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Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game

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Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game

(85 customer reviews)

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3320891

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Praise for Covert Persuasion:

"This book is a treasure trove of ideas you can use to turn a 'no' into a 'yes' almost instantly-in any sales situation."
-Brian Tracy, speaker and author of Create Your Own Future and Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

"Hogan is the master of persuasion. I urge you to persuade yourself to buy this book and everything he's ever written and recorded. It will help you understand yourself, understand others, and succeed. This information is bankable."
-Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, Little Red Book of Selling, and Little Red Book of Sales Answers

"There's more wisdom in this book than in 500 pages on the same subject. Whether you need to persuade your lover, your spouse, your boss, your clients, your friends, or yourself, this powerhouse collection of mind tricks and secrets will give you the upper hand. In today's competitive world, this is the persuasion wizard's manual you need to control circumstances and get what you want."
-Dr. Joe Vitale, author of Life's Missing Instruction Manual and The Attractor Factor

"When you read Hogan's writing, it feels like you're getting sage advice from a master. Would you like other people to decide on their own (or so they think) to go along with your every whim? Then this is the book you've been looking for."
-David Garfinkel, author of Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich

"There is more practical information on the dynamics of selling and communication in these pages than you could ever acquire in a lifetime on your own through trial and error. Take advantage of the authors' wisdom and read this book!"
-Todd D. Bramson, Certified Financial Planner and author of Real Life Financial Planning

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Product Details

Author:	Kevin Hogan
Hardcover:	240 pages
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication Date:	September 18, 2006
Language:	English
ISBN:	0470051418
Product Length:	5.79 inches
Product Width:	0.95 inches
Product Height:	8.68 inches
Product Weight:	0.79 pounds
Package Length:	8.6 inches
Package Width:	5.7 inches
Package Height:	1.0 inches
Package Weight:	0.75 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 85 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.0

( 85 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

335 of 347 found the following review helpful:

simply a rewrite of the Psychology of Persuasion Dec 02, 2007 By David Relyea
This book, although well written and well laid out, is simply a rehash of Hogan's earlier book, "The Psychology of Persuasion". This book introduces literally nothing new, simply reorganizing the material.

If you own the Psychology of Persuasion, do not purchase this book. Otherwise, definitely buy one or the other.

(As an aside, I find it amusing that Hogan and his publisher believe the key to sales to be re-introducing the same material in different works, rather than creating "new editions". They may be right, but as someone who almost bought two "identical" books, it's a little annoying!)

125 of 129 found the following review helpful:

how to sell Jan 09, 2007 By Officer Ben
I was thinking that this book was going to be a little more about getting compliance out of individuals, along the lines of verbal judo. However, I found the book to be mostly about sales, and most concepts related to salesmen. Some of the concepts could be applied to getting compliance out of non-compliant individuals, but it seemed like the main focus was how to sell a product.

111 of 118 found the following review helpful:

A Persuasion Toolbox...with Instructions and Examples Sep 18, 2006 By Philip Hamilton
I like this book because it focuses on practical tools that work. You'll recognize some strategies and tactics, others will be new to you, and a number will surprise you. Hogan goes beyond the worn platitudes and shows what research has shown to work in persuasion. "Covert Persuasion" is packed with examples to show how you can put these tools into practice.

I love chapters 8 and 9. We've all heard about the importance of using stories to persuade. And that's correct. But they need to be the right stories with the necessary ingredients. And they need to be told the right way. How can we avoid the mistakes that so many of us make in storytelling?

Chapter 8 gives you 20 keys to using covert persuasion in story. You'll then read stories that grab you...because they illustrate those 20 keys. You'll be able to tell stories that move others in the direction you want.

Chapter 9 shows how to use questions most effectively in persuasion. It's much more than making a list of questions and plowing through them. Which questions should we use in what parts of the persuasion process? This chapter gives excellent information and examples.

The last chapter gives you four worksheets to quickly choose ways to deliver your next message most effectively.

Anyone I can think of...whether or not they formally consider themselves as "salespeople"...will earn a high return by using these tools in daily interactions with others.

37 of 39 found the following review helpful:

There are probably some good ideas in there, but... Aug 13, 2010 By Happy Face
I just sat down and got through 4 chapters of this thing and I literally had to put it down and come vent a bit.
When I ordered this book (based on so many positive reviews) I was excited and eager to read it.
But I'm pretty disappointed in and more than moderately annoyed by it.

1. The editing is weak. From a reader's vantage point I am continually distracted by awkward phrasing, minor typos, debatable punctuation and Laissez-faire writing. "There she is." "Sharp as a tack."
"Funny thing is that before you paint those pictures you want to address the resistance." What kind of sentences are these? They're irritating and begging for rephrasing.
Was the author trying to be "folksy?" Ugh. Even worse... was he just trying to fill up the pages?

2. The content seems to be nothing but rehashed pop-psychology. Sure there's a bibliography at the end, but I don't need a bibliography to summarize the author's points: Make people want what you're selling. Help customers see your product in a positive light and dismiss the competitors. Get the customer to imagine himself using your product. Make people think they're coming up with the ideas you are feeding them and they will be happy to embrace the ideas. Don't get in a shouting match with anyone, rather be subtle and cunning.
How is this even a book? No one needs to be told this stuff. People want to understand HOW to use the ideas.

