What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business Book

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