press
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Conference Board Review HR Professional Knowledge@Wharton
Library Journal Miami Herald Publishers Weekly Time
US News and World Report
Business & Leadership, October 2008— ...a well-structured, step-by-step guide that takes us on a journey, describing and explaining the process of selling ideas. Easy-to-follow techniques and a systematic planning process to help us practice the 'Art of Woo' full article
Conference Board Review, November/December 2007—In an interview with The Conference Board Review, Mario Moussa talks about effective persuasion and why what you say may not be as important as how you
say it. full interview
HR Professional, August/September 2008—...The book attempts to show how persuasion through conversation works. And in the business world, mutual understanding through talk is paramount; nobody likes to be told what to think. full review
Knowledge@Wharton, October 17, 2007—However "woo" may be defined, the authors argue that effectively selling ideas -- using persuasion rather than force -- is one of the most important skills that everyone from CEOs and entrepreneurs to team leaders and mid-level managers need to learn if they want to be effective in their organizations. full article
Library Journal, November 15, 2007—... The Art of WOO is one of many books written to aid businesspeople in being more persuasive. Dale Carnegie's classic How To Win Friends & Influence People remains a standard for salespeople to this day....This book is gentler and more cerebral, and of course relevant in ways that Carnegie's 70-year-old book cannot be. Students of rhetoric, language arts, and marketing would all benefit from this book, so libraries of all sizes should consider purchasing.
—Stephen Turner, Turner & Assocs., San Francisco full review
Library Journal, March 1, 2008—... provide a fresh new approach to selling ideas with this focus on helping listeners find their strengths as persuaders. Eschewing traditional sales and negotiation tips and tricks, the authors instead develop their material around their principle of winning over others (WOO) to your ideas without coercion using relationship-based, emotionally intelligent persuasion. Borrowing from Stephen Covey (seek first to understand, then to be understood), the authors present a pragmatic approach to relationship-based persuasion, explaining their strategic process for getting people's attention. Beginning with a demonstration of how to use WOO to sell ideas, they explain their four-step process and the six main channels of influence, including authority, vision, relationships, interests, and politics, used to solve problems. The material is relevant for managers and front-line staff, and there are numerous real-world examples of how WOO can be helpful in requesting raises, increasing departmental budgets, and, of course, handling direct sales. (this review pertains to the audio book)
Miami Herald, November 12, 2007—Whew, it sure is hard to sell your ideas with persuasion, but Shell and Moussa insist that it can be done with the right strategy. Naturally, they provide some incisive self-assessment exercises and a collection of stories to illustrate their principles. Several scoops of passion are also added to the mix, which is a good way to demonstrate the necessity of including this important element to any attempt at persuasion. But they are quick to point out that thinking strategically also involves common sense, logic, research, an understanding of human nature and a little razzle-dazzle. Shell and Moussa make a good case for their methods in this book.
Publishers Weekly, August 20, 2007—Shell and Moussa, both on the Wharton School faculty, aim to help readers get attention and sell their ideas through strategic relationship-based persuasion, or “woo”—or “winning others over.” The authors consider wooing to be one of the most important skills in a manager's repertoire; while the concept may seem simple, mastering it is an art. The challenge is in striking a balance between what the authors identify as the “self-oriented” perspective—where focus is on the persuader's credibility and point of view—and the “other-oriented” perspective, which focuses on the audience's needs, perceptions and feelings. Drawing on their experience in teaching executives to negotiate, the authors examine the most important moments of influence and provide a four-step process to achieving goals: survey your situation, confront the five barriers, make your pitch and secure your commitments. They offer a practical guide to improving one's wooing skills, highlighting successes and failures from history and the present day. An entertaining and useful guide to acquiring the power of woo, this book will help readers beyond the professional realm.