Title Details

ALLAN HALCROW is an award-winning business editor, bestselling author and a partner in WorkPositive, a consulting firm that offers assessment, communications strategies, and training.

JOHN LAVIN is an award-winning cartoonist and an artist with such clients as Starbucks, Barneys New York, and Nordstrom.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

Setting the Scene.

Part One: HOW BUSINESS WORKS.

1. Change: How to thrive during uncertainty by driving change.

2. Walk Your Talk: How to earn respect by aligning what you say with what you do.

3. Dollars and Sense: How to use your company’s financial data to set priorities.

4. Politics: How to maneuver through workplace dynamics—good and bad—to get things done.

5. Customers: How to identify what your customers really think.

6. Relationships: How to be a successful team player.

Part Two: SALES.

7. Sales Autopsy: How to make sense of losing a key customer.

8. Know Your Market: How to understand what the market wants so you can deliver.

9. Qualifying: How to identify your most likely buyers.

10. Walk in Their Shoes: How to understand the business challenges your customers face—and how you can help.

11. Objections: How to identify—and overcome—the primary reasons your customers say “no”.

12. Secondary Objections: How to identify and overcome the unspoken—and often emotional—reasons customers say “no”.

13. Building Relationships: How to listen, establish trust, and go the extra mile for your customers.

14. Closing the Sale: How to ask customers for their business.

Part Three: THE SEVEN DEADLY WORKPLACE SINS.

15. Exhaustion: How to set priorities, say “no,” and ease your stress.

16. Anger: How to keep things in perspective and manage your emotions.

17. Surrender: How to leverage your influence and make a difference.

18. Obsolescence: How to hone your skills and stay on top of your field.

19. Incompetence: How to encourage—and use—feedback on your performance.

20. Withdrawal: How to stay focused on your mission and connected to others.

21. Dysfunction: How to stay grounded—and work with those who aren’t.

Part Four: INNOVATION.

22. The Spirit of Innovation: How to implement new ideas and build for the future.

23. Obstacles to Innovation: How to overcome the roadblocks to success.

"GRAY MATTERS: The Workplace Survival Guide isn't your average business book. Sure it's full of tips and tactics, but it's also a comic book. Don't let the illustrations fool you; GRAY MATTERS is serious about addressing the real challenges we all face at work today and offering practical strategies to overcome them. GRAY MATTERS, already a business best seller, was selected by the readers of Fast Company magazine as its first business book of the month. Bob Rosner, author of GRAY MATTERS and long-time contributor to ABCnews.com, sat down with ABCnews.com to discuss creative strategies for surviving today's frenetic workplace and what it's like to work with characters who only have three fingers." (ABCnews.com)

"...constructive [and its lessons]...seem perfectly timed at a moment when the only business constant is constant change." (Fast Company, December 2003)