Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

Enchantment, as defined by best-selling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes the skeptics and cynics into the believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it's more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques.

Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions. For instance, enchantment is what enabled....

• A Peace Corps volunteer to finesse a potentially violent confrontation with armed guerrillas
• A small cable channel (E!) to win the TV broadcast rights to radio superstar Howard Stern
• A seemingly crazy new running shoe (Vibram Five Fingers) to methodically build a passionate customer base
• A Canadian crystal maker (Nova Scotian Crystal) to turn observers into buyers

This book explains all the tactics you need to prepare and launch an enchantment campaign; to get the most from both push and pull technologies; and to enchant your customers, your employees, and even your boss. It shows how enchantment can turn difficult decisions your way at times when intangibles mean more than hard facts. It will help you overcome other people's entrenched habits and defy the not-always- wise "wisdom of the crowd."