Business Communication Expert, Anne Miller, Asks: "When You Talk, Do People Listen?"

NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Billions of dollars are left on the table and hundreds of ideas fail to get off the ground every day because of the over-communicated society in which we live, says Anne Miller, business communications specialist, who today announced the publication of "The Tall Lady with the Iceberg: The Power of Metaphors to Sell, Persuade, & Explain Anything to Anyone."

"The Tall Lady with the Iceberg" demonstrates how metaphor, as old as Aristotle and as contemporary as the Internet, can help people who ask

• How can I grab attention?
• How can I position myself against competition?
• How can I win support for my ideas?
• How can I close a deal?
• How can I simplify complex issues?
• How can I wow a crowd with my presentation?  

Miller predicts that power is going to shift to those in business who master the use of metaphor.

"Salespeople, managers, consultants, CEOs, and even the President of the U.S., are constantly challenged to pierce through this information barrage to get others to see the unique value of their services, explanations, and propositions," said Miller, who has coached and trained thousands of executives and salespeople in B2B sales and presentation seminars at firms as diverse as Goldman Sachs, Yahoo!, The United Nations, and small businesses across the United States and around the world.

"What was once the imaginative art of the poet is now an essential communication tool for anyone who aspires to influence, sell, or persuade others.  People shut down when faced with too much information, but they are wired for visual communication. Metaphor, which creates vivid mental images instantly in a listener's mind, takes communication from the mundane and dismissive to the meaningful, memorable, and dramatic.  Communicating without metaphor is like trying to drive a Ferrari without gas. In both cases, you won't get very far," she said.

Miller's advocacy for metaphors in business is aligned with the scholarly research of George Lakoff ("Metaphors We Live By") who wrote that "Human thought processes are largely metaphorical" and best seller Daniel H. Pink's imperative ("A Whole New Mind") that "Metaphorical imagination is essential to forging empathic connections and communicating experiences that others do not see."

Drawing on 25 years of experience running sales and presentation seminars, Miller helps readers become "Metaphorians," skilled users of metaphoric language.  She shows how imagery—the core of metaphoric language—surprises, grabs, informs, and persuades listeners in ways that mere explanation does not—even to the point of a metaphor winning $1.2billion from the U.S. government.  In "The Tall Lady with the Iceberg," she guides the reader step-by-step through the process of incorporating metaphors into sales conversations, presentations, and executive speeches, including:

• The case for metaphor: An explanation of what metaphors are, how to use them, and why listeners actually crave them
• Building metaphor muscle: A simple four-step process anyone can use to create winning metaphors targeted to a listener's needs and concerns
• Persuading with metaphors: Strategies for using metaphors to maximum advantage in positioning a product, service or argument; in presentations, from an attention-getting opener to a succinct and memorable summation; and in dealing with confusion, objections, or apathy
• Metaphor maintenance: Exercises and tips to cultivate and sustain a competitive edge using metaphors

Packed with more than 275 examples from business, politics, media, and even the deserts of Morocco, "The Tall Lady with the Iceberg" will enable anyone in any industry—from novice to veteran, from the small business owner to the corporate executive—to lead their listeners to "yes" by becoming a "Metaphorian"-- a master of metaphor.

For more information, go to www.annemiller.com

About Anne Miller

Anne Miller specializes in sales and presentation skills development, speaking, and consulting for high profile associations, Fortune 1000 companies, and small businesses in the United States and around the world. She has appeared on Bloomberg News Radio and CNNfn and has been featured in numerous online and offline publications and as a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School. She is the author of "Make What You Say Pay!" "365 Sales Tips for Winning Business," "Presentation Jazz!" and her newsletter, "The Metaphor Minute." Anne holds her MA from The University of Wisconsin and resides in New York City with her family.

For more information, please contact:
Anne Miller
212 876 1875
[email protected]

SOURCE Anne Miller