Metaphorically Selling

Chiron Associates, 2004

15 min read

10 take-aways

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What's inside?

Be strong as a lion. Be sharp as a tack. Become more persuasive by using metaphors to sell your product…and yourself.

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Editorial Rating

Qualities

Innovative
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Recommendation

You might say that author Anne Miller is like a homeowner who strikes oil while digging a ditch in the backyard. In this book, she shares knowledge she refined from more than 20 years of distilling metaphors. Her book leaves little doubt that metaphors can fuel the engines of your sales success. Its pages are full of colorful, persuasive anecdotes and analogies that follow one another like racecars coming out of Turn Four at Daytona. If you doubt whether her advice will apply to the rubber-meets-the-road realities of sales, just take Miller’s ideas out for a test drive. Her primary expertise is in presentations, not sales, which may explain why her roadmap (note the extended metaphor) to success is so much more creative than most sales advice. Miller’s book leaves many other tomes in the dust. getAbstract.com thinks sales professionals who read this book and master the art of the metaphor should get ready to take a victory lap or two.

Summary

Metaphorically Speaking

In 1980, when Congress summoned CEO Lee Iacocca to justify a historic, $1.2 billion federal bail out of Chrysler Corporation, he faced an uphill battle. His problem was the colorful phrase "bail out." It conjured up images of a blundering captain who had grounded his ship on a reef and needed government help to stay afloat. Iacocca needed to substitute a different image. In his testimony, Iacocca explained that the government provides a safety net for its citizens. Chrysler, he pointed out, employed thousands of workers. Letting Chrysler go bankrupt would be tantamount to pulling the safety net out from under the American worker.

No one in Congress wanted to do that. Representatives passed the measure and saved the automaker, proving once again that metaphor has the power to persuade, convince and sell. Iacocca’s "sale" was worth more than a billion dollars. If it can work on that scale, be assured that the targeted use of metaphors can close sales for you.

Perfect Persuasion

Most sales representatives make one of two mistakes: they talk too much, using whatever words come into their minds before they think deeply about them; or...

About the Author

As founder of Chiron Associates, Inc., Anne Miller is a well-known speaker, author, consultant and seminar leader. She specializes in public speaking and "power to sell" classes. She is the author of 365 Sales Tips for Winning Business and Presentation Jazz!

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M. S. 4 years ago

If this book was around in Aristotle's time - instead of writing "The greatest thing by far is to be master of metaphor" he may well have been inspired by Anne Miller to write, "The greatest thing by far since sliced bread is to be master of metaphor."

Anne Miller