Acuff Books

Great "back-to-basics" book. No big revelations, but wonderful reinforcement that will help all salespeople who are selling in an environment where relationships really count.

Most business books hit you over the head with "must do" lists. In The Relationship Edge in Business, the book shows you how to establish and maintain positive relationships, how to be interested and open to many levels of relationships. Relationships enrich personal and professional lives and this book offers so many ideas with a friendly, "can do" tone. No matter who you are, these ideas can work.

My favorite chapter is Chapter 5, "It's a Small World After All." In this chapter, the author reminds us that connections can be made, even when the odds seem unfavorable. Positive connections lead to other positive connections.

Jerry Acuff outlines methods not taught by many companies. Although said companies devote time and capital to train sales forces about their products or services, most do not spend any time teaching the skill of building long term relationships with clients. This is a must read for the enlightened, forward-looking executive.

As a professional sales person, I have long been aware that it is easier to sell to customers that like you. Just like anyone else, I hit it off with some people and not others. "The Relationship Edge in Business" provided me with an integrity-based path to improve relationships with all customers.

I read the book for one reason, I thought better relationships might translate into more sales, and I am sure it will. However, the book also touched me on a personal level. I've gained an outlook and process that I believe will improve my life outside of work.

This book indeed goes where Dale Carnegie might have gone had he written the next logical book. The Relationship Edge in Business tells you exactly how to build meaningful relationships with people who are crucial to our success. It is full of real life stories of real life people practicing the 3 step process and experiencing unusual success. I found it very believable and easy to draw on the experiences and lessons shared in the book. IF relationahips are a key part of your success this is a great read.
The book is also grounded in sound yet lettle practiced principles about how to more effectively influence or persuade. A great business book that I will be studying not just reading

I am an attorney, and have gotten more mileage out of the down to earth topic by topic chapters in this book in advising clients and friends than I have out of many of my law school classes. I am buying this book as a reference for colleagues. Funny, too.

I am an attorney, and have gotten more mileage out of the down to earth topic by topic chapters in this book in advising clients and friends than I have out of many of my law school classes. I am buying this book as a reference for colleagues. Funny, too.

I found this one to be more interesting than the typical negotiation strategy book in that the author puts a satirical spin on his advice. This approach certainly made the topic more interesting and fun to read!

I would recommend this book to all levels of management, as well as to people who are not in business at all. The tips in this book are applicable everyday situations.

Enjoyed it!

After reading Frank's last book on the international side of negotiating, I was really interested in what he had to say about day to day negotiations. This book is cleverly written, providing informative anecdotes to illustrate his various points. I see why the critics usually give him high marks because some of his stories remain in my head when I'm dealing with people at work. I also enjoyed the chapter on e-negotiating which shed some light on problems I have had when corresponding over email. The book could be a bit longer but it's probably the perfect length for people on the go.

The Mysteries of Quan takes the genre of the Celestine Prophecy to a whole new level. Not only did I find the writing to be excellent, but the characters were extremely engaging. I found myself relating to them on many levels. The master teacher, Quan, uses stories and simple metaphors to present a philosophy of life which transformed my thinking on many levels. The mysteries once revealed turned out to be very practical in their application to my life. Unhesitatingly, I recommend Quan to anyone interested in expanding their view of life and of what's possible.

I liked the Celestine Prophecy, but I LOVE the Mysteries of Quan! Using entertaining storytelling as well as excursions into quantum physics, the master teacher/guru, Quan, shares profound insights into how to live one's life effectively and happily. In particular I loved the mystery of the perfection of imperfection. Anyone interested in growing themselves as a person would do well to treat themselves to the Mysteries of Quan.

Embedded in an involving story about Quan, a mystical guru and his teachings to five students in Colombia and India, are poignant, life-changing core ideas and philosophies about one's place and purpose in the world. One of Quan's mysteries - the mystery of the Imperfection of life altered my thinking forever. This is the most practical spiritual book I've ever read! It's a must for anyone interested in personal growth and a real spiritual life - applied day by day.

It's often been said that successful selling depends on the relationships you have. I never really thought much about what that meant until I read The Relationship Edge: The Key to Strategic Influence and Selling Success by Jerry Acuff with Wally Wood. Building relationships because you truly like and care about others can have some far-reaching ramifications in your personal and professional life.

