Impossible to Ignore

Up to 90 percent of what an audience hears is forgotten, and Carmen Simon's book is about shaping which part they keep. Drawing on research in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, Simon moves the focus from improving one's own memory to influencing what other people remember and, through that, the decisions they make. She lays out a three-step plan for persuasion: create cues that catch attention and connect with the audience's needs, use variables that affect memory to steer what sticks, and convert present intentions into later action. Case studies, examples and a checklist accompany the plan. The techniques are applied to presentations, meetings, training sessions, sales pitches and marketing campaigns.

Scott Adams recommended it in one of his own books for its science on how deliberate mistakes help people remember, and Robert B. Cialdini praised it for showing how to make good ideas stick in other people's memories. Guy Kawasaki also endorsed it.