Customer Reviews

The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth InTough Economic Times

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This book provides instantly actionable strategies and tactics for increasing revenue and profit with virtually zero risk. Jay Abraham has taught for years the awesome power of unconventional marketing and it's ability to produce immediate breakthroughs in sales and profit.

The stories and examples demonstrating precisely how this can be done are compelling. For example, on page 223 Abraham tells the story of a client who sold large, expensive training programs. They generated a high-volume of leads, but actually converted a small percentage to sales. By sending a simple sales letter to those who did NOT buy, and offering them an alternative program (provided by another company) at a lower price point, they generated $10,000,000 in new sales. From "dead" leads of prospects who had already said no to the main offering. A simple, brilliant, low-cost and virtually zero-risk strategy that resulted in an enormous pay day.

Another compelling example offered is the dry cleaner in Chicago Abraham worked with who turned a single store front with average performance into three highly successful locations. At that point the owner was satisfied with his profits and did not want to put in more time or effort to grow beyond the three stores. Abraham explained how his "system" for success in the dry cleaning business could be marketed to other dry cleaners in other states. The owner went on to "license" his ads and marketing system to 3,000 cleaners at $100 per month. This is the type of break-through thinking Abraham provides.

This book will OPEN YOUR EYES to the dozens and dozens of revenue and profit opportunities in your business just waiting to be capitalized on.

What makes this book unique from all of the other Jay Abraham books is that, in addition to providing breakthrough concepts and powerfully compelling examples, the Sticking Point Solution also includes key point summaries and immediate action steps at then end of each chapter. This provides a much needed bridge between theory and action.

Brilliant, compelling and highly recommended.

There is some deep dark information you may not want to take a look at in this book but the people who are your competition may do so before you and you may have to go and work for them. If you are in sales you must read chapter 3 now as either a refresher or just plain great information.
Whether your business is growing or stuck this book lays the foundation for future growth and success. The first 20 pages are worth purchasing the book for. It starts out as motivational and goes through to strategies and focuses on marketing.
If you are growing to fuel your growth you must look at your key indicators to determine where you are.
There is so much in this book I do not know where to start. The information is not just hot air or recycled old news like in most "new" business books. Some of these ideas may seem scattered but take from it what you can. Here are some of the ideas or building blocks I found in the book that I partially learned while obtaining a M.B.A and reading hundreds of books.

You will need to learn that you must be able to not only learn form others but delegate responsibilities to those who can handle them better so you can use your time for what you are best suited for.

There are more ways to pursue your business advertising and sales than what you are currently using.

Optimization vs. innovation is discussed, find what works and keep doing it, if what you are doing does not work follow a different action plan.

Change your marketing change your results, make sure that the message is there and that it is relevant and immediate for the buyer.

Know why you are doing and what you are doing it for who your client is, then build long term relationships and keep the sales cycle going.

Make yourself known and relevant to your marketplace as a purveyor of information or service that your competition can not possibly have the ability to posses.

Set the buying criteria for the sale and make sure that you are the only person that can fulfill the need.

"As soon as you open your mind to doing things differently the doors of opportunity practically fly off their hinges" It is important to not let your ego set your future.

Chapter 3 is great for a reminder for sales people Get your sales team to use consultative selling instead of memorizing products, find out how you can help if the person or company wants it make sure that they are going to use your business and not just use it for free information. Ask the tough questions nobody else is willing to answer.

Learn how to collaborate with others, you can not own or implement all of the great ideas.

Look for ideas where you can do joint ventures with companies who offer products that your clients will buy that may or may not complement your product, use your imagination and do not be afraid to ask.

Be creative in using an ethical idea to shift the way business is done in your industry like starting an association of your own.

Data mine your information to find ways or places you find from your information.

The simple key to this whole book is find your customer and sell something to them.

Have you really tried an idea, write down all of the ways that you have tried to determine if the effort was worthy.

Do not be afraid to change because your competitors are going to cut corners when they are struggling while you have devised another way to make your business grow.

You will have to read this book and find out so much more I do not know how you could be disappointed or believe that he information is not valuable. I read it in one evening because I could not put it down.

There is nothing more frustrating than being stuck.

Stuck in traffic. Standing in line. Sitting on hold. Like passengers crammed into a crowded plane waiting to take off, there's often nothing you can do about being stuck. That's the worst part, isn't it? Not being able to get UNstuck. Not being able to blast through the status quo.