Contents: Climbing the Relationship Pyramid; What Strong Relationships Require; Twenty Questions; Good Questions Promote Meaningful Dialogue; It's a Small World After All; It's Not What You Know - It's What You Do; Why You Ought to Map Your Relationships; Pyramid Hopping for Fun and Profit; Build Respect, Set Goals; and Maintain Relationships; And What If You're the Boss?; Notes; Index

It was tempting to go into this book with a somewhat cynical attitude. "If I pretend I have lots in common with this person, I can sell them anything!" But that's not what we're talking about here. It's a conscious effort to learn about the person on the other side of the table... What interests them? What makes them tick? It's these type of questions and concerns that make up the core "20 questions" that the authors recommend you focus on. It's not a matter of walking in with a checklist, asking them each question in rapid-fire order just to record the answers. Rather, it's a way to move beyond the "will you buy" position to one of understanding, respect, and potentially friendship. As a seller, you rank somewhere on the relationship pyramid with your customer: people who don't know me by name, people who know me by name, people who like me, people who are friendly with me, people who respect me, and people who value a relationship with me. The higher you are on that pyramid, the less selling that goes on because you already have established a foundation of trust with that person.

They also introduce the concept of "pyramid hopping". This is a way to leverage your relationship with one person to immediately move higher on someone else's pyramid. For instance, you may know someone who I'm interested in meeting for some reason. If you have a good relationship with that person and introduce me, then I immediately move higher up on that new person's relationship pyramid. So instead of being just one nameless face trying to get attention, you've moved up the pyramid based on the relationship that your friend has with that person. It's different than networking, which is just a matter of trying to get your name out there. It's more a case of specifically asking for introduction and contacts based on the relationships you have. A very powerful concept...

If you're serious about building your professional contacts, this is an excellent book to get you headed in the right direction for the right reasons...

I decided to read this book based on all of the positive reviews. I've been trying to figure out what the marketers are up to. I can't help notice the drastic changes in marketing to children in recent years and I'm trying to figure out what's behind it all. I've noticed, for example, that they're starting to sneak commercials even into "commercial-free" children's programming like PBS and that McDonald's is a sponsor of Sesame Street. I've also noticed the car advertisements that infer your "tween" should dictate what type of car you should buy. I was hoping this book would shed some light on what goes on in the think tanks at marketing firms.

I would say it does explain to the consumer the general motives of the marketing industry. The authors go one step further and try to tell parents how to deal with the onslaught of marketing their children are bound to be subjected to. This is actually the part of the book with which I had the most problem. The most annoying part of the book by far was at the end of each chapter, where the authors have a hypothetical example of a "perfect" family that does everything "right" and a "bad" family that does everything "wrong." The examples given are so extreme that they are ridiculous, even laughable. The idealized pictures of the "perfect" families seem a little naive as well. For example, there is a teenage boy who has a TV in his room, but he's only allowed to watch it on the weekends, and he always complies with that rule. The overall advice given is basically common sense and what parents hear again and again-- model good habits yourself, stay involved in your child's life, and communicate with your child. However, this book takes the naive point of view that that is all you have to do to have an ideal child-parent relationship like those illustrated in the book.

I think there is something more going on with this youth marketing explosion that can only be explored by reading the books that are actually written for marketers. I did see some of these quoted as sources. It would probably be better to go right to the source.

Virtually from birth, children are bombarded by manipulative advertising messages, in their home, at school, and on the street. Profit driven - direct target marketing to children has allowed ads to infiltrate almost all aspects of their everyday lives and existence. Marketers have invaded the realm of childhood spending enormous amounts of time and money conducting research on how to most effectively reach young audiences, unrelentingly exploiting our youth. In their book Kidnapped, authors Dan Acuff and Robert Reiher take a unique stance from within the industry questioning some of the manipulative practices that exploit the vulnerabilities of our children and hold accountable those irresponsible marketers whose profit-driven tactics harm the well being & future of our youth.
Drs. Acuff & Reiher offer helpful tools for parents, family, & educators, to combat youth-marketing practices along with offering healthy alternatives towards limiting commercial exposure and marketing influences. However, parents alone cannot combat a multi-billion dollar industry vying for the pockets & brand loyalty of their children - but this book is evidence that from within the industry itself, the unethical practices are starting to come into question - which in turn leaves hope for change.

Someone asked the bank robber, Willie Sutton, why he kept robbing banks. His famous reply was "because that's where the money is." In recent decades marketers have discovered that there is a tremendous amount of money in the child and youth market. Consequently the intensity and sophistication of marketing strategies targeting youth are growing all the time. Dan Acuff and Robert Reiher have amazing insights into this because it is the world they have lived in for many years. They combine expertise in developmental psychology with years of experience advising the top companies in the world to pull back the curtain and expose how irresponsible marketers manipulate kids to buy, buy, buy. But they don't just describe the problem. They provide solutions for parents and guidelines for responsible marketers.
The result is a book that is an enjoyable read and loaded with great "insider" information. I would encourage all parents to read the book and would hope that some marketers would take the advice to heart.

