The Pocket Pitching Bible features in the Financial Mail

"Paul Boross, author of The Pocket Pitching Bible, gives tips for delivering engaging, collaborative and fun pitches to win business and build a network of contacts."

http://www.fmwf.com/media-type/news/2012/07/guest-blog-paul-borros-the-pitch-doctor-on-how-smes-should-deliver-a-pitch/

The Pocket Pitching Bible Hits Amazon's Number One Spot

Paul Boross’ new book, The Pocket Pitching Bible, has already hit the number one position in its sales category, just a few weeks after its launch.

The book builds on the success of Boross' first book, The Pitching Bible, and the new book has been created as a pocket companion guide to it.

Paul Boross said, "I am very happy to see that so many people have wanted to get The Pocket Pitching Bible in addition to The Pitching Bible. My new book is the perfect aide memoir to the original and people are already reporting that they are The Pocket Pitching Bible just before they go into pitches so that they can make sure that they remember all the key ingredients of a perfect pitch"

The new book is much smaller than the original at 210 pages versus 350, and it packs all of the author's 25 years of experience in pitching into a handy format that readers can take with them on any business trip.

Not only is the new book a condensed version of the original with just the key points, checklists and practice exercises, it also features all new content in several key areas, all with the aim of making it as easy as possible for the reader to prepare quickly for an important presentation.

"I'm very excited at this news about The Pocket Pitching Bible's Amazon sales rank”, concludes Boross, "and I feel very grateful to all of the readers of my books who have given me such valuable feedback on how they are using them. I know that a lot of people are still worried about the state of the economy and feel that any edge in a pitch situation can make the difference between failure and the survival of a business. I've spent 25 years developing these skills with clients all around the world, and the one thing that stands out above all else is that making a real and genuine connection with your audience is what makes that difference, every time. I’ve really worked hard at creating two books which capture the essence of how to do that, and my readers tell me it works, so that works for me!"

The Pocket Pitching Bible is available from all good book stores. Published by CGW Publishing and priced at £7.99 ISBN 978-1-9082931-2-1.

The Sunday Times features The Pocket Pitching Bible

Corporate Godfathers is up for CMI Management Book of the Year

The Chartered Management Institute's annual book competition features entries in five categories, and Corporate Godfathers by Segreto Uno is a contender in the category of 'The Commuter's Read'.

It's a great testament to what is an immensely readable and enjoyable book, whilst also carrying a very powerful message about managing your career. You can interpret the book as a 'what not to do' or as a 'how to' guide, depending on how brave you feel!

We will of course keep you posted on the progress of the competition.

Dreams Do Come True entered for the Portico literary prize

Dreams Do Come True by Trudie and Lloyd Thompson has been entered for the 2012 Portico prize, dedicated to showcasing literary talent in the North of England.

We will of course keep you updated on their progress.

Thompsons Appear on BBC Radio 4

Trudie and Lloyd Thompson appeared live on BBC radio 4's 'Saturday Live' magazine program on Saturday morning.

You can listen again to the program here, the Thompsons are interviewed from about 1'16 in.

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The Pitch Doctor featured on Tweak Your Biz.com

Paul's interview with Lorna Sixsmith is featured on the Tweak Your Biz.com blog:

http://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/2012/05/16/the-pitching-bible-paul-boross-on-pitching-successfully/

Revelation Authors Release 2011 Survey Results

Ask most people in businesses today if they think that manipulation and office politics affect their working lives and they’ll say yes.

But ask them to quantify the impact on the business and that’s a much more difficult question to answer.

In 2011, Revelation Consulting Ltd set out to answer that question, and we are now running an annual surveywhich has turned in its first set of results.

It perhaps won’t surprise you to learn that 95% of respondents agreed that politics, manipulation and hidden agendas in the workplace had affected them directly and personally. But the cases that get bad enough to hit the headlines really are the tip of the iceberg.

The victims of bullying and manipulation mostly won’t speak out, so we have attempted to quantify the affects of corporate politics through three of their symptoms; under-performance, absenteeism and staff turnover.

