A must-read book!

This is the essential, practical, easy-to-read guide that will revolutionize the way you communicate in order to get more done and do it more quickly, more pleasantly and less stressfully for optimum results in all that you do
Ivan Misner, Ph.D., NY Times Bestselling Author & Founder of BNI

The
eChap

FREE rs te

Communication techniques to make you unstoppable

Andy Bounds

Get more done more quickly!

The long-awaited follow-up to the international bestseller The Jelly Effect Communication is supposed to cause something. Thats the point of it. So, what do you want to achieve following your communication? Do you want someone to answer yes? Do you want to improve your relationships? Do you want people to understand exactly what youre talking about, first time? Whatever you want to achieve, youll need decent communication to get there, and expert and bestselling author Andy Bounds shows us exactly how to nail our communication. Using the same conversational style that made The Jelly Effect so popular, The Snowball Effect is packed with short, rapid fire sections complete with visuals and special features to help us get serious results from our communication, The Snowball Effect explains how to: Persuade people to say yes more quickly, more often Enjoy your job more because youll be calling the shots for a change Remove the communication frustrations you feel all too often Get more done, more quickly because youre getting people on your side faster (these techniques have saved people at least one month every year)

Click here to buy the book from your favourite bookshop

Introduction from
Andy Bounds
The

03

Communication techniques to make you unstoppable

Andy Bounds

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Imagine how life-changing it would be if your communications suddenly became better than everyone elses. The benefits would be huge. After all, great communicators are more successful. They get more done. They persuade others more easily. They enjoy their jobs more. So, there you go. It is as simple as that. Just communicate better, and youll achieve great things. The problem, of course, is that it isnt simple to communicate brilliantly. If it was, your diary wouldnt be full of tedious conference calls, pointless meetings and presentations where you watch somebody read out their slides. And also, its taken you your entire life to develop your current communication style. Its part of you. And its hard to break such entrenched habits (after all, how many transformational workshops have you attended that changed things for 1-2 days only, if that?)

Andy Bounds

The only way to improve your communication skills forever

Ive helped some of the worlds largest companies to communicate better. Ive spoken at conferences in 30 countries about communication best-practices. My Mum is blind, so Ive a lifetimes experience of talking to someone who cant see things the way I do an essential skill when communicating. My previous book The Jelly Effect: How to make your communication stick is an International best-seller (it was only kept off the Amazon #1 spot by the final Harry Potter book).

04

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

So, I know how to help people make long-lasting improvements to how they communicate. And one thing Ive seen again and again is:

Andy Bounds

The best way to improve forever is to keep adding simple techniques, embedding them as you go.

The alternative trying to change loads of things at once always ends with people reverting back. Its like how de-tox diets always also to lead to re-tox binges. This means that making a permanent change is like building a snowball: you make the core, then roll it down the hill, adding new layers as you go. This book will help you build your snowball. Ill show you simple techniques to help you communicate better than ever before. This is something people often find hard to do, for all sorts of reasons:

05

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

People communicate in the order they think. This means that their main points the ones that required most thought appear towards the end. But, their audiences concentration reduces during their communications. So, by the time they reach their main points, people have switched off. They prepare by thinking what do I want to say?, not what do I want them to do after Ive said it?. But communication is supposed to cause something. Thats the point of it. So, their first thought should always be to identify its purpose, then work backwards to decide what needs to be said, to achieve it. They expect others to follow their thought processes, by showing how to get from Startpoint A to Conclusion Z. But, what if the audience is starting at point B instead? A Londoner wouldnt direct a New Yorker by saying starting in London, you because the other person isnt starting there.

Andy Bounds

06

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

How The Snowball Effect will improve your communication

The book has five sections: Build your core The cornerstone of successful communication

Andy Bounds

Get more done, more quickly How to save one month per year Persuade more people to say yes How to convince others to do what you want Enjoy your job more How to make work more fun Eliminate the negatives How to remove your communication frustrations

07

These contain lots of short chapters, each showing a simple technique you can use the minute you finish reading it. If you like, each chapter is a new bit of snow to add onto your core.

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

The chapter titles show what each technique will help you achieve. You can read them in whichever order you want each makes sense on its own. So: If you want to Find out how to communicate in a certain situation Learn everything about a particular aspect of communication e.g. effective meetings Read it as a book The best way to read the book is to Read the chapter titles, and go straight to the relevant one(s) Look in the Index for all the pages that relate to meetings Go cover-to-cover!

