Anne Miller - The Tall Lady With the Iceberg: The Power of Metaphor to Sell, Persuade & Explain Anything to Anyone

What Others Are Saying About The Tall Lady with the Iceberg (formerly Metaphorically Selling)

Successful communicators from Aristotle to Reagan and Clinton have used the wisdom in this book to sell their ideas. This book is the perfect tool for people like you and me when we want to close a deal.

Michael C. Donaldson, Author
Negotiating for Dummies

Like a hot knife through butter, the ideas in this book will melt away objections and help you spread your ideas further and faster. Dont hesitatelearn what Annes got to teach.

Seth Godin, Author
Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside

As alluring as ice-cold lemonade when youre standing on Texas asphalt in August heat. Do you see how quickly I learned from this book?! Dont leave home (and go to a client) without it.

Alan Weiss, Author
Million Dollar Consulting

I sell. I sell million dollar consulting contracts to skeptical CEOs. I sell change programs to reluctant managers. I sell books and articles to editors with small obsidian where their hearts should be. And I learned how to communicate and sell by listening to Anne Miller. For twenty years, I have found her counsel to be relevant and useful. This book is no exception. It has pride of place on my bookshelf.

Sam Hill, Author
Radical Marketing and Sixty Trends in Sixty Minutes

Ifas Anne Miller saysa metaphor is a short-cut to instant understanding, then this book is a short cut to instant improvement for the sales professional. Metaphors have the power to package big ideas and help them break through the clutter and indifference of our A.D.D. business climate. Anne puts that power into the hands of all sellersand there arent metaphors strong enough to describe the impact.

Doug Weaver, Lecturer, Trainer, Consultant,
President Upstream Group

The use of appropriate timely, tasteful and powerful metaphorical illustrations are the poetry of all superb communicators. Anne shows how to use metaphors to dramatize the sales process. A must read to help you become a superlative persuader.

Tony Whatley, President
Accessor Capital Management

Anne Miller is one of those people who fully understands the sales process and what works and what doesnt. There are sales books and there are sales books. This is the top of the list. Its real, to the point, a fun read, and it works.

Richard Kinsler, President, SLG Advertising

(former Publisher, New York Magazine)

Once again, Anne Miller applies her unmatched insight, clarity, and approachability to drive home the science of selling. Metaphorically Selling is a compelling must for all persuaders.

Kevin Allen, Chief Collaboration Officer
Interpublic Group, Inc.

After reading this book, you will add the strategic use of metaphors to the musts of your high stake selling efforts. Anne focuses our attention on this powerful sales tool in a way that most of us dont really stop and think about. This book and its tips will help all of us in business, whether you are directly involved in sales or not and at any experience level.

Jill Manee, Vice President, Publisher
The AdAge Group

Other Books by Anne Miller

Make What You Say Pay! (Chiron)
365 Sales Tips for Winning Business (Perigee)
Presentation Jazz! How to Make Sales Presentations $ing (Amacom)

Online Newsletter

The Metaphor Minute (www.annemiller.com)

The Tall Lady with the Iceberg

The Power of Metaphors to Sell, Persuade, & Explain Anything to Anyone

Second Edition

Anne Miller

Chiron Associates, Inc.
New York

Second Edition: October 2012

2004 Anne Miller

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form except for the purpose of brief reviews without the written permission of the publisher, Chiron Associates, Inc., Box 624, New York City, NY 10163.

ISBN: 978-0-9762794-4-0 (print)

ISBN: 978-0-9762794-7-1 (epub)

ISBN: 978-0-9762794-8-8 (epdf)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004114293

Youre The Top: Cole Porter
1934 (Renewed) WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)

All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission
Warner Bros. Publications U.S., Inc., Miami, FL 33014

brain droppings by George Carlin

1997 George Carlin

Reprinted by permission of Hyperion

The New Yorker cartoons

The New Yorker Collection.

All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission

Dobbs Ferry, New York 10522

Excerpt from Winning! Using Lawyers Courtroom Techniques to Get Your Way in Everyday Situations: Prentice Hall, Inc., Paramus, NJ

1997 All Rights Reserved.

By Permission of Author

Credits:

Cartoon icons: Steve Martinez

S.M.Kreations

Sherman Oaks, CA 91411

Cover designer:

Available online and in bookstores.

For quantity orders and discounts, call: 800-247-6553

For
Mark, Cara,
Morgan, & Daisy

Acknowledgments

My interest in metaphors and analogies as powerful sales and communications tools goes back many years. Traveling from interest to a practical business book, however, was a long road that took many twists and turns and involved many people. First and foremost, I want to thank Melinda Marshall, my superb editor who, with her wit, grace and patience, helped shape my words and thoughts into a lively, useful manuscript for you, my reader.

When friends and clients heard about this project, they were eager to contribute and many acted as early soundboards for my ideas. My thanks to the highly accomplished experts, for whom I have the greatest admiration, who so kindly endorsed this book. Additional thanks to Sue Agresta, James Dawson, Debra Pickrel, Helen DiStefano, Mary Ann Doggett, Jim Donoghue, Marcia Grace, Josh Hammond, Lisa Gilbert, Jay Miller, Ilene Rapkin, Steve Rivkin, Carol Terakawa, Rick Trout, and Joy Wheeler for their generous input as well.

My wonderful supportive family encouraged me throughout this project and to them I say a loving Thank you.

Finally, my enthusiastic gratitude to all the metaphor makers whose writings, presentations, and speeches have provided the treasure trove of examples in this book.

Charismatic communicators take the complex and make it simple and the simple and make it meaningful. They do that with stories and metaphors.

Fortune magazine, 1996

The greatest thing by far is to be master of metaphor.

Aristotle, 4th Century B.C.

Note to Expanded Edition

As soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken and written word.

Peter Drucker

When you run into someone you recognize at the airport or on the street, but you cant immediately identify them, and you frantically try to figure out how you know them, whats going through your mind?

A. A list of words?

B. A column of numbers?

C. A rush of images?

Answer: C. A rush of images.

Ultimately and triumphantly, you burst out with something like, I know you! I know you! You sat next to me in law school! Or, We were in day camp together when we were five! Or, Youre the tall lady with the iceberg! (More about that a little later.)

We Are Image Junkies

Our brains are wired to respond to imagery. We notice images. We remember in images. We have emotional reactions to images. We make decisions based on images. We talk in images. For centuries, mankinds communications have reflected this primal reach for images to communicate.

Sometimes, the images are actual pictures. Other times, they are expressed in language that is vivid and pictorial, which creates mental images for listeners.