Customer Reviews

Make What You Say Pay!

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Having spent some 25 years in advertising, I've experienced a number of those (too rare) moments when a creative team discovers the perfect, break-through positioning statement for a product, service or idea. There's no feeling like it - it's settling and exhilarating at the same time. In those moments, you love your life, because you know you've created something that can't be improved upon...you nailed it...discussion over...problem solved.

In Make What You Say Pay, Anne Miller takes you behind closed doors 50+ times and allows you to experience the thrill of such moments. If you've read her stellar book, Metaphorically Selling, you know she's the master of using metaphors to open minds, close deals and wow crowds. Metaphors, she explains, are simply images in words. They paint pictures in people's minds. In her latest book, she illustrates time and again how metaphors transform the mundane to the magical and win the day. What's more, she shows that anybody is capable of creating their own tsunamis of persuasion.

If you want to learn how to use the magic of metaphors to sell, persuade and explain anything to anyone, devour this book.

Her second book is just as good as the first Metaphorically Speaking. Well written, concise, the book gets right to the heart of things. With today's marketing and sales being all about content, this book should be in everyone's toolkit. You need to be able to quickly get to the point with the super busy life we all lead. Aside from the many great examples there are lots of great quotes. E.g. Jack Welch. The Internet is the Viagra of big business.

Business professionals can do everything right when they make the call, presentation or elevator speech. Despite this, they fail to make the sale, get the action they want or convince people to agree with them. The recipients have heard and seen it all before or they're not understanding how something affects their businesses.

Anne Miller shares over 50 stories using metaphors, stories and examples to shake resistance and close deals in Make What You Say Pay. The diverse examples in the book cover speeches, greeting cards, elevator speeches, new concepts. The book has a simple layout: the story followed by Miller's short commentary on the story and why the metaphor worked.

Not only does the short, fast read offer examples from different situations, but also uses a variety of metaphors. So don't expect this book is filled with the oft-used sports metaphors. Because of the diversity of situations and metaphors, most people can benefit from the book. A developer can get ideas on how to explain technical concepts. A small business can get ideas on how to thank clients for their business. A finance employee can get ideas on how to convert lifeless numbers into meaningful ones.

The chapters are divided by topic to make it easier to find the right stories that fit your situation. Need to grab attention? Convince them to get on board? Stand out from the crowd? Miller includes all of these and more.

The only slight weakness is the commentary. First, all of it is in italics, which are hard to read in paragraph form. Some commentary feels forced, like when you feel like you need to add more content when you've said it all. The commentaries take up little space with their one or two paragraphs. The value is in the stories. In fact, I wish there were more stories and examples. Miller invites readers to submit their stories and she plans to publish them as long as they keep coming.

Make What You Say Pay! belongs in the professional's reference library. Almost every business professional can punch up business with a story or metaphor. Miller's book will help find that metaphor so you're not stuck using the needle in a haystack analogy again.

Ms. Miller provides lots of practical tips and examples of how to communicate more effectively...and the read is as fast as the wind. My brand new copy is already dog-eared with many references and examples I'll continue to come back to. An enjoyable read and a winner!

Anne Miller, author of Metaphorically Selling (one of my favorite books), is back again with another excellent resource for sellers. In her new book, she shares numerous strategies to help you inspire prospects to take action, open their minds to new options, overcome resistance and stand out from your competitors - all through the use of language.

Check out this article I wrote called Reeling in the Big Ones: [...]

In it, I show how I found just the perfect words to get my prospect to understand something that was difficult for him to comprehend.

I stumbled onto that approach. Finally. After screwing up many opportunities. That's not too smart. But I don't anymore. Anne Miller taught me how to change this.

In Make What You Say, Pay! Miller shares and dissects over 50 different stories (including the above one) to help you see how other sellers have changed their words - and changed their results.

Summary: Excellent book; geared more toward experienced sellers who are fine-tuning their approaches and/or want new strategies to take their business to the next level.

There is no doubt that Anne Miller is the "Master," of what she does.
There is one aspect of public speaking that took me a while to understand,and that was the fact that people recall your illustrations far quicker and eaiser than you well thought out points. Anne understands this and in her book guides the reader in the "ART" of using metaphors as a way to communicate your idea.
MAKE WHAT YOU SAY PAY! is a must for anyone in the people business. Each chapter not only gives illustrations of how to make a point, but she adds a "take away" section which helps you to personalize the illustration.
The book is well done and would not only be helpful for one, but could be a training tool for a sales manager.
Well done Anne!!