The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP! [Paperback]

Duane Lakin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

The Unfair Advantage is a "workshop-in-a-workbook." It contains practical ideas and exercises for applying NLP (neurolinguistic programming) to sales and marketing. It includes "how-to" ideas for selling face-to-face, telemarketing, direct mail, and other real-world situations. Included are examples of scripts and techniques that have produced proven sales increases in direct sales and in telemarketing. It is a theory-free collection of techniques based on a workshop that has been presented to CEOs and sales professionals in over 500 companies in North America and England. This book is unique in its emphasis on proven practical techniques. It is not a "motivation" book, because successful sales results are all the motivation you need. The Unfair Advantage began when a client said, "We want to stop coming in second. Help us to learn how to be more persuasive." Over a fifteen year period, the programme grew into the content you will see in this book. Don't buy this book looking for easy answers. It still takes practice. But everything in The Unfair Advantage works and can work for you.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The impact on our sales was immediate!" -- Chad Jorgensen, Managing Director, Nu-Ear Electronics --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From the Author

This book is unique in its emphasis on proven practical techniques. It is not a "motivation" book, because successful sales results is all the motivation you need. The Unfair Advantage began when a client told me they wanted to avoid "coming in second", as they described it. Over a fifteen year period, the program grew into the content you will see in this book. Don't buy this book looking for easy answers. It still takes practice. But everything in The Unfair Advantage works and can work for you.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 167 pages
• Publisher: Lakin Associates (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967916208
• ISBN-13: 978-0967916200
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Telemarketing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This sales book does what it advertises, August 18, 2001

By 

Patrick Merlevede (Eeklo, Vlaanderen (Belgium, Europe)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP! (Paperback)

I immediately liked the book when I read the Preface, which is about being able to sell exactly as the customer needs it. I couldn't agree more, even if I have been running intro trouble with 50% of the salespeople I met when trying to convince them of that kind of thinking.

Let me first tell you what this is NOT. - if you want a book that applies my favorite aspect of NLP, cognitive styles (metaprograms), to Sales, I'd recommend "Selling the way your customer buys" by Marvin Sadovsky & Jon Caswell.

- Or if you want a book discussing (theoretical) how to apply ALL NLP models to sales, I'd rather recommend other books, such as Genie Laborde's classic "Influencing with Integrity", etc. However all these books tend to suffer from the same problem: it's hard to translate their message into practice, because they lack exercises.

But if the two previous things aren't what you're looking for, this might be the book for you.

How does it compare to other NLP books? If the book doesn't cover ALL of NLP, it has the advantage that it is much more practical. You really can use it as a workbook (as the author promises). I guess that a trainer could do a 2 or 3-day workshop to teach salespeople to *really* master this material. Let me tell you what it includes: It will help you understand how to recognize and use different representation systems (Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic), buying strategies and non verbal mirroring. As for the NLP language skills, it concentrates action language and action commands.

If the author wants to improve his book, I would recommend adding other NLP models (such as meta-program's and the meta-model). But to remain as practical, that would boil down to writing a second volume or make this one double the size.

As for the price: yes it's expensive. So is following a workshop. If you don't use any NLP yet, I agree that the book will pay back for itself if you apply these principles."...

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best "invisible" selling system that really works, July 31, 2001

By 

David Garfinkel "Author, Advertising Headline... (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP! (Paperback)

It's tough to find selling stuff that works but doesn't sound like some cornball, canned routine out of a used car showroom. That's because talking in a natural-sounding way is rarely effective in high-powered selling.

Yet when you start to deal with the big players and big deals, sounding genuine and authentic is the *only* thing that works. All top sales professionals and wheeler-dealers know this.

Duane Lakin has come up with the first training and language system I have seen that will improve your effectiveness selling to anyone. I know because I've used his techniques with large-dollar sales and seen my results improve. I've also reviewed all the other sales trainers who use NLP as part of their method. Some are very good, but no one comes close to Duane in terms of a transparent, deceptively simple set of methods you can quickly learn and use.

One thing that's great about his book is he also shows you how to apply NLP to telemarketing and writing sales copy. I don't know of anyone else who's done that.

A lot of people interested in sales and NLP think something has to be flashy, complex and technically overwhelming to be any good. As someone who makes his living because of the results he gets, I can tell you that just the opposite is true. Fortunately, this book contains what you need to get better results and still come across like a human being. That's rare and extraordinarily valuable.

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling value. Money well spent!, March 7, 2000

By 

GVF (Clarksville, Indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP! (Paperback)

I have read the Unfair Advantage from cover to cover several times. More importantly, I have experienced results, based on the lessons you will learn in this book, that have been amazing. If you want great literature, don't buy the Unfair Advantage, consider War and Peace. If you want great results in your interpersonal skills and feel that a higher closing ratio sounds like something you want to read about, get the Unfair Advantage.

This is my first review to Amazon.com. I have read several books that flirt with making NLP a concrete and usable sales tool. This is the first book that I have found worthy enough for me to share an opinion on.