The pitch is the absolute essence of modern business. Ideas are the most valuable commodity in the modern economy and it is human skill which develops them. However the skills of the pitch are not only relevant to the world of business, rather they apply to just about every significant personal transaction in your life... So whether at a sales conference in corporate conference room hell or over lunch at a glamorous restaurant, Life's a Pitch tells you how to handle human transactions. A pitch is not a meeting, it's a drama. A pitch is not about transferring information, it's about transferring power. It is business, but it is also theatre. Part inspirational manual for business, part guidebook to a successful and happy social life, Life's a Pitch is written as the result of an accumulated half century of (mostly successful) pitching by the authors. Ground-breaking and genre-busting, it will transform the way you think about the art of persuasion for ever.

Philip Delves Broughton. bestselling business author of What They Teach You at Harvard Business School, takes a sideways look at the greatest salespeople in Life's a Pitch.What do the best rug seller in Tangier, the king of the US cable channels and the guru of the Japanese life insurance industry have in common? What makes the difference between an ordinary salesperson and the top 'gunslingers'?Philip Delves Broughton - author of the bestselling What They Teach You At Harvard Business School - has journeyed around the world to meet living legends of sales from all walks of life. Their stories are at once insightful, human and humorous. Delves Broughton reveals the ingredients needed to make a perfect sale, and show us how commercial genius might live in all of us.At every step of this journey we learn that selling - be it a product, person or even an idea - is something we all do every day. We are always pitching and presenting, trying to persuade people to accept us. Master the art of the sale and you will master the art of life.'A marvellous book about selling, and life, and who we are and how we tick... dazzling' - Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence'You can never look upon a sale in quite the same way again. Buy Life's a Pitch and be enlightened' - Adrian Wooldridge, The EconomistPhilip Delves Broughton is the author of the international bestseller What They Teach You at Harvard Business School. He was born in Bangladesh and grew up in England. He served as the New York and Paris bureau chief for the Daily Telegraph, and he now writes for publications including the Financial Times, the Evening Standard, and the Wall Street Journal. In 2006 he received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two sons.

TV's most popular pitchman reveals the secrets of pitching to get what you want in virtually any situation. Anthony "Sully" Sullivan went from selling car washers in rainy Welsh street markets to selling to audiences of millions around the world as the face of OxiClean. How did he do it? Convincing people to give you what you want is an art form that takes charisma and confidence. But no great pitchman achieves success based on those qualities alone. The good ones make themselves great with practice and discipline, mastering a series of skills that Sullivan dubs the ten "Pitch Powers." These are essential techniques he's learned in more than twenty-five years "on the joint" (that's pitchman-speak for the area where you're selling). For the first time ever, Sullivan reveals the secrets behind his seemingly superhuman ability to persuade others--even if they start out regarding you with suspicion or even hostility. Do it right and you'll change minds, open doors, get opportunities, turn adversaries into allies, make more money, and gain the kind of confidence that makes other people want to know you. From the first Pitch Power ("Know Your Acceptable Outcomes") to the last ("Finish with Confidence")--with invaluable strategies along the way on using your flubs to get a laugh, how to deal with push-back, and more--Sullivan reveals that pitching is all about engaging a person face-to-face and eye-to-eye so they feel like you're speaking directly to them, even if there are fifty other people in the room. It's turning a crowd of strangers with their arms folded into a legion of fans ready to say "yes" enthusiastically to whatever you propose, what Anthony Sullivan calls fierce agreement. It's the power to get the job, get the girl (or guy), get the part, make money, get better service, advance your career--do just about anything you want to do.

Whether you’re asking for a raise, selling but holding your price, ending a relationship, or talking to children about divorce, success is predicated on planned, effective communication. Yet, most people fail to properly prepare their message. A veteran corporate attorney, sports agent, and expert consultant, Ronald M. Shapiro has spent years developing and honing his negotiation techniques. Now, Shapiro shares the bulletproof system of scripting he calls the Three D’s: Draft, Devil’s Advocate, Deliver. Illustrating his methods with fascinating real-life stories and helpful scripts, he walks readers through the process of creating an effective message, preparing for counterarguments, and delivering the results with confidence and grace. Applicable across a broad range of situations, Perfecting Your Pitch empowers us to get the results we want.

