Introduction A Lesson from the Road xv
Drawing Your Blueprints
Your Possible Business
3(1)
A Question That May Be Your Answer
4(1)
Another Good Question
5(1)
Why Plan?
5(1)
The White Hot Center: Nike's Genius
6(6)
Finding the White Hot Center
12(1)
The Fourteen Principles of Planning
13(15)
1 Forget the Future
14(1)
2 Stop---Yes, Stop---Listening
15(2)
3 Celebrate Foolishness
17(1)
4 Resist Authority
17(1)
5 View Experts Skeptically
18(1)
6 Beware of "Science"
19(1)
7 Mistrust Experience
20(1)
8 Mistrust Confidence
21(1)
9 Avoid Perfection
22(1)
10 Beware of Common Sense
23(1)
11 Embrace Impatience
24(1)
12 Find the Water
25(1)
13 Finding the Water: A Warning
26(1)
14 Search for 100-X
27(1)
The End of "Missions"
28(2)
How George Didn't Do It
30(2)
Fortune Favors the Bold
32(1)
Laurel Cutler's and Ian Schrager's Insight
33(1)
Ask Questions Like a Priest
34(1)
The Classics of Business
35(3)
What Osborn Drugs and Target Tell You
38(3)
New Economy, Same People
41(4)
Four Building Blocks: Enormous Oranges And Canary Yellow Bugs: Clear Communications
Key Trend: Option and Information Overload
45(54)
Your Prospects: Everybody's Talkin' at Them
50(1)
The Rise of Images
51(1)
Your Marketing's Placebo Effects
52(1)
Snap Judgments Stick
53(1)
The Humanist and the Statistician
54(2)
The Clever French Orange
56(2)
Lessons from Stanford's Stadiums
58(1)
What Your Prospects Know
59(1)
An Important Word on Word of Mouth
60(3)
Your Shortcut to Incredible Luck
63(2)
Getting Publicity: The Giant Hole
65(1)
Publishing: Another Surprise Benefit
65(1)
Four Rules for Getting Yourself Ink
66(1)
Testimonials: A Startling Discovery
67(3)
Quoting No One
70(1)
What Is an Expert?
70(4)
The Doctor from the Boondocks: How to Seem Expert
74(3)
Your Key to Clarity
77(1)
How to Look Expert
78(1)
How to Sound Expert
79(1)
Mark Twain's Marketing Lesson
79(2)
The Boy Who Cried Best
81(1)
Why Superlatives Fail Colossally
82(1)
The Dale Carnegie Corollaries: The Power of You
83(2)
Rudolf Flesch and the Canary Bug
85(1)
Harpers, McPaper, and Tiger
86(2)
A Lesson from Jefferson's Tomb
88(2)
Shorter Sells
90(1)
How to Read a Sentence
91(1)
Your Final Step: The Frenchman-on-the-Street Test
92(1)
Absolute Brilliance
93(6)
The Velvet Sledgehammer: A Compelling Message
Key Trend: The Decline of Trust
99(38)
Cole's Wisdom
103(1)
The Faster Way to Be Believed
104(1)
A Wolverine and the Comfort Principle
105(1)
What the Best Salespeople Sell
106(1)
What Ordinary Salespeople Sell
107(1)
How to Read a Short List
107(3)
How to Read a Short List, Two
110(1)
Wield a Velvet Sledgehammer
111(2)
A Game of Give and Take
113(1)
Why Hard Selling Has Gotten Harder
114(1)
What Would Aesop and Jesus Do?
115(2)
Lessons from Colorado: Find the Force
117(1)
What Your Prospect's Nods Mean
118(1)
Why Cold Calls Leave People Cold
119(1)
Sell Like You Date
120(1)
Why Goldman Sachs Cannot Cold Call
120(1)
Remember Eddie Haskell
121(1)
A Trick to Improve Your Presentations
122(1)
L.A. Confidential and The Rule of Contact
123(1)
Lincoln Had No Slides at Gettysburg
124(2)
How to Boost Your Chances
126(1)
Impressive Slide Shows Aren't
127(1)
Remember: It's a Visual Aid
127(1)
Packaging the Bold or Conservative Idea
128(1)
Do Like the Romans
129(1)
Keep Talking Happy Talk
130(1)
Dion and the Rule of Three
131(2)
Think Pterodactyls and Typhoons
133(4)
Blue Martinis And Omaha Surfing: A Reassuring Brand
Key Trend: The Rise of Invisibles and Intangibles
137(58)
Georges Always Beat Als
140(2)
What's in a Name?