1. Staff turnover

Some 70% of respondents said that they had left a job directly as a result of corporate politics, with around three quarters of those saying that their leaving salary was anything between £20,000 and £50,000 and more than 10% of them saying that they left a job paying over £70,000 per year.

The average salary, taken across all respondents affected in this way was £40,000. (Click here to view the pie chart in a new window.)

2. Absenteeism

The average number of days that the respondents missed work during one year due to bullying and manipulation was exactly in line with the figure of 4.5 days per year published recently by the Office of National Statistics, perhaps hinting that coughs, colds and bad backs aren’t the real reason that many people stay at home for the day.

However, it’s no wonder that the problem is under-reported: 85% of respondents said that managers actively covered up the situation. In our 2012 survey, we’ll be digging deeper into this, asking why individuals don’t speak up when they suffer from the effects of workplace politics.

3. Underperformance

This is another key area where business costs can spiral out of control, with more than half of respondents saying that either their manager or multiple managers openly knew about underperformance and failed to tackle it.

The impact on team effectiveness was estimated by respondents as a percentage of their team’s maximum potential performance, and is shown in the next chart: (Click here to view the bar chart in a new window).

Whilst the data used in this chart is necessarily subjective, it gives an indication that the individual respondents knew that their team’s performance was suffering from corporate politics, and therefore we can determine that business performance and shareholder value are impacted as a result.

One aspect of corporate politics that many people are familiar with is the activity of ‘empire building’, where a person builds a political empire by promoting allies and sidelining ‘enemies’. This practice was seen firsthand by 82% of our respondents and the promotions resulted in individuals being paid on average £50,000 and with responsibility for 14 staff.

Of the respondents who had observed this taking place, roughly half said that more suitable candidates were turned down, with the other half noting that the position was never advertised. Of the respondents who said that a better candidate was turned down, half said that that candidate then either moved out of the business unit or left the business altogether.

The cost of the problem exists on many levels. A potentially good employee was lost, a replacement had to be hired with the associated recruitment costs and a potentially ineffective manager now has a significant influence over many other staff.

Manipulation at work is never isolated; its effects grow and multiply over time, affecting more staff and increasing the cost to the business with every day that it isn’t tackled.

Separating perception from reality

As a final comment, we should point out that we have made an attempt to place some quantifiable measures on what is inherently a very subjective experience. One respondent asked how it would be possible to separate individual perceptions from any objective reality, and the truth is that this is very difficult.

Manipulative people will very often play the victim, making them hard to spot by anyone who is taken in by their tales of woe. When challenged, the manipulator will have a ready excuse; it was someone else’s fault, they were just trying to be helpful or it’s them that is the real victim in all of this.

And when they run out of excuses, their next line of defence is to run for the door, sometimes in floods of tears, or to counter-attack with a torrent of abuse and ridicule. These are all diversionary tactics, and the acid test must always be, “why would someone do that if they had nothing to hide?”

If you would like to complete the 2012 survey, please feel free to do so here.

The Pitch Doctor Launches His New Book - The Pocket Pitching Bible

Hot on the heels of his first Amazon number one ranking book, The Pitching Bible, The Pitch Doctor aka Paul Boross has released a unique companion guide.

Pitching is becoming more and more well known and widely accepted as a vital way of securing new business, and even in ensuring success in job interviews. TV series such as The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den have made pitching part of our everyday language, and everyone from graduates to seasoned entrepreneurs can benefit from improving their skills and winning more pitches.

Boross’ original book, The Pitching Bible, is a well regarded and comprehensive work, but it’s not so easy to dip into when you just need a quick reminder before you walk into a meeting with an investor. With critical acclaim from experts such as Tom Ziglar, son of the great Zig Ziglar, and Gavin Duffy, star of the Irish Dragon’s Den, The Pitching Bible was a big hit with sales and media professionals all over the world.

The Pocket Pitching Bible is a streamlined version of the original with all of the exercises, check lists and reminders plus all new content and a valuable new diagnostic section that helps you get to what you uniquely need to create the perfect pitch.

The Pocket Pitching Bible is available now from all good book stores, priced at £7.99.

The Pocket Pitching Bible

CGW Publishing

ISBN 978-1-9082931-2-1