3. Even if you think these "insights" are important enough to justify a book, does the author NEED to write what he's written about again and again?
If you look at page 30 you will see three successive short paragraphs that begin as such:
"If you will recall, I shared with you that when people..."
"And remember, you've discovered that people's beliefs..."
"And, I've shared with you how people..."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I read the previous chapters. Why is he regurgitating it? If there is an important concept connected to the content he's trying to remind me of, then why didn't he make it crystal clear when he brought it up the first time?
And I didn't "discover that people's beliefs" anything. The author made this deduction. This is only one of the endless examples where the author INFORMS you about what he's already written about. But then again, I suppose that is consistent with the complaint I've read in others' reviews: that this entire book is just a rehash of some other book and it should only have been released as a second edition to the first book, not given its own title. So maybe consistency counts for something?

4. The book has a right-wing bias. It is pro "church" and "Republicans" and anti "Democrats." While everyone is entitled to their own place along the political spectrum and the bias is sure to be reassuring to some of the book's audience it's not actually germane and if you're not on that particular bandwagon, then it is just another annoying facet to an already annoying book.

5. The author is quite free with his use of the imperative tense. What's that all about? Some kind of NLP tactic? And what's with the author's self proclaimed "$10,000 ideas"? Now there's a bit of arrogance. He claims the ideas warrant the dollar value since you can either improve your business that much or enjoy intangible benefits worth that much. So you'll make a bunch of money off each of these tips, or even if you don't you'll be satisfied as if you had... Right.

6. While anyone might defend the book against all my complaints by saying that my complaints are perhaps too nit-picky, please remember that I bought this book because I WANTED to learn from it. I bought it believing it was good and well written. I didn't start out saying to myself "Let's see what I can find wrong with this." The book's faults have jumped out at me. They annoy me. They are hard for me to ignore, even though I believe there must be some good ideas in here and I'd LIKE to get my money's worth out of it. And if that's not enough to convince you how about this: This whole book is supposed to be about how to get people on board with you and your ideas! If the author turns off an excited, motivated reader (who has PAID for the book!) then shouldn't he have a clue as to the subtleties that affect the "relationship" between himself and the reader? Shouldn't he know how to say what he needs to say without annoying people?
I have to wonder about all the high praise others have given this book. Are they all people who have previously "drank the kool-aid"? Maybe people who have been to live seminars? Maybe the author is irresistibly charismatic in person?
7. My final complaint is that maybe some of the book's schizophrenia comes from the fact that there are two authors, yet the entire book is written in the first person using the pronoun "I" without ever clarifying whether it's Kevin or James writing. "I shared...." "I once gave a seminar where..." "I'm going to show you that..." "My mother regularly told me that..."
Did they switch off writing each chapter and insecurely feel they had to make sure to rehash what the other guy already wrote just in case he didn't say it right? Did one guy do all the writing while the other guy did all the Xeroxing at the library? Did they write each chapter collaboratively, thus creating some kind of conglomerate persona? They never say "we felt compelled to write this book" or "we couldn't afford a decent editor" or "we read some of the stuff we referenced in the bibliography."
Bottom line: I'm disappointed and irritated and those very facts seem to be in such discord with the subject matter that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this thing now. The book actually addresses the topic of "rapport" which seems like some sick ironic joke.
Ugh. I really wish I hadn't wasted my money.

37 of 40 found the following review helpful:

Expected significantly more Aug 28, 2007 By Paul C. Smith "Paul C Smith"
I bought this book partly on the strengths of previous reviews, and as such I expected a much more in depth and meticulously researched book than it was.

The book is squarely aimed at a sales audience, so the writing style is more that of a motivational book than an introduction to or tutorial on covert persuasion. So many of the techniques are prefaced with superlatives about their effectiveness that it begins to sound a bit silly. Many of the book's tip lists are embellished by duplicating previous entries with somewhat altered wording.

The word "covert" was irrelevant to the majority of the book's examples; many are simply restatements of classic personality skills. The conversation examples are awkward at times, and it's hard to imagine them unfolding in a real-world setting. My own biggest disappointment, though, was the shortage (or lack, in many cases) of references or hard data to support the effectiveness claims that you'll find peppered throughout the material.

I won't call the book useless; it has its merits, and there are a good ten or eleven pages worth taking notes on. In fairness, books I consider very good contain maybe 10% noteworthy pages, while the rest consists mainly of explanation and examples, which is as it should be. However, there is little to be learned here that you wouldn't find in a day or two's worth of reading on Wikipedia, and having done that before buying the book, reading it felt like an episode of déjà vu, even as a newcomer to the subject of NLP.

If you're in sales, relatively green at it, and you want a motivational book with mostly good advice on how better to communicate with prospects and clients, this book does fit that bill. If you're a skeptical sort like me looking for data, statistics, concrete examples and copious authoritative and neutral references, this is not that book.

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