142(1)
The Familiarity Principle
142(2)
To Know You Is to Love You
144(1)
What Fidelity and Vanguard Show You
145(1)
Familiarity and the New 80/20 Rule
146(1)
Understanding Your Brand: Gerber Unbaby Food and Salty Lemonade
147(3)
The Limits of Every Brand
150(1)
A Thousand Words?
151(2)
Understanding Symbols
153(1)
Understanding Symbols: The 1965 Pirates
154(1)
Lessons from Lowe's
155(2)
Move Your Message Up
157(1)
Kinko's Cleverness
158(2)
Why Copy Shops Struggle
160(1)
Sir Isaac Newton, Human Being
161(1)
Omaha Surfing and Jefferson Airplane
162(2)
Clients Love Odd Things
164(1)
Blue Martini, Loudcloud, and Other Odd Ducks
165(1)
How to Think Odd
166(2)
Hit Your Prospects in the Nose, Too
168(1)
A Powerful Tool for Branding
169(1)
Finding Your Perfect Name: The Descriptive Name
170(1)
The Perfect Name, Option Two: An Acronym
171(1)
Option Three: The Neologism
171(1)
Option Four: The Geographic Name
172(1)
Option Five: The Personal Name
173(2)
Primrose and Yahoo! The Evocative Name
175(1)
A Checklist for Avoiding the Lake Tahoe Name
176(3)
Harley, Ogilvy, and the Incredible Shrinking Names
179(1)
Churchill Was Right: Your Package Is Your Service
180(2)
Imagineering's Six Commandments
182(1)
Clients Understand with Their Eyes
183(1)
Boiled Critter at Tiffany's
184(3)
What Your Space Says to Your Client
187(1)
No Room at the Bottom
188(2)
Laid-Back Heart Surgeons and Other Horrors
190(1)
But It Helps Recruitment
190(1)
Some Help from Hong Kong
191(1)
Just Junk It
192(3)
Americans The Beautiful And Pretty Woman: Caring Service
Key Trend: The Wish to Connect
195(50)
New Communities
196(2)
Starbucks' Key Insight
198(3)
What Your Clients Actually Buy
201(2)
A Lesson from Hong Kong
203(2)
An Insight from The Great Gatsby
205(2)
Americans the Beautiful: Understanding Positive Illusions
207(2)
Watching Pretty Woman
209(2)
Uncertainty and the Importance Principle
211(1)
People Need People
212(1)
Money Can't Buy You Loyalty
213(1)
Efficient Tools Aren't
214(2)
"Thank You, (Enter Client Name Here)"
216(1)
The End of the Line
216(2)
Kohl's Race to Clients' Hearts
218(2)
How Priceline Almost Snapped
220(1)
The Good Neighbors Drop By
221(1)
The Mercer, the Morgan, and the Grand: The Power of Welcome
222(2)
Your Fastest Way to Improve Client Satisfaction
224(1)
Four Rules for Choosing Clients
225(1)
The Gift That Isn't
225(1)
Your Clients Were Always Right
226(1)
Keeping a Client's Confidence
227(1)
A Promise Written Is a Promise Kept
227(2)
Your Three Key Moments: 3, 24, 5
229(1)
Understanding Listening
230(2)
Your Silence Is Golden
232(1)
How to Listen
233(1)
A Lesson from the Eastern Oregon Desert: How to Remember Names
234(1)
The Rule of "Whole Plus One"
235(2)
Ten Rules of Business Manners
237(1)
Staff Like Spago
238(1)
Ritz-Carlton's Shortcut to Satisfied Clients
239(2)
How Judy Rankin Shot a 63
241(4)
The Traits Clients Love
Humility and Generosity
245(2)
Sacrifice
247(2)
Openness
249(1)
Integrity and What It Actually Means
250(2)
What Clients Love Most
252(5)
Your Greatest Asset
Why do Some People and Businesses Thrive
257(4)
Appendix
Checklist: Questions to Ask in Building an Exceptional Business
261(6)
A Reading List for Growing a Business
267(7)
An Interview with Harry Beckwith
274(5)
My Favorite Part: Acknowledgments
279