The book is full of marketing truisms that are presented better elsewhere, but set forth here as if they were new discoveries. For example, "benefits sell more than features." Well, duh! You already know this if you have read a single introductory marketing text. That said, the book's positive point is the energy with which he conveys the information, and it is a reasonably engaging read. The negative point is the ego of the author rises to the level of distraction.

So what's with all the glib five star reviews this book has received? Was I missing the point, was I reading a different book, or were there a few reviews planted by the publisher?