Andy Bounds

Whichever you choose, I advise you start with Section A Build your core: the cornerstone of successful communication. This shows how to build a solid foundation. It helps you create your snowballs core. Get this right and you can build a brilliant snowball. Miss it out and the snow has nothing to stick to.

This book is a great start. But its only a start

This book will help make a big difference. Apply the techniques and you will communicate better.

08

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

But its only a start. As Irish author George Bernard Shaw said: the single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. In other words, people think communications finished. But it often isnt. It needs constant, rigorous, disciplined reinforcement and follow-up. And, just as communication never ends, neither does learning how to master it. So, to help embed this books techniques: test them, use them, then adapt them to suit your situation. Lets be honest: it isnt easy to communicate perfectly. But it is easy to make small changes that lead to huge improvements. And, the better you do this, the more unstoppable your snowball becomes.

Andy Bounds

09

Communication techniques to make you unstoppable

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Andy Bounds
January 2013
Below are the chapters that Andy has selected for this eSampler.
Section B Get more done more quickly: How to save one month per year

Andy Bounds

Chapter 4: Impress senior audiences, when you havent much time

Section D Enjoy your job more: How to make work more fun

Chapter 31: Ensure everyone including you thinks youre great

Section E Eliminate the negatives: How to remove your communication frustrations

Chapter 56: Stop procrastinating about having challenging conversations 10

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Chapter 4

Andy Bounds

When you want to impress senior audiences, but havent much time
Some communications are career-defining. Amaze your audience and you may never look back; underwhelm them and you may never recover. Presentations to senior audiences can be like that. You want to impress them. You certainly wont want to come out with any regrets. But this isnt always easy to do. Especially if this happens:

The agendas over-run, so were going to have to shrink your 30-minute presentation down to 5. What did you want to say?
Recognise this? It happens pretty frequently, doesnt it? But, if you want to impress them, you have to react impressively. And people dont always. For instance, some reactions Ive seen but do not endorse are: Deliver the same content six times more quickly this just ends up a mess

11

Give hand-outs and say please turn to page 8 they dont. They flick through the pack and dont listen to you

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Offer to come back another day this might work. But how do you know things wont over-run then? And, how do you know youll be a priority to them then? If you arent, you wont even get on the agenda. No, a better option is to present using the four steps Wallop/Down/Up/Please: 1. Wallop start with a big bang (often, this will be showing the impact of not changing. The rationale: people buy to avoid pain) 2. Down make this impact worse 3. Up show you have an alternative which will improve things 4. Please ask them to do something. For example:

Andy Bounds

Thanks for your time today. We are needlessly wasting 230,000 per month on X (Wallop) Even worse, this number will increase over the next couple of months. Projected needless waste will cost 2.8million this year. This will increase to over 5.6million in the next couple of years (Down) We can reduce these costs by over 75% - thats a potential saving of over 4million by implementing X [spend 2-3 minutes explaining your proposal] (Up) Therefore, given that successful implementation could deliver 4million of savings, please can I ask you to do Action X (Please)

12

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

See how this works? You grab their attention immediately. Your message is impossible to ignore. You stand out from other presenters (who, lets face it, probably had a first slide saying background or some such). An added bonus: you get instant, positive feedback, in that you can tell its worked because they: agree to your request; and/or show interest and ask questions; and/or give you longer than 5 minutes!

Andy Bounds

Why Walloping is a time-saving tip

When I wrote this chapter, I wasnt sure whether to put it in the next Section Persuade more people to say yes or this one Get more done more quickly. It could have been either. But, in the end, I chose here because I wanted to reinforce the huge time savings that this approach brings. It takes only minutes to do, which is much quicker than traditional prep. In fact, a number of my customers always use Walloping as their first prep step because: It quickly gives clarity on key issues They can present their Wallop version as is, if appropriate; or can use it to help shape their next iteration

13

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

It guides them on impactful visuals. For instance, in the above example: The first visual could be a slide which only had one thing on it Needless cost: 230,000 A click would change this number to 2,800,000 The next click would change this number to 5,600,000 The next click would replace all those words with Saving 4,000,000 Or, of course, you could simply just deliver the same content six times faster! Wallopings great for when you want to make a big impact very quickly. Sometimes though, your aim will be to make a permanent impact. This requires a different technique, which I cover in the next chapter Build your snowball: impress senior audiences, when you havent much time

Andy Bounds

The

Prepare two presentations your traditional one, plus a Wallop/Down/Up/Please version. Wallop a big bang start, showing the negatives of not changing Down make the negatives worse Up offer a solution to remove this now-big negative Please ask them to act

14

This is very quick to prepare, and gives you a great option if you need it.