There is no shortage of marketers using irresponsible and unethical techniques to make a buck off our children. These people and companies take advantage of the child's age and innocence to mold their minds. The problem is not only that this is unethical but that over time it creates permanent changes in the child and alters their personality as well as their health. The bottom line here is that marketers will always target our children as yet another tool to be used to sell product. As such it is the responsibility of the parents to control the factors that influence their children for good and bad. The authors separate the sections of the book to include what is appropriate for birth to age three, three to seven, eight to twelve, thirteen to fifteen, and sixteen to nineteen. For each of these age groups they cover developmental issues, areas to watch and areas where you can expand their exposure to the world and difficult issues. You may disagree, as I did, with some of the detail but overall it is an insightful and interesting read. Even if you don't agree with all of it you are sure to find the greatest part of Kidnapped highly informative and helpful for raising children. As such it is a recommended read.

Books on the welfare of our children are always of interest to me. Those who do not have a voice need others to care and to speak out for them. This is what our authors do in this outstanding work.
What are they fighting for? The minds, the health, the spirit of our beloved children.
They show numerous areas where our child are under assault by Marketers that single them out by way of TV, advertisements and peer pressure for the profit. They discuss the impact that violence has on our children through television and video games and give statistics that are alarming of suicide among our youth.
In this work we are taught how to recognize these assaults and given guidelines that we can implement to safe-guard our children. I think what I liked about this book was that it was not a total bashing of producers of entertainment for our children, but a work that one: shows there is a problem, two: gives solutions for parents and marketers as well that will benefit all.
A very informative and helpful book that would be a worthwhile read for all parents.

Many authors have written sales books from the seller's point of view. Relatively few take the buyer's perspective. Salesman turned consultant Jerry Acuff (writing here with Wally Wood) provides a refreshing look at sales through the eyes of the buyer. Most salespeople never achieve their goals because they forget to sell in a way that makes people want to buy. Trying to buy from a salesperson with this attitude is almost always a negative experience. Working with the right intent, a demonstrated sales process, proper preparation and a zeal for relationship building, salespeople of all kinds can achieve their goals. Acuff's perspective dusts off some insights you know intuitively and points to many others you may not know. getAbstract recommends this book to salespeople, sales managers, procurement officers, and anyone who wants to sell more goods, services, products or ideas.

This author seems to miss the point. The read is slow and not intellectually stimulating. The title Thinking Like a Buyer was a theme that my former company created while working with this author, it was the theme for our 2005 national sales meeting. I made the mistake in buying this book with the intention of giving copies to my sales team to read as part of their personal development plan..You may want to save your money

This book really delivers the framework for how people should conduct themselves in sales today. With how sophisticated customers are, the majority of "traditional" selling approaches of yesterday are merely ways of manipulating the customer...Jerry takes an honest, straightforward approach to helping customers get what they want. His concepts are not as easy as it seems to implement, it takes great effort and commitment to really put yourself in the customers position and start "thinking like a buyer". The best part about this approach is how good you will feel about being in sales-how rewarding and valuable your relationships with customers can really be. A multiple must read for business professionals.

I consider this to be among the top 5 of the business books in my collection and the most applicable to my day-to-day work. Acuff not only disproves some of the classic tenets of sales interactions but he provides logical alternatives to them that can put into practice on your very next sales call. One of the most engaging aspects of Acuff's philosophy is the idea that "salespeople sometimes think that they must do things on behalf of their companies that conflict with how they see themselves as human beings," but in fact, as Acuff points out, "to succeed in sales, you don't have to be someone you don't want to be."
This book not only discusses the value of pure intent and the right mindset in sales, but also lays out a simple and logical method for creating meaningful dialogue with a customer that results in a commitment on their part.
I believe almost everyone will find that the time taken to order and read this book will be time well spent.

In successful selling in today's competitve marketplace, we are looking for added tools to improve our sales effectiveness. This book by Jerry Acuff provides a powerful foundation when followed can enhance the sales process for you and your customers. This books provides a systematic approach and process that guides us through all of the intrical parts of the sales process. If you follow this approach, surely you will increase your sales effectiveness and improve your income.
The 3 processes from the book that have had the greatest impact on me are:
1. The eight laws of sales intent.
2. Using the mastery of meaningful dialogue to ask questions to understand if there is a fit between customers wants and what I offer.
3. Asking for a committment: This is a great chapter that defines uniques ways to appropriatly learn to how end a sales conversation and design the next steps of the sales process for my customers.

