The 365 Best Business Books Of All-Time: The Relationship Edge In Business

Yesterday was a day to rest and be thankful for what happened in 2017. Today it’s time to get working on 2018, so that when December 31st rolls around again, you can look back and be proud of the work that you did this year.

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for another one of the top sales books of all-time. Today we focus on The Relationship Edge in Business by Jerry Acuff, who is not only one of the world’s top sales experts, he’s also one of the most interesting guys you’ve ever met.

My Key Takeaway/Principle

Pyramid hopping is the quickest way to build relationships with the people who would otherwise be unaccessible to you.

This year, instead of trying to put together a complicated networking strategy that you’ll never execute on, use this simple but powerful formula to open doors this year.

Here’s how it works.

There are 6 stages to the pyramid: (1) People who don’t know you by name, (2) people who know you by name, (3) people who like you, (4) people who are friendly with you, (5) people who respect you, (6) people who value a relationship with you.

First, you need to uncover who has you at the top of their pyramid. You should have a pretty good sense of this already. But to be clear, it doesn’t include every one of your 500+ LinkedIn connections.

Second, you need to uncover who is at the top of those people’s pyramids. Those are the people you’ll most likely get a strong introduction to. This typically requires asking them specifically who they know in a particular field that you want an introduction to.

Third, when you ask for the introduction, you need to be as specific as possible about what you are asking for. The more specific you make your request, the more likely it is that you’ll get the introduction you are looking for.

And that’s it. Do this once a week for an entire year, and you’ll have a completely different (and much more powerful) social network by the end of the year.

Questions to ask yourself

• Who has me at the top of their pyramid?
• What value can I provide to my network this year such that more people put me at the top of their pyramid?

What else is in the book?

There’s so much more in this book that you’ll get real, practical value from. My second favourite takeaway from this book are the 20 questions you can ask to create rapport quickly in any situation.

This year (2018) I’m reading and summarizing the top 365 business books of all-time. You can get the full list of books, and links to my reviews of each book, by clicking here.

Happy learning!