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Chapter 31

Andy Bounds

When you want to ensure everyone including you thinks youre great
To enjoy your job more, theres a question you absolutely must have a good answer to: What do you do?

My job is to

Most people answer this question with either: what they are Im an accountant, or what they do I prepare tax returns Neither grabs you, do they? And thats because people are much more interested in: what they cause I help people pay less tax

15

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Doesnt this person sound useful?! And I bet they enjoy their job too. Theyll know the value they deliver to others. Theyll be in-demand. Theyll probably be very successful. By sorting out their inside (how they feel about themselves), they now have a valuable outside (how others see them). Weird, isnt it? Its the same accountant. Theyre just describing themselves more effectively now. Heres how you can do the same As youve just seen, an Elevator Pitch can focus on one of three things:

Andy Bounds

WHAT YOU ARE

(Your job title Im an accountant )

(Your services I prepare tax return)

WHAT YOU DO

(the AFTERs* you deliver I help people pay less tax)

WHAT YOU CAUSE

(*for a quick reminder about AFTERs, see chapter 1).

16

The right-hand side is by far the most valuable. So, you should talk about that side more.

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

How to ensure you think youre great

Once you know to focus on the AFTERs you cause, you see examples of it everywhere: Disney talks about making your dreams come true, not their cartoons Kodak talks about your memories, not their photographs Graham Gooch calls himself the England cricket teams Run-making Coach, not Batting Coach And, for me, my job is to help people communicate better, not to be a consultant/ author To create an AFTERs-rich Elevator Pitch there are three elements: 1. The subject 2. The verb 3. The AFTERs

Andy Bounds

17

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Here are three examples, to show how steps work. Example 1 1. The subject 2. The verb 3. The AFTERs I help people pay less tax Example 2 This presentation will show you how to deliver better results next year Example 3 Our Department ensures our target market thinks were better than the competition

Andy Bounds

Each is much better than the more traditional approach: Im an accountant This presentation is a review of last year Were the Marketing Department

So, whats your Elevator Pitch? 1. The subject 2. The verb I

18

3. The AFTERs

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Compare this to your Elevator Pitch at the start of the chapter. Can you see how much more valuable you look now? Even though, just like the accountant above, youre still the same person. Once you have an impressive AFTERs-rich Elevator Pitch, your next step is to find evidence that proves to you that its right. For instance, think youre a Tax Reducer? Then identify: examples of when youve saved people tax the total amount of tax youve saved tax advice that others dont know And then work hard to get even better at delivering your AFTERs. For instance: find new ways to increase tax savings give free advice about it keep at the forefront of your industry ask others for their tax-saving ideas publish white papers about saving tax anything that keeps you as AFTERs-y as possible.

Andy Bounds

19

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

And, of course, AFTERs are also a great way to align your team behind your vision. For example, Bev James, CEO of The Coaching Academy the worlds largest training school for coaches told me that she uses AFTERs to remind her team why they do what they do. So, they no longer think of themselves as coaches; instead, they help people achieve more than they thought they could. Imagine the power of having your whole team thinking like that.

Andy Bounds

How to ensure everyone thinks youre great

When I want to pay less tax, Ill go to someone who sees their role as a Tax Reducer, not an Accountant. When I want to grow my business, Ill go to a bank who talks about my Business Growth, not their Business Development Loans. When I want to score more runs, Ill go to Graham Gooch, not a batting coach (though, even he might struggle to help someone whos blind in one eye). In other words, once youve convinced yourself of the AFTERs you cause, its relatively easy to convince others. You just need to mention your AFTERs every time its appropriate in conversations, meetings, networking events, interviews, presentations, documents, brochures, websites

20

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

How your AFTERs-focus improves your communication Once you realise your role isnt to do things but to cause things, your communications naturally improve: A do-er thinks What should this meeting cover? What do I want to say? This session ends at 4pm When building relationships, I think what they and I do An AFTERs-causer thinks What should this meeting cause? What do I want them to do? The session ends as soon as we achieve our goal When building relationships, I think how can they and I help each other

Andy Bounds

So, not only do AFTERs-causers feel valuable, they also communicate more quickly and effectively. They get more done. They have better relationships. They enjoy the ride more. And finally So, having gone through all this, here are two big questions: 1. How do you describe yourself to others? 2. How do you describe yourself to yourself?

