Love is the killer app by Tim Sanders

Love is the killer app – how to win business and influence friends by Tim Sanders.

This is a small book (200 pages) and I liked this book, because his suggestions are what I have been following.

Main theme of the book: World is run via intangibles – knowledge, networks & compassion.

Chapter 1 - The love cat way:

What value you add is what matters more. Value is defined, as the value with you inside a situation is greater than the value without you.

What is love business: the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles with your biz. Partners.

From ‘The invisible touch’ by Harry Beckwith “ Instead of thinking about value-added, think about knowledge-added. What knowledge can you add to your service or communicate about your service, that will make you more attractive to business partners and customers”.

Important steps to be a Love cat:

1. Build an outstanding brand as a person. You become a brand by realizing each step of the DREAM.

DREAM
D for differentiation
R for relevance
E for Esteem
A for Awareness
M for Mind’s eye

2. Create an experience

More you read, the more you know and the more knowledge you have to pass along.

4 phases of economic progression:
Agriculture (pre-industrial period)
Goods phase (industrial period)
Service (post industrial period)
Experience

3. Have access to people’s attention.
Attention is money.

4. Harness the power of positive presumption
5. Receive exceptional feedback
6. Gain personal satisfaction

Chapter 2 – Knowledge:

Knowledge currency is social currency on steroids. It is important, powerful and essential.

Book give knowledge, and news gives you awareness .

Spent 80%of your reading time on reading books and 20% for reading articles and newspapers.
A paperback is made to be read and hardcover is to be studied.

Practical 4 steps to make knowledge work:
1. Aggregation
2. Encoding
3. Processing
4. Application.

Aggregation – Read books that are relevant to your field. You own the theory 9from the book) when you can fully communicate it to others.

Encoding: In this process, you have intelligently and completely digested the books. Keep in mind that you are reading the books for future application (not for current entertainment)

Keep note of quotables, cool stories, shining examples, poetic statements from books you read.

Processing: Write a review after reading books 9capture book’s big thought

As per Abraham Maslow, “ Although human beings are capable of being selfish, lustful and aggressive, that is not what they are fundamentally. Beneath the surface, at the psychological and biological core of business nature, we find basic goodness and decency. When people appear to be something other than good and decent, it is only because they are reacting to stress, pain, or deprivation of basic human needs such as security, love and self-esteem”

Dalai Lama says. “ You don’t have to be God, just stop hurting people’.

Application: This is all about sharing. If we don’t do it, we are not distributing love or not a love cat. More you share, more you get in return.

Knowledge gives you insight, which makes your biz. Life easier and leads you to better strategies and clearer vision. This way, you create a positive feedback loop.

In application phase, you are going to try to use theories, suggestions, and research from books to solve business problems are avoidable or solvable with theory. That is why MBA’s exist. In the game of life, they (MBA’s) are the ones who are reading from the top of the games box where rules are written.

Application entails 4 steps.
1. Understand the book’s big thoughts which results from encoding & processing
2. Visualize a discussion (when you are done with a book, summaries the big thoughts in your mind. Review scenes from your biz. life in which you could use this idea.)
3. Look for insert points (In your conversation, , please pay close attention and you will find insert points that enables you to add value)
4. Play Doctor (provide recommended books to others likewise doctors provide prescription)

The ability to transfer knowledge is a huge advantage for anyone struggling to succeed in the new economy.

A well-read lovecat is a lion in the jungle, not a tabby.

Chapter 3 – Network:
Likewise listen for insertion point, to share knowledge, always look for new contacts.

5 tips on how to be a great collector:

1. Prepare thyself.( how to keep /archive contacts and make it available all the time)
2. SWAP (Carry business cards all the time and swap as you would swap recipes or stock tips)
3. Organize (remember to keep track of where contacts are saved or kept)
4. Input (When you get a business card, write a small note on the person – when, where 7 how you met the person and any other tips)
5. Follow up (connect them by splitting the contacts into 3 categories – partners, peers & prospects)
Important points to keep in mind when connecting people

1. Tune your receivers (train your ears to pick up subtle cues in conversation – what do they do, what do they offer, what is their needs or what they want)
2. Fuse the connection (share your connections to others and thus became a lovecat – bring people together)
3. Disappearing (after collecting and connecting) You remain active only until these relationships can survive on their own.

(Metcalf’ law – the value of the network grows in proportion to the square of the number of users which means that once a network achieves a certain size, it becomes almost irresistibly attractive).

Chapter 4 – Compassion:

There is a tremendous opportunity for your compassion to make a difference in how people view of you and how they view themselves.

Compassion will lead to a better experience with your bizmates. By expressing your compassion, you create an experience that people remember. When people remember you, it’s good for your business. Compassion creates commitments – which keeps you focused on building your knowledge and network. Compassion buys forgiveness and compassion is a 2-part process – Sensing & expressing.

Sensing:
a. Notice body language. People reveal everything over time; we all have repeated opportunities to see our contacts with their clients, their bosses, their assistants.

b. Timing is everything: there is a right time and wrong time to express your compassion.

Expressing:
Smile while expressing it (depends though)
Express yourself with warm words
Express yourself now
Use your arms and do prefect handshakes
When people enter a room, make it a point to look at them
Be prepared
Be spontaneous

Once you have mastered your means of expression, you must search for opportunities to express.

3 primary insert points in business relationship – Salutations, conversations and quick opps.

Salutations:
Offer all kinds of opportunities for compassionate expression, because every time you say hello, or good-bye in business you have permission to express yourself.

Conversations:
Frame your conversation with bizlove

Quick Opps:
These quick opportunities where we converse in short phone calls, meet in hallways, parking lots …
Learn to filter your feed back:
Some people won’t react the first few times. So I have a filter that says, it is Ok to have no reactions. Don’t let negative feedback depress you:

The 10 most must-read books for lovecats
1. The experience economy by B.joseph Pine III and james H. Gilmore
2. Corporate religion by Joseph Kunde
3. The innovation dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
4. What the CEO wants you to know by Ram Charan
5. Simplicity by Bill Jensen
6. The tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell
7. The Circle of innovation by Tom Peters
8. The art of happiness by Dalai Lama
9. Love by Leo Buscaglia
10. Leading the revolution by Gary Hamel.

Some of the Books mentioned in the bookt:
The invisible touch’ by Harry Beckwith
New rules for the new economy by Kevin Kelly
Unleashing the killer app by Larry Downs and Chunka Mui
The brand mindset by Duane Knapp
The experience economy by Joseph Pine & James Gilmore
Permission marketing by Seth Godin.
eBrands by Phil Carpenter
The anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen
Getting into your customer’s head by Kevin Davis
The art of happiness by Dalai Lama
Toward a Psychology of being by Abraham Maslow
Leading the revolution by Gary Hamel.
Building Brandwidth by Sergio Zyman and Scott Miller
Race for the world by Lowelll L. Bryan, Jeremy Oppenheim, Wilhelm Rall, and Jane Fraser.