Take heart. Jay Abraham tackles nine "sticking points' in his latest - The Sticking Point Solution (Vanguard Press).

This guy speaks my language:

"When business shifts either up or down, individuals and companies typically take one of two actions: They either do more of the same thing or less of the same thing. But their activities are all tied to doing the same thing, as opposed to doing something different or better, something more profitable, impactful, productive, expedient and preemptive."

Straightforward, very little nonsense and packed with actual case histories from his work with real clients, The Sticking Point Solution is Abraham's manifesto on getting off your back pockets and going somewhere.

The author suggests nine areas where businesses and individuals get hung up: Not Selling Enough, Failing to Strategize, Mediocre Marketing, Crisis Economy among them. I started reading each in order and then found that I could jump around to the chapters most relevant to me without missing anything.

Each chapter concludes with bullet point reminders and a useful Immediate Action Step to help the reader find some quick success at unsticking themselves.

The Sticking Point Solution is the kind of book we need these days.

I've read this book a couple of times and bought it when it
first came out. Writing criticism of Jay is tough, because
he really is an amazing business thinker. A lot of his stuff
has a common-sense "duh!" factor about it... but the
question is not whether you can parrot the concept or say
"well, that's obvious", but whether you've applied it in
your own affairs.

This book has strong merits, but if you're familiar with
Jay's previous book, you'll notice that the first half is a
rehash of "Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've
Got". Really. It's the same information, condensed.

The second half leans heavily of the internet-marketing
insights of Rich Schefren. Abraham gives credit where it's
due, acknowledging the centrality of the internet in today's
experience but admitting he's not the big expert on it.

The stuff about the internet is written more carefully than
it was in Jay's previous book, which became hopelessly dated
within a few years because the sections on the internet
treated it as less changeable than it is. He avoids that
mistake in this new book by adopting a circumspect attitude
- dominant websites rise and fall like ancient empires. We
all know it now, but in 2000 it was not so obvious.

My main criticism here is that a lot of this book is already
very familiar Abraham concepts. If you have to choose one
Abraham book to read, this one is more current than "Getting
Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got" but it's not
particulalry better.

I originally bought this title in book form. Halfway through the book, I enjoyed it so much I bought the audio download so I could listen to it on my Blackberry in between reading sessions. The book is incredibly well written and worth twice what it costs. Take it from me - I bought it two times :-)

I've been a student of Jay Abraham's business philosophy for many years. So, when I found out that Mr. Abraham has written a book about how to prosper despite this 'economy', I immediately ordered his book.

Normally, I read books in a few days but I took my time with this book, so it took me a week to finish instead : )

I truly enjoyed reading this book. Mr. Abraham is a big proponent of strategizing, which makes sense. Most entrepreneurs, particularly internet marketers, are always looking for the next 'silver bullet tactic' to dramatically improve their business results. What most entrepreneurs fail to do is to develop a strategy that will position their businesses favorably in the market place. in other words, establishing preeminence with their audience.

In fact, too many entrepreneur's think that having a google adwords campaign is a business strategy, when in reality, it's just another tactic.

As a result, they end up just being another 'me too' competitor.

Mr. Abraham drives home his point with this quote,

"If you come up with a killer strategy and a dynamite approach, you can make a killing too."

In addition, the author recommends that business owners optimize what they are doing, in other words, work on making the activities you're currently performing even better. Basically, you don't want to jeopardize your current business in your search for higher-performing alternatives.
So, in a nut shell, Optimize then innovate.

Another concept that was valuable was the idea of qualifying, pre-closing- and presenting in the consultative sales process. The author illustrates that this is more effective than the traditional qualify-present-close scenario.

Further, the author recommends that the business owner view their business as one large, interconnected system. When a business is experiencing a challenge, it's usually system related.

The book is filled with case studies of business owners who went against the grain and achieved remarkable success. These examples were valuable because they represented ideas that could be applied to your industry. The bottom line is that most of your competitors all market the same way. By incorporating strategies that work in ANOTHER industry into your business, you could experience exponential results.

Mr. Abraham also gave credit to ideas that weren't his own. The advice that was contributed by Rich Schefren and Chet Holmes was practical and insightful.

The author states that entrepreneurism is all about leveraging people, assets, capital and efforts. I couldn't agree more.

So, if you have the courage to use nontraditional approaches to grow your business during this challenging time, and develop strategies to implement those approaches, you may be able to thrive in this economy.