21

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

The more you focus on the AFTERs you cause, the more others will too making you feel more valuable to them. And to you.

Andy Bounds

The

Build your snowball: ensure everyone including you thinks youre great Your role isnt to do things; its to cause things. Focus on the AFTERs you deliver in other words, how peoples futures are improved after working with you. The more you do this, the more they and you view you as essential.

22

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Chapter 56

Andy Bounds

When you want to stop procrastinating about having challenging conversations

When I started writing this book, I asked my customers which of my techniques they find the most useful. The most popular response was this chapters: how to start conversations you feel uncomfortable about, like: when you want to change how someone thinks of you revisiting a situation that went badly starting an important conversation that you know will be hard situations when you want to ask questions, but dont want to feel daft

Serve and volley: how to start awkward conversations

Although these situations sound hard, the solution is actually quite simple. Its what I call my serve and volley technique. You serve an enticing opening sentence; they return your serve; and then you volley to keep the rally going. To make this work, you need a great serve an opening sentence that:

23

is intriguing and/or in the other persons interest for you to continue; and stops early, so they say tell me more (their return of serve)

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

This means theyve asked you for your Sentence Two (your volley), so they now want you to start the conversation you wanted to have in the first place. So, applying serve and volley to the earlier examples: Want to change how someone thinks of you? You: (Serve) Ive been thinking, Im not sure the way we work together brings you as much value as it could. Them: (Return) What do you mean? (This is virtually the only response they could give) You: (Volley) Well, itd be better if (and youre now discussing the topic you wanted to) Want to re-visit a situation that went badly? You: (Serve) You taught me something invaluable the other day. Thank you. Them: (Return) What was it? (Again, virtually their only possible response) You: (Volley) Well, do you remember when X happened? Ive been thinking about it since, And realise

Andy Bounds

24

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Want to start an important conversation that you know will be hard? You: Its fair to say that neither of us enjoyed how X went. I have an idea about how I can rectify things. Them: What is it? (Again, their only possible response) You: Well, I thought that next time we could Choose your own sentences, of course. But if your Sentence One is good, theyll ask for your Sentence Two. So youve successfully started the conversation you felt uncomfortable about. But what about the other example I gave earlier? The one where you want to ask questions but dont want to feel daft? Well, this is one of my favourites; it works every time. You serve with: The last thing I want to do is bore you with irrelevant information. So, do you mind if I ask some questions? What could they possibly say in response? No be irrelevant?! No, their only possible return is what do you want to ask?, and you can comfortably volley your questions back over the net.

Andy Bounds

25

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Andy Bounds

Build your snowball: stop procrastinating about having challenging conversations

The

To address awkward conversations quickly, script and practise your Sentence One to make sure it: Is intriguing and/or in the other persons interest for you to continue; and Stops early, so they ask you to do so This means that theyre requesting you have the conversation that you always wanted to have.

26

The
Communication techniques make you unstoppable

Andy Bounds

About the Author

Andy Bounds helps people communicate better. Awarded the title Britains Sales Trainer of the Year, and described by AstraZenecas Global Communication Director as a genius, whose advice cant be ignored, Andys insights stem from the fact his Mother is blind. This has given him a lifetimes experience of communicating from someone elses point of view... so critical when seeking to persuade others. Andys first book The Jelly Effect is an international best-seller. To receive Andys weekly communication & sales tips, sign up at www.andybounds.com/tips, or follow him on Twitter @andy_bounds.

27

Are you ready to improve and impress?... then you need to try
The

Click here to buy the book from your favourite bookshop

Please feel free to post this

The

sampler on your blog or website, or email it to anyone you think would like something fantastic! Thank you.
Extracted from The Snowball Effect Published in 2013 by Capstone Publishing Ltd (a Wiley Company), The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ. UK. Phone +44(0)1243 779777 Copyright 2013 Andy Bounds All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to permreq@wiley.co.uk.