Program on Persuasion

Customers Utilize Emotion over Logic When Selecting Suppliers

Study after study reaffirms that a customer’s emotion trumps their logic in the decision-making process.  One of the most persuasive emotions is that of congruency, or being consistent with your values, rhetoric, and actions.  Some may say that we are mentally lazy, others that we are just being consistent to a personal declaration or value.  Regardless of the reason, the fact is that it is human nature to retain our personal credibility by remaining consistent to word and deed.  Facts and logic just don’t have the same power over us that emotions do.

This is the primary reason it so important to understand others before we attempt to be understood.  When we genuinely see things from the other’s perspective, we are better suited to speak to their paradigm. 

In many cases people have yet to form a position on a specific issue.  Rather than immerse ourselves in every issue, most of give credibility to another person or group in which we believe we share general interest and beliefs . . . this is referred to as social proof.  Just think of the TV sitcoms, the producers figured out a long time ago that laugh tracks are a heavy influence on whether we think something is funny or not.  Still not convinced?  Marketers have proven that the number one indicator that consumers utilize in determining the highest quality product (assuming they have not yet used the product) of similar products on the retailer’s shelf is  . . . the highest price brand.

So, if you are trying to persuade people to trust and believe you, then you would be better off to speak to the beliefs they already hold rather than trying to sway them with facts and figures.  And the key is to know what and who they believe in . . . you discover that when you take the time to truly understand them.

Get Your Mind Right

I was fortunate, as a Little Leaguer, I had a baseball coach that communicated the importance of thinking right.  He would have us envision making the perfect play before the play ever happened . . . every play.  “See yourself making the play, ever detail, and never allow the thought of booting the ball enter your mind”.  He said that if we could learn how create it in our mind, we could realize it in the physical world.  It became a habit, maybe because we were kids and believed our coach.  As a child, I thought everyone understood this concept because all the kids on the Hampton Hawks did.

Today, I realize that the great philosophers and religious principals are founded in this natural law.  All things are created twice, once in your mind and a 2^nd time in real space.  That which we believe is planted into our minds to be cultivated and it will be revealed in proper time.

Whether you are playing shortstop or preparing to make the biggest presentation of your sales career – you must have the proper mindset.  There are some great methods for developing your ability to improve your thought process including:  affirmation (the way that your talk to yourself is perhaps the biggest indicator of your outcome), visualization, meditation and prayer. 

I just want to share one simple principal with you . . . Coach called it getting your mind right and it works like this.  Focus on the outcome you desire and play it through your mind like watching a great movie and you are the star.  Next, when you are engaging someone as you would in a sales call, you must first look at the situation from their perspective.  When you shift your intent from trying to sell somebody something to simply seeing things from their perspective, they feel it.  What they feel is being understood.  And when people feel understood they connect with the person doing the understanding.

So the next time you have to make the play, make sure to get your mind right . . . it’s so easy a Little Leaguer can do it.

How to Engage Others in Riveting Conversations

Professional conversationalist like talk-show host and world-class salespeople can teach us all something about getting great information from key people.  The best salespeople don’t even realize that they are repeating a proven system to gather the information.  They just know after a very natural, free flowing dialogue they leave the person they were talking to feeling better about themselves and the salesperson . . .  and the sales person has established strong rapport and gathered critical information.  How do they do it?

The first step is to get your mind right.  Set your intent to fully understand the person.  Begin by giving them the benefit of doubt that they are person you like and enjoy speaking with.  Next take a genuine interest in what makes them tick.  When your intent is to understand you will instinctively begin to ask questions.  The key is the quality of the inquiry.  You reveal your intent by the questions you ask.

Begin by finding out what they are passionate about? Or simply what are their goals?

Once you understand their goal, how do they measure their success against the goal?  Next, how are they doing in pursuit of it?  Are they on track?  If so, what was the key?  And if not, what’s the problem and how do they intend on fixing it.

People want to feel understood.  By focusing on another’s passion, their goal, they feel understood.  When your intent is to find out someone’s goal & you are keenly interested in how they are progressing . . . you will engage in riveting conversations.

Don’t Hide Behind Your Perceived Weakness

The high school football coach had to make special arrangements for the two brothers that were hearing impaired.  While it did not seem to affect the boys on the field, the coach had to make sure he spoke up and faced the brothers when giving direction.  He soon learned that both boys had an uncanny ability to predict the opposing team’s plays just prior running the play.  It seems that it was quite easy for them to read lips.

