An expert in sales and corporate espionage taps into the history of intelligence-gathering and his own working relationships with former agents of the CIA, FBI, and counterterrorism in this handbook of field-tested spycraft strategies and government agency tactics to build relationships, persuade, and sell anything.

Journalist, entrepreneur, and corporate intelligence agent Jeremy Hurewitz knows that spies are the world’s best salespeople. He’s built his career around former CIA case officers, FBI agents, and other intelligence officers—people like Steve Romano, former Chief Negotiator at the FBI; former Director of the Secret Service Mark Sullivan; General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.), former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command; and former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service John Sipher. Drawing on in-depth interviews about their skillsets, stunning anecdotes from the history of espionage, and science-backed principles of emotional intelligence, Hurewitz has created a handbook of tradecraft lessons and tactics that will strengthen readers’ ability to foster better relationships, to persuade, and to sell anything—in business and everyday life.

Though a spy’s targets may be odious—terrorists, criminals, corrupt diplomats, and more—the agent’s focus is on cultivating relationships and understanding people’s motivations to better persuade them to give something up: information, hostages, money, or simply their feelings. Elicitation, Radical Empathy, Disguise, and RPM (Rationalize, Project Blame, and Minimize Fault) are just a few of the methods in Sell Like a Spy that readers can use as sales professionals or people who simply want to connect more deeply with friends and family.

Packed with interviews and anecdotes from intelligence officers of all stripes, and with a foreword by Robert Grenier, former Director of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, Sell Like a Spy puts James Bond in its dust, offering a secret playbook of persuasion tactics from the real world of the Secret Service, special forces, counterterrorism, and international espionage.