Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business

I still remember how much I liked Jon Steel's previouse book (Truths, lies and advertising)and I was sure his new work would be very helpful again. I'm now on page 100 and I can only say 'thank you Jon for sharing with us so much good advice'. I'm in the media advertising business for more than 20 years and I make presentations -PowerPoint presentations- to new business and clients every week. I enjoy so much reading Jon's explanations about rights and mistakes in his own presentations and those from others he have seen or participated. I would like to ask his publisher to rush for a Spanish translation of this great book. That would allow me to impose the requiered reading of Jon's book for all my planners. It's funny to see that the author makes, at least until page 100, not many comments about the media director's part of a presentation. I can assure you Jon, presentations about media plans (off and online) need urgent help from you. Too many times we almost kill our audience with nonsense charts plenty of numbers and very, but very boring stuff. And, I love media planning, being absolutely sure that also in our field things can be explained in a interesting, surprising and entertaining way. Just today I had a big presentation to a national food advertiser in Spain and during the presentation I was consciously thinking about Mr Jon Steel's advices. If it comes to a success, I'll let you know. Thanks again for having invested your time in showing us the way.

アカウントプランナーを世に広めたジョン・スティールが久しぶりに書いた本著は、彼がいかに競合プレゼンで勝利してきたか、という経験をもとに「完璧なプレゼンテーション」について語る本。 と、書くとなんだかよくあるHow Toものっぽくて面白くないと思う人もいるでしょうが、そこはやはりジョン・スティール。彼の語りはまずビジネスマンとしてより、より一人の人間としての姿が見えてくる。 冒頭のスティーブ・ジョブズのエピソードに語られるような「最悪なブリーフと最高のブリーフ」をみてもわかるとおり、どのように人に伝えるか、ということはいかに人間的なコミュニケーションなのかという真実を広告マンでなくてもわかりやすく語りかけてくる。 もちろん、実際のHow Toとしても役に立つので、最近プレゼン勝率に悩む方々にも是非どうぞ。

Great for those wanting to work on their presentation skills.

Un gran libro, una experiencia unica. Una gran ayuda para mi maestria y una libro que me servirá para toda la vida

This is a very good book. As relevant today as it was when it first came out five years ago. In fact, having read it, I'm actually gutted I didn't buy it when it was first released. In my opinion, it's a book that's going to be relevant for a long time. If I could only get one point across in this review, it's that everyone should read it; because despite its title, this book isn't just about pitching for new business. It's about pitching anything - a new idea to your manager; yourself at an interview; a presentation at a conference. Whatever industry you're in, whatever size company you work for (and whatever role you have), or if you're self-employed, there is something in this book for you. Broadly, it covers: *Why presentations fail *Why to focus on just one point *Planning *How to be more creative and more productive *Psychology (but in an easy/non-academic way) *How to avoid ruining a great idea (and examples of how great ideas have been ruined in presentations). *Teamwork and responsibility *How to leave your audience wanting more *The perfect pitch - an analysis of the London 2012 Olympic bid The author writes with a refreshing style - almost as if you're having a chat with him in the pub. There is no jargon or convoluted sentences (a hallmark of similar books) - this is as straight-forward as a book can get. Many authors of this genre over-complicate the topic they discuss and their books tend to be padded with unnecessary waffle and end up reading like an academic paper. Rest assured, this book is not like that. In fact, it's nice to see someone actively having a pop at the corporate buzzword bingo that seems to inflict our workplaces and who can cover the psychology aspect of pitching in plain English. Steel uses examples many of us know and/or can relate to in addition to his personal experiences to illustrate each and every point he makes - from the time he met Steve Jobs; Bill Clinton's presidency campaign; Winston Churchill; to the infamous OJ Simpson trial. If you're worried that this is another ad man with a huge ego who will simply go on about all the great meetings and people he's met to show off, then you needn't be. Each point is made succinctly and you'll be nodding your head in agreement as you go through the book - Steel has a wonderful knack of using famous examples to get across everyday business situations - but in a way that makes you either think "Yes, I've been there/seen that before" when things haven't gone well, or "Now I know how to be more successful when I pitch". Each point is only made once, there is very little (if any) repetition and it's nice to read a book without having to learn 20 new "guidelines/tools/laws/rules" at the end of each chapter. My only criticism would be that in some places the book does go on a bit longer than necessary (I felt the chapter on team presentations was certainly dry and seem padded out), but this was made up for by an excellent final chapter on the London 2012 Olympic presentation. All in all, an excellent book and one that I will refer to time again. Highly recommended.