 

Don’t hide what you are or what some think are your weak points.  Find out what the upside is and become excellent at articulating it.  Don’t let others define you by harping on your shortcomings when you can point out the positives.  During his presidential campaign, at the age of 73, Ronald Reagan was asked about “the age differential between him and his opponent”.   To which he responded “I will not make age an issue of this campaign.  I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” 

What makes you unique and different will be noticed whether you want it to or not.  Don’t passively let others define you, do it yourself . . . deliberately.

How to Ask For Commitment Using Differentiation

Baseball hitters drop a weighted ring from the handle of the bat to the barrel when warming up in the on-deck circle to make the bat seem lighter when they take the donut off.  It’s more of a psychological preparation than physical.  World-class sales professionals use similar methods that have the same psychological results on the buyer . . . they seem to make the commitment lighter, easier to agree with.

The technique is called differentiation and it’s grounded in its ability to establish a standard of comparison.  The real purpose is to educate the buyer on her different options.  It seems as if she is making an objective decision but she is not.  The key is the relative difference between the options.  The sequence in which the options are offered makes a dramatic psychological difference.   Have you ever noticed a realtor showing the most expensive homes first?  They are setting a standard that you will compare against . . . now that $300k home does not seem so expensive as compared to the others in the neighborhood.

How can you use this technique in an honest manner?  Before sharing your price with the client, first educate her on the cost of your competitor’s products.  Then show your price prior to any volume discounts and with all the options.  By educating them in this fashion you are establishing a standard for comparison.  Finally, you provide the options that you think will best suit her needs . . . and relatively speaking it will seem a little lighter.

Your Best Friend for Lead Generation

Sales organizations will beat the bushes to find potential clients that we believe can greatly benefit from our product or service . . . we call them prospects or leads.  When we find one that we think could be a good match, we begin the pursuit. 

Anxious to educate them about the benefits they are missing, yet tempered by not wanting to spook them with our assertiveness.  It is like trying to catch a puppy before he runs into the street and he is between you and the street.  Puppies are like prospects in that they won’t run from you if they trust you.  But since they don’t know you, they can’t trust you . . . so we have to go slow, too slow.

Fred Reichheld, in his best-selling book The Ultimate Question, defines customers into promoters and detractors.  Promoters are those customers that tell everyone how great your organization is and how they should start doing business with you.  When asked for leads, these promoters will go of their way to generate leads for you.  The key is letting them know that you are looking for leads.

Our best source of increased revenue is new products to existing customers.  Our 2^nd best source for increased revenue is referrals from promoters.  The loyalty already exists and the promoters already have the trust of certain prospects.  You just need to ask them to transfer that trust to you.  After all, that’s how a promoter shows their loyalty.  And promoters are a salesman’s best friend for lead generation.

Focusing on the Right Business Opportunities

What is the one resource that if you had more of it, would allow you to accomplish any business objective?  Could it be more time? One of the biggest struggles that business people have is culling through all the good opportunities and prioritizing which ones they will pursue.  Part of the solution lies in establishing such a clear vision of “the core value” you can offer others that you are able to build the muscle to say “no” to good ideas in order to target the great opportunities.

When it comes to business development, growing your top-line sales, one of the most powerful initiatives you can take is to narrow your focus.  Remember, you don’t have time to spare.  You must make your efforts pay off with the highest level of probability.  The concept is there are fewer best buyers for your product/service than all the rest. 

Begin by asking yourself “who can I help, with my product/service, more than anyone else?”  Clearly identify the need that the core value of your product/service best helps.  Then determine the profile of the clients that most likely have that need.  Focus on these that need your help the most and you will make most the most of your most precious resource . . . your time.

Awaken Your Untapped Power to Influence

It is said that most chronic disease is caused by “dis-ease”.  The power of our minds, our thoughts, can place so much stress on us that we feel it emotionally and eventually it takes its toll on our health.  Whether we are unforgiving of past transgressions or worried about what tomorrow brings, these negative thoughts serve to destroy us and those around us.  We have to gain control over our thoughts in order to “get our minds right”.  Once we get our minds right . . . it’s amazing what will happen to your body, your passions and your spirit.

In order to influence others you must first be able to influence yourself.  Your attitude, towards life, is more important than your aptitude in your chosen profession.  Your position, in life, is greatly determined by the condition of your thoughts. When you are in a bad state or condition, others “feel it”.  It’s like having rolled in pig slop, no one else wants to get it on them.  They retreat from you.  Conversely, when you are feeling great about yourself, about life in general, others are drawn to that.  They want to know, what is it that you have or know that enables you to radiate such positive energy? 

