A Win Without Pitching Manifesto

This book has helped me tremendously, it’s change the way I look at, talk to and deal with any clients. Selling yourself, your work and your abilities is not taught in college. It seems almost taboo to talk about, at least where I’m attending. While watching a video on YouTube trying to figure out what I did wrong with dealing with a client I came across Chris Do of The Futur. He went over exactly what he read and learned most with this book. I realized that it wasn’t so much what I did wrong, but how I needed to sell, appreciate and position myself and not just be a designer, but rather be a problem solver. Without giving it another second thought I purchased this book immediately. Once I started reading couldn’t stop, I was so engaged on what he was saying. Blair Enns style is so easy to read and he doesn’t pull any punches. Right away on first page and I can’t stress this enough, but it went word for word what I was dealing with and had gone through with some clients. The more I read it was like Blair Enns knew my thoughts, questions and put it all down with ways to go about it differently. I’ve read this book a few times now I’ll keep reading it because there’s always something new that I take away from it. There’s never a moment where it’s not in my bag, I’m constantly bringing this up in different conversations with all of my professors and fellow classmates. I also tell them to watch the Money Talk series Chris Do has on the Futur YouTube channel because he lead and suggested this book to me plus he goes over a lot of other good stuff. I’ve read a good amount of other kinds of graphic design books and or what/how to be a graphic designer and none of them comes close to going over what this book does. This is not just a must read but a must have for any graphic designer or really anyone dealing with sales and business strategy.

This slim book is structured around 12 key principles for running a successful business as a creative. Although I've been working as a solopreneur for over 13 years now, this book made me understand that I was making fundamental errors in approaching and managing my clients, as well as growing a business I could be proud of. I appreciated its straighforward explanations of the reasons not to spend time on writing proposals, how to approach pricing, how to value my expertise, and how to make decisions on which clients to serve to my highest and best ability. This is an essential for any business owners, especially those in creative services.

The principles in this book, while difficult to implement in the fray of day to day selling, are essential to building a successful agency. Anyone who has run an agency long enough may inherently know many of these things, but will inevitably fail to implement them without constantly being reminded. Blair, through his podcast and now this book, helps build our confidence to have the difficult, but necessary conversations we need to properly serve clients. He creates a manifesto that agency leaders can reference when the difficult decisions and positions need to be taken. I am requiring sales, accounts, and leadership in my organization to read this book in order to build the confidence we need to hold out for the right clients and to reimagine the relationships we can create with all clients.

This book is applicable to most sales professions. However you will need to interchange certain aspects to specifics that pertain to your industry. Overall it was an enjoyable read with lessons you can take with you wherever you go and choose to pursue.

Blair’s perspective on selling is refreshing and inspiring. His proclamations lay out the principles of selling with integrity, confidence, and dignity. I like the content and reasoning, but would have loved more concrete examples to draw from. The few that he sprinkled in were excellent.

Love it

This succinct and beautifully written book clearly conveys what whole armies of consultants and self-help gurus have tried in vain for years to teach. You will learn something just by reading the table of contents; what Enns calls The Twelve Proclamations. I have spent 30+ years practicing the alchemy of matching the gifts and talents of creative people with clients who so desperately need them. During that time I have witnessed and even encouraged the growing tendency of creative firms to give away their best work for free to win new commissions. I knew there must be an alternative. Surely this strategy of mutually assured destruction could be replaced with something better. Never, until now, have I seen the secret shared so thoughtfully and so well in this (literally) little black book. The message here is for all creative businesses who want to move away from being "order-taker suppliers to expert advisers" and want to forge "a more satisfying and lucrative way of getting and doing business." The transformation begins with a willingness to focus and then articulate that focus through a consistent claim of expertise, working continuously "to add the missing skills, capabilities and processes necessary to support our new claim." Enns first audience is marketing communications firms, yet the fundamental truths and lucid examples he shares are completely applicable to the creative enterprises I am most familiar with, architecture and photography. Enns is clear about the difficulty of beginning and sustaining the transformation, both personal and business, that is required to move from a commodity provider forced to give away their best thinking for free in order to win new work to to expert adviser whose cost of sales is essentially zero. His insight into the hearts and minds of creatives and the culture in which we are trained and have practiced for so long comes from first hand experience. Sadly, he observes that "not everyone has the heart or stomach for revolution." The last proclamation, "We Will Hold Our Heads High", is written with the conviction of a prophet, calling to his people at a crossroad: "On the one side, the process of design is finally being seen as the last great differentiator of business and economics; while on the other, the outputs are increasingly seen as commodities". He invites we creatives to accept our unique mission: "We didn't choose our craft; it chose us. And we were never in this for the money. Like all creative people we only seek to create, and in doing so, somehow change the world." This manifesto provides the blueprint for building a sustainable business model that creatives of every type can implement to win the work they want, gain the respect they deserve, make a profit, and have more fun.

If you’re in person to person sales. You need this one. Counterintuitive to how we are trained. No more boxing or trying to outsmart the prospect. It will help you relax and enjoy the process. Pair this with Brandon Mulrenin’s Reverse Selling.

Muy bueno, me gusto mucho ese libro

Great read, valuable information, highly recommend

This book has changed the lives of the entrepreneurs I know and I was so excited to begin reading it. It definitely lived up to its great reviews and I found it very helpful - both on a personal and business level.

This book was a recommendation to me and you won't regret reading it. The print is nice quality and can easily be a book you have on the table side.

I don’t know whether this book was targeted at people like me, but it felt like it was written on my behalf. Every page page is full of concise sutras that impart wisdom on the art of building a successful creative business (or perhaps a creative successful business) and there is not a single page wasted. My copy is covered in highlights. You do not have to be in the “creative” industry to benefit from this book (I work in IT, it is just as relevant). I am indebted to the author for sharing their knowledge.