If you are in sales, I highly recommend this book and use the defined process to improve your sales success.

To review this book is to look at the competition, which is very thin. This reference does an admirable job filling a very large hole in the market. There is of course endless room for growth (one could no doubt write a book entirely dedicated to negotiation in Kazakhstan), but the book does not endeavor to do that, whether by region, country, or industry. Instead, it is a good shelf reference for any business person about to undertake international negotiations.

I read this book before traveling abroad and found many handy facts to help me in daily social situations. This book gives information on both business and social settings which I also found extremely helpful. Make sure to have a recent edition as country facts and norms seem to be constantly evolving. Easy read with a great touch of dry humor.

Can be used for an in depth analysis of cultural norms around the world, or can be extremely handy as a quick reference before an important business trip or meeting. This book will put you one step ahead.

After reading this book, I am better able to discuss meaningful topics with members of other cultures. Now, instead of focusing primarily on American cultural views, I can shift the conversation to include many points of view (most important, the listener's)! I recently used the information I obtained from reading Acuff's book during a conversation with a woman from Nigeria. She was so surprised when I asked her if Americans made the mistake of calling her normal clothing, a costume. I was able to empathize with her and to discuss her frustration regarding that particular issue. We now talk every week! I highly recommend this book for both personal and professional growth. The author is down-to-earth and his real-life accounts are interesting and fun to read!

Why only 3 stars?. Ok. Maybe is 4 and a half if you are an american citizen. The reason is beacause many of the information is recopiled from other sources. You can divide the book in 3 sections. One is like extract of an administrative course, like an MBA or something similar. The other are more a "common sense" recomendations, like "don't argue too much", "do not fight with your partner". Like mom's suggestions. And the last one (more than a half of the book) is like an adaptative version of the CIA factbook (avaible on Internet, and of course, up to date), where the author describes for each country a general overview of it, but never profundize on their culture or what about the relation with other country; only with the americans. Let me show you some examples: With my country (México) he suggest not to talk about or borders or the inmmigrants, but never talks about the religion, the political relation with other countries. There is no need to say that the author never talks about the culture, what kind of thinks hates or loves people form different cultures, how and why they act in some ways; he is like saying that japanese or the turkish are almost the same, only they likes somethings and dislikes other ones. He only talks like saying all the time: "(if you are an american)... do not argue with japanese about the relation with USA in the WWII". Welll.. What if I am not american?

At last, is good "general overview" reference book; but basically most usefull if you are an american citizen (and is not complete).

More interesting as a primer for what different age children are "into" (or could be into) than for the step-by-step how-to sections.

I agree with the reviewer who notes that it reads a bit too much like a sales pitch; I don't think it detracts too much from the observations.

Although this book approaches the child marketing area from a unique view (developmentally), what I found refreshing was the attention to responsible marketing according to children's ages (chpt. 2!

I've been on a quest to figure out of the optimal youth age breaks based on cognitive abilities, and this book gave me exactly what I was looking for. I was fascinated by the content on both a professional and personal level...I would love to see the authors update the book with some more current product examples (it was published in 1997) and to see what further impact the growth of Internet usage since 1997 has had on the market.

I finished this book last night without regrets. It lit up many ideas that could be realized into revenue generating opportunities. Although the book doesn't encourage the sales of 'disempowering' products, services and programs for 0-19 year kids, it does give you insights as to why kids love 'bad' stuff too. I would have wanted more info on the 16-19 year olds though. But the author did state that these 'kids' consider themselves as adults and recommended marketing to adult books. Perhaps, the books The $100 Billion Allowance and Wise Up to Teens would help expand on what this book already taught me.

Acuff and Reiher are two of the best practitioners in the kids market today. They combine tremendous experience across a number of kid categories with a discipline and method that are unique. Their book What Kids Buy and Why offers many of their important insights and trends about kids. Their approach is developmental and psychological. Their perspective is grounded in brain development with a sound underpinning of why kids behave as they do at specific ages and across gender. This is stuff that is critical to marketers in understanding how kids behave. Their work offers the long view of child development brought up to date with important marketplace developments that are showing how kids are changing even as the biology that shapes behavior has a constancy. There are too few books -- let along quality ones -- in the kids market today. Acuff and Reiher's offering is a must read for anyone interested in kids marketing. Paul Kurnit, President, Griffin Bacal Advertising, Kid Think Inc. and LiveWire: Today's Families Online.