Seek to find the best in others.  Articulate it in such a manner that they can begin to see it themselves.  A genuine smile, from you, says more than a thousand words can convey.  A sincere, unsuspecting, compliment, with the only motive of trying to make the other feel GREAT about themselves; is extremely influential.  You have the power to positively influence others about themselves . . . in fact everyone has it.  The question is . . . will you unleash it?  Will you take the time and the risk to attempt to make another feel better about their condition?

If you unleash your ability to help others, if you set your sights on making them feel better about their condition . . . you will have untapped one of your most powerful attributes to influence.  More importantly . . . you cannot bring this level of positive energy to others without it first running through you.  By trying to sincerely bring it to others you will have “gotten it in you”.

Your Greatest Achievement Is On the Other Side of Your Greatest Fear

There are three simple, yet bold, steps you must take in order to achieve your greatest victory.  First dare to dream and dream big.  Second, put dreams down on paper, that transitions the “wish” into a goal.  And third, set your mind to embrace the risk. 

Dream . . . desire reveals design and design reveals destiny.  Visualize what you desire, bask in it, daydream – get the emotion, let it cascade over you until it feels real.  Do more than just see it in your mind, use all your senses (what are the texture & temperature, the smells, sounds and taste) of the dream. This visualization locks-in your subconscious mind to go about finding that which you desire.  We are all emotional beings and that emotion will spark the first step and fuel the journey.

Set your goals: when you begin setting your goals, you are taking that first BIG step on your journey, and your inner-self realizes this . . . you are for real, a force to reckon with.  You must have a clear destination of where you are going.  Put yourself there mentally, in the future state of your desires, then look back to the present state as if that were your imagination, then ask yourself how did I get here, what was the path . . . my journey.  Then go about making those plans, step by step, do the hard work.  The better the plan, the more confidence you will have in your ability to achieve it.  There will be some surprises, plan on it . . . and when they come, stay calm, accept it and calmly figure out how to overcome it.  The worst thing you can do is let the “fear” overtake you.  There is always a way out, the secret is not necessarily being the most intelligent person in the world, it’s simply keeping your wits about you in the most stressful situation you can imagine.

“What would you dare to attempt, if you knew you could not fail?” If you are not pursuing your dream it’s a high probability you fear the failure, you’re afraid of getting knocked down.  You should not ponder whether you will be knocked down . . . you will, heck that’s only a right to passage, if you attempt something worth pursuing, you are going to get knocked back down . . . that’s what makes it worth pursuing.  It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s the meaning behind what has happened to you.  It’s all about that inner voice and how you talk to yourself.  Most people spend their entire adult lives trying to survive it . . . trying to avoid taking any risk.  Here’s some sobering news . . . none of us are going to make it out of this world alive (physically that is).  My hero, Augustus McCrae, Texas Ranger (Gus from Lonesome Dove) said it best “it’s not dying I’m talking about . . . it's living”.  So accept the journey, the challenge, life has offered you.  Don’t be scared of how hard you may get knocked down.  Get back up, get your mind right and move on.  That’s how winning is done. By the way, Gus knew how to live; in fact his final words on his death bed were “it was quite a party”.  I encourage you to live your life in manner that your final words would have similar meaning.

A Paradigm Shift That Will Ignite Your Sales

Imagine that you change jobs tomorrow and go to work for your largest client.  Remember the first day at any place new?  First day of high school, first day of practice with a new athletic team, and of course; the first day of work for a new company . . .  and this company is or was your largest customer.  Can you recall a heightened sense of anticipation . . . you want to make such a great impression.

Why do you think they hired you?  Well, certainly one of the reasons is they think you will bring value to their organization.  So, what’s the first thing you will do to help this company?  What is the one biggest thing they could do to improve their performance?  You know what that is, right?  Remember, this is not just any company this is YOUR largest client.  What is the biggest challenge they are facing?  What are the major industry trends?  What’s happening with their profile clients?  Do you know what the competitors are doing and is it working? 

If you don’t know the answers to these obvious questions you would probably start working your tail off to find out.  Well, here is the paradigm shift . . . you DO work for your largest client!  It is not only your responsibility to understand their business, but to understand it from their perspective. 

When you begin to behave in a fashion consistent with having ownership in all your clients’ best interest, you begin to move out of the “salesperson stereotype” and into a trusted advisor.