Office Supply

21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out Earn the Competition

376 Pages. Paperback, ISBN: 0-312-28454-3, Truman Talley Books

Jay is quite a famous fellow, with a large number of books, CD?s, and courses available. This is my first Jay Abraham book and I am impressed.

The book has 21 chapters and in each chapter he describes a practical strategy that can be used for growing revenue and income. At first glance these strategies seem simple but are complex when you start to probe and understand how they work.

Each strategy has what I term the implementation part and the thinking part. The implementation part is about how it looks when its implemented and the thinking aspect is about the world view required for an excellent implementation. BE VERY CAREFUL - the implementation of strategies look simple and obvious - but without understanding the thinking part, the strategy will probably fail for you.

Jay?s approach leverages a strong business ethic that is always stressing the need to be honest. Once you realize any promise you make to your customers is a promise that you must keep, this provides you many different opportunities for revenue growth. He then goes further (implicitly rather than explicitly) saying that since you are acting in this highly ethical way, why not tell the entire world about it. But don?t toot your horn by saying, ?Buy from me, because I am honest and ethical?, rather say ?Here are all the wonderful things I will do for you.? and since you are honest and ethical, you will deliver and your business will grow.

The many many stories in the book provide the examples to demonstrate his points. Some of the stories include what he has done with clients, some include well known companies, and some stories are obviously made up to prove a point. I found there were too many examples for the more experienced marketing person and since Jay doesn?t always differentiate what is to be learned from each story, I started to doze. For readers new to this kind of content, the stories will be more relevant and interesting.

The book starts with some innovative strategies and then goes into the standard marketing modalities with a Jay Abraham spin.

Jay starts with his version of the Magic Formula. This is what I consider the fundamental rule of business development. If some variation of the magic formula isn?t part of your day-to-day thinking, then Jay?s description of it may help correct this.

A highlight of the book is a series of 50 questions to assist you in understanding your current situation. I recommend that you get a journal and write out each question and your answer in it. Look for the giant red flag being waved when you have trouble answering one and see the flashing neon lights when can?t answer one. Once you have completed the book, go back and redo the questions. You may discover that things you thought were simple and straight forward are actually the answers that are hampering your growth.

The Strategy of Preeminence is one of the strategies I warned you about earlier. It appears like something everybody should know - ?Put the customer first?. But, the mind set is so totally important to its implementation. The difference between can be found in one section, where Jay describes that your relationship to the customer should be one of a friend. Treat each and every customer like you would treat your best friend.

Jay teaches about the Unique Selling Proposition or the USP for short. Jay has raised searching for the USP equal to the importance of finding the Holy Grail. Expect that while the Grail has yet to be found, the USP is available for every company. But unlike the Grail, you must continuously keeping searching and improving your USP. A little warning, frequent and radical changes to your USP indicates you don?t have a USP, you just have a bunch of ideas.

Have you ever wondered if ?Money back Guarantee?s? are effective? Jay teaches the strategy of Risk Reversal where the ?Money Back Guarantee? is just the starting point. The Risk Reversal strategy merges the the life time value of a client (Chapter 5) with the understanding of the strategy of preeminence (Chapter 3) wrapped around his believe in strong business ethics. The three together create a strategy which is bigger than the sum of the parts.

Jay makes a powerful argument that you need to look for ?Giant Steps and Quantum Leaps? rather than the slow and steady approach. The chapter provides solid reasoning for this approach and ways and means to achieve these goals. Be warned however, there is little explanation of what to do when you find your Giant Step. While he criticizes ?slow and steady?, the ?slow and steady? approach is required to ensure its implemented.

I have only highlighted some of the strategies that are in the book. You need to read and study the book to fully understand the strategies and to implement the details to grow your personal wealth. The latter half of the book includes partnering, direct mail, telemarketing, the Internet, where to prospect, and some ?Raw Raw? stuff. All good material, but not nearly as powerful as the front half of the book.

The book tries to apply the different strategies to your personal growth, a large corporate growth, and your growth as an employee. While the strategies can be applied in every one of these area, the book is really oriented to the person with total responsibility for the business. If you are not in that role and you try to apply the strategies, I imagine it will be frustrating and you may be seen as the person chasing windmills.

If own your own business, planning on starting one, or the VP in charge of marketing, buy the book - it will be money well spent.