Pitch Perfect

How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time

By: Bill McGowan

Narrated by: Bill McGowan

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Media guru and Emmy Award-winning correspondent Bill McGowan - coach to some of the biggest names in business and entertainment, including Eli Manning, Kelly Clarkson, Jack Welch, Thomas Keller, and Kenneth Cole - teaches you how to get your message across and get what you want with pitch-perfect communication. He is also a trusted advisor in the C-suites of tech companies like Facebook, Spotify, AirBnB, Dropbox, and Salesforce.com.

Saying the right thing the right way can make the difference between sealing the deal or losing the account, getting a promotion, or getting a pink slip. It's essential to be pitch perfect - to get the right message across to the right person at the right time. In Pitch Perfect, Bill McGowan shows you how to craft the right message and deliver it using the right language - both verbal and nonverbal.

Pitch Perfect teaches you how to overcome common communication pitfalls using McGowan's simple Principles of Persuasion, which are highly effective and easy to learn, implement, and master. With Pitch Perfect you can harness the power of persuasion and have people not only listening closely to your every word but also remembering you long after you've left the room.

©2014 Bill McGowan (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

Great book with tips for everyone regardless of position

Loved this book! The examples and tips are applicable across all demographics, industries or positions. I wish I had read this book years ago!

Interesting Read

I loved the content. I actually was less enthusiastic by the authors reading style. I felt at times he appear a bit self-righteous. Overall, the information is applicable to anyone wanting to improve their communication skills. I'll probably re-read this book as I think it requires more than one pass to internalize the information. This may actually be a better book read in text than listened to.

Excellent Book

There are so many great nuggets in this book that will help you in you personal and professional life.

Informative

What did you love best about Pitch Perfect?

Good, usable information.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Nothing.

What about Bill McGowan’s performance did you like?

Great voice...you can tell he is a pro.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laugh out load...multiple times

Any additional comments?

Yes...the guy is a total lefty/liberal; typical journalist claiming to be "unbiased" but yet somehow 'conservative bad, liberal good' bleeds through to the reader/listener

Talks too fast!! I wish they had a slower version :(

I tried 0.75x but that was way too slow. It gave me a headache more than anything. I recommend the book tho!

Relatable stories

I love the examples in the book to help improve delivery while thinking about what to say and how to say it to make relevant.

Some great advice if you can stomach author.

I found McGowan to offer some really good advice and also offer some boneheaded and even offensive comments. I found the book hard to listen to and eventually just deleted it and asked audible for my money back. McGowan starts out the book by putting down anyone who ever bought clothes from Sears. Other small remarks solidified his superiority in his own mind. I kept trying to ignore his elitism and just listen to his points but he just really grated on me so I finally stopped. He also puts down concepts he doesn’t understand while he uses them himself. An example is the advice to “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them” McGowan said this means repeating yourself - it doesn’t, what is means is to do something very similar to McGowan’s advice of how to introduce your topic and then end with a call to action. Anyway, he obviously knows his stuff, he has great advice and knows more about speaking, writing and etc. then I ever will. If he had kept his condescending attitude in check I would have really enjoyed the book and given it more stars.

Mixed Feelings

I found the boom to be useful and practical, it has several good tips and pointers, however I constantly found myself fighting the urge of quitting, the author tries to hard to be funny and entertaining which sadly he is not. In fact its even annoying....I constantly thought to myself that even if I had a free session with him and despite it would most definitely be useful, I wouldn't accept it. Too dense and self absorbed to my own liking.

Excelentemente práctico

Me encantó que tenga tantos ejemplos prácticos para ilustrar los principios. Aunque no te acuerdes de todo el libro muchas cosas te quedan y lo terminás aplicando.

Couldn’t force myself to finish...

Take this review with a grain of salt as I have not entirely finished the book. I’ve listened to about 2 hours of the story, but it is so dry and vague that I don’t think I will bother with the rest. I wanted to learn more about speaking in a professional setting to coworkers and management, but this book focuses more on public speaking. The guidelines are to non-specific for me to easily apply to general discussion, and the humor is dry. I was also slightly annoyed by his perception of millennials, but that barely affects my views on his book.