Books about selling strategies and communication methods can be rather confusing from time to time. Many authors try to teach you one certain strategy that is the ‘’right’’ one. Then you read the next book and they tell you all differently.

After being roughly 50 pages into Andy Bounds’ ‘The Jelly Effect: How to make your communication stick’ I knew this book is an exception of all that. Bounds brings up his personal experiences as examples, raises a huge variety of questions the reader will be asking himself and looks at the outcome of those questions from a totally different point of view. The book is built on the fact that the author spent his childhood describing to his blind mother the surroundings she was in. By doing so he became an expert in communications. He learned communication methods that instead of throwing all kinds of jelly at his listeners in hopes of something to stick he can leave out all the irrelevant jelly and make it all stick. Each section of the book is self-contained, but the first two chapters should be read by everyone. Each chapter has its own theme such as ‘networking’ or ‘presentations’ and is told through the author’s personal experiences.

The methods presented by the author give a lot of perspective to looking at the way I communicate with others. The comparisons between what people think, others might think and what they really think – but do not actually know it – are significant. Like buying a drill for repairs at home: the customer is not looking for the drill itself – he/she is looking for a drill to make amazing holes with. What comes after the purchase is the outcome the customer is looking for.

I have created my own selling technique over the years, working in customer service/Sales; but this book and especially its chapter about how to sell more took me a step further. One technique, I will take from the book,  is the ‘ABCs of Selling’. The A is for establishing the customer’s desired AFTERs. B is for being certain – stating with certainty we can provide those AFTERs, and C is for convincing – proving that we can deliver those AFTERs. The technique is very simple and effective but only if you have done the preparations correctly. Enhancing your selling points and building up self-confidence is crucial in order for it to succeed.