Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business

BIBLIOGRAPHY

If you look at this bibliography before reading the book, you might be forgiven for wondering why I have included some of the titles listed below. After all, this is a book about business, for business people. Shouldn't all the titles in the bibliography be found in the business section of your local bookstore?

Well, that would be boring, wouldn't it?

Perfect Pitch is about influencing people and selling ideas. And the people who know most about that are not necessarily to be found in my own business, or indeed in what we would commonly define as “business” at all. So while you'll find advertising industry legends like David Ogilvy, Howard Gossage, James Webb Young, Jeremy Bullmore, and George Lois listed below, you will also find books on writing, public speaking, storytelling, politics, crime, and science. You'll even find books on prostitution (Tart Cards); fishing (A River Runs Through It); flying (West with the Night); Japanese tradition (Memoirs of a Geisha); and cricket (The Art of Captaincy). I can assure you that the selection of these books is not as silly as it may sound. If and when you read any of them, you will discover that these strange choices are not really about prostitution, fishing, flying, Japanese tradition, or cricket at all. Instead they are about what it really means to be a human. They demonstrate the value of being able to put oneself into another's shoes. They bring to life the art of gentle manipulation and persuasion. They are also very ...