From the spark of ambition to play baseball professionally to the necessity of reinventing life after baseball, the anthropologist and former Minor Leaguer George Gmelch describes the lives of the men who work at America's national game. Twenty-four years after his own final road trip as a minor leaguer, Gmelch went back on the road with ballplayers, this time with a pen and pad to record the details of life around the diamond. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews with Major and Minor League players, coaches, and managers, Gmelch explores players' experiences throughout their careers: being scouted, becoming a rookie, moving through or staying in the Minors, preparing mentally and physically to play day after day, coping with slumps and successes, and facing retirement. He examines the ballplayers' routines and rituals, describes their joys and frustrations, and investigates the roles of wives, fans, and groupies in their lives. Based on his own experience as a player in the 1960s, Gmelch charts the life cycle of the modern professional ballplayer and makes perceptive comparisons to a previous generation of players.

*WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR* Fever Pitch is Nick Hornby's million-copy-selling, award-winnning football classic 'A spanking 7-0 away win of a football book. . . inventive, honest, funny, heroic, charming' Independent For many people watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ritual; but to others, its highs and lows provide a narrative to life itself. But, for Nick Hornby, his devotion to the game has provided one of few constants in a life where the meaningful things - like growing up, leaving home and forming relationships, both parental and romantic - have rarely been as simple or as uncomplicated as his love for Arsenal. Brimming with wit and honesty, Fever Pitch, catches perfectly what it really means to be a football fan - and in doing so, what it means to be a man. 'Hornby has put his finger on truths that have been unspoken for generations' Irish Times 'Funny, wise and true' Roddy Doyle

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone comes a challenging and heartwarming coming-of-age story about a softball player looking to prove herself on and off the field. Shenice Lockwood, captain of the Fulton Firebirds, is hyper-focused when she steps up to the plate. Nothing can stop her from leading her team to the U12 fast-pitch softball regional championship. But life has thrown some curveballs her way. Strike one: As the sole team of all-brown faces, Shenice and the Firebirds have to work twice as hard to prove that Black girls belong at bat. Strike two: Shenice’s focus gets shaken when her great-uncle Jack reveals that a career-ending—and family-name-ruining—crime may have been a setup. Strike three: Broken focus means mistakes on the field. And Shenice’s teammates are beginning to wonder if she’s captain-qualified. It's up to Shenice to discover the truth about her family’s past—and fast—before secrets take the Firebirds out of the game forever.

Rick Ankiel had the talent to be one of the best pitchers ever. Then, one day, he lost it. The Phenomenon is the story of how St. Louis Cardinals prodigy Rick Ankiel lost his once-in-a-generation ability to pitch -- not due to an injury or a bolt of lightning, but a mysterious anxiety condition widely known as "the Yips." It came without warning, in the middle of a playoff game, with millions of people watching. And it has never gone away. Yet the true test of Ankiel's character came not on the mound, but in the long days and nights that followed as he searched for a way to get back in the game. For four and a half years, he fought the Yips with every arrow in his quiver: psychotherapy, medication, deep-breathing exercises, self-help books, and, eventually, vodka. And then, after reconsidering his whole life at the age of twenty-five, Ankiel made an amazing turnaround: returning to the Major Leagues as a hitter and playing seven successful seasons. This book is an incredible story about a universal experience -- pressure -- and what happened when a person on the brink had to make a choice about who he was going to be.

Learn How To Get Everything You Want And More In The Ultimate Book On The Not-So-Gentle Art Of Persuasion From Don Peppers, Pitchman Extraordinaire And Author Of The One-To-One Future (46,000 Sold). In business, a pitch is a closed-end, winner-take-all contest. It involves one prospective customer and two or more hopeful suppliers, each struggling to defeat the others and win the account. Sometimes the business is won on the basis of price, but often -- especially where professional services are concerned -- the determining factor is intangible. Who, the client wants to know, will fight hardest for me in court, come up with the most inspired ad campaign, bring my products to the most new markets? In Life's A Pitch... And Then You Buy, Don Peppers shows us how to craft a pitch that is guaranteed to simultaneously win the confidence (and business) of prospective clients and defeat the competition. Peppers's fail-safe system teaches mastery of three levels of the pitch: salesmanship, psychology, and game theory. Peppers believes that the strongest pitches appeal to a person's emotional makeup and the very subtle, extremely personal "hot buttons" that make each of us into feeling and thinking creatures. Peppers shows how you can design pitches that capture your clients' hearts and throw your competition off balance at the same time. In fast-paced prose, Peppers covers all the bases, including: overcoming objections, seeing eye-to-eye with your prospects, speaking the customer's language, prospecting, and follow-up. No matter what field you're in, Peppers's lessons will help you master the art of persuasion.

The pitch is the absolute essence of modern business. Ideas are the most valuable commodity in the modern economy and it is human skill which develops them. Whether at a sales conference in corporate conference room hell or over lunch at a glamourous restaurant, this title tells you how to handle human transactions.