Book Review: Confessions of a Persuasion Hitman

Over the years, I’ve read quite a number of marketing books. Today, I finished reading Confessions of a Persuasion Hitman by Ian Stanley.

Content

I’ll start by saying that the title nearly put me off. It seemed a pretty cheesy title and it’s the sort of book that I’d normally avoid. In the end though, I’m glad that I read it.

It’s not a long book. My paperback copy only had about 130 pages. I didn’t love the print quality. It seemed to have pretty low-quality paper and there were places were I found a paragraph break in the middle of a sentence. I presume it’s been designed for eBook use and just has a print-on-demand option availble. Sometimes they don’t fit printed copies well. But the quality was acceptable.

I found Ian’s stories ok. I do get nervous when he talks about being the best salesperson at a place in the second week he worked there. And then said he left after being there four weeks.

But the overall message of the book was fine. He delivered many lessons and there were quite a few places where I really had to stop and think about how we work ourselves, and where we’ve made the same mistakes that he’s talking about.

I think most people who’ve run a business for any length of time though, would find much of it pretty basic. I saw one reviewer who thought he was a horrible story teller and that he threw the book away. Another couldn’t work out why some business gurus recommend the book. I certainly didn’t end up feeling that I’d throw it away but I’m not sure I’d read it again though.

The stories he provided on copy writing were interesting. The messages about interviewing people in the target market to find the language that they use, and then using it yourself in opening statements in the copy was impressive. In hindsight, it should have been obvious, but it wasn’t. I particularly loved the story about the older woman and the I just wanted to feel pretty again words. That was great.

Summary

If you ignore the title, and you can deal with his writing style, there are many really solid lessons to be found in this book. I’ve seen reviewers calling his writing style blunt, witty, and basic. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea though.

6 out of 10

2026-09-23