John Hinds
Author of "What's In Your Water?"

This CD set is perhaps the best deal on Jay Abraham material ever offered. This audio book is eight hours and fifty three minutes of pure Jay Abraham (no other speakers), sharing his most recent strategies and tactics for growing businesses. 100% Jay Abraham for almost nine solid hours of ingenious marketing advice, examples, stories, case studies and step-by-step instructions for what to do and how to do it.

To put this in the proper perspective, Jay's fee for a one hour consultation is $5,000. If you were to hire him to consult with you for nine hours, it would cost you $45,000. While not the same as a private consultation, this CD set provides you with more than a full day of Jay's expert advice (for only $29.95). There are dozens and dozens of outstanding marketing ideas revealed in this program that ANY business owner (or start-up entrepreneur) can apply to get their business growing.

I loved this CD set, and plan to study it at least once a year. If you are a Jay Abraham follower, fan, or business owner (or manager) looking for new ways to grow your business, you will get a lot out of this set of CDs. One thing particularly nice about this set is it is tightly edited. No long, rambling sessions. No gaps in the recording or hard to hear segments. No questions from the live audience that you cannot hear. This program was recorded in a studio and professionally edited, resulting in clear, crisp audio that is a pleasure to listen to (in the car, for example). More importantly, the marketing ideas are easy to understand and learn.

While Jay reiterates many of the same concepts he has for years, this program does have new examples and stories, as well as some old ones, too. Have you ever heard the Icy Hot story? How about Investment Rarities? He tells them AGAIN in this set :) The real question I ask myself is not how many times have I heard the same stories and learned the same principles, but how many of these concepts am I actually APPLYING in my business? That's what matters. Implementation is EVERYTHING.

With many books and programs by Jay on my shelf, this is one of my all time favorites.

Innovate, optimize and let loose of the notion that you have to do everything yourself, these are the salient lessons in Jay Abraham's latest book, The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth In Tough Economic Times. Jay Abraham's message to businesses is that, with the right mindset and strategy, tough economic times can be used not only to transform a business for success in the near term, but also to position it for enormous growth when the economy turns around for the better.

I first learned about Jay Abraham years ago when I was working in the Tony Robbins organization. The "Abraham method" of business optimization made perfect sense to me and over the next few years I immersed myself into his business and operating philosophy. I attribute many of the successes I have had in the business world to understanding and applying the things I learned from his materials. Today, in a much more competitive and complex marketplace his methodology and business philosophy is more important, and more applicable than ever.

In the introduction, Jay points out four primary reasons business stagnate:

1) Not incorporating growth thinking into all aspects of the business
2) Not measuring, monitoring, comparing or quantifying their results
3) Not having a detailed, strategic plan with specific growth expectations, and
4) Not knowing how to set appropriate, specific goals.

He then goes into great depth showing you how you can overcome each one of these obstacles in the path of business growth. Along the way he deals with nine specific "sticking points", things like losing out to the competition, allowing yourself to become a commodity and not taking advantage of Joint Venture (JV) opportunities that can provide your business with leverage far beyond it's own capabilities. Best of all, each chapter is loaded with proven strategies, techniques and methods you can adapt to the needs and requirements of your own business.

This is much more than a book you should read in order to familiarize yourself with the principles and ideas contained within it. This is a book you should use as a template to redesign, refocus and re-energize your sales force, your marketing efforts and yourself. I highly, highly recommend this book for anyone who owns a business or who is involved with sales or marketing. You should also read Jay's earlier book, Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition.

Biased note: I think Jay Abraham is a genius.

That being said, I loved this book. Why?

The examples, truthfully. While Jay does give
some great strategy behind the 9 points, the
examples are golden.

In fact, I wish he would just publish all of his
case studies as a book, and we could all reap the
insight of his years of experience.

9 Points Worth Paying For? - Yes.
And the examples are great, as long as you have the
imagination to take out their business label and
put in your own.

Of course though, if you don't have an imagination,
then you shouldn't be in business.

Many times when someone has been around as long as Jay Abraham it's easy to assume that a "new" book is just a rehash of that author's same material. But as always, I am amazed at the meat in this newest book of Jay's. He shares openly about the hundreds of businesses he has coached to higher success. While I thought I knew his most valuable business building principles already I found myself making constant notes to go back and review. I'm confident the material here in this $20 book will add another $1,000,000 to my business in the coming year.