2008 October | Immediate Influence

Cultivating Relationships Boosts Sales Effectiveness

Q: What is the most important step in your selling, influencing, or persuading process?

A: Great question! As a sales, influence, and persuasion trainer, I’ve often posed that question to varying groups of people. Typically, 7 out of 10 respond that “closing” is the most important step in the selling process. I respectfully submit to you that that belief is faulty. You see, my research shows that people buy, more so, because they like the seller, speaker, or candidate.

I’m curious. Have you liked a seller so much that you helped them close the deal? I have.

Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand me. Closing the deal is important! However, the relationship you establish with a client or customer is paramount. Think about it. The more deeply you bond with any client or customer, the more likely they will remain loyal and refer others to you. Make sense? In addition to that, you might receive some unexpected gifts.

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How to Immediately Influence Yourself

Sometimes we have an inaccurate perception of the happiness of successful people in business, politics, and entertainment. In reality, regardless of their socioeconomic success, a number of them are messed up on the inside. In fact, many times we have discovered they are depressed, abusive, suicidal, and addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.

Ironic? Yes! Think about it. In our society, people believe that happiness and success are derived from earning a significant income, acquiring material objects, traveling to exotic places, eating in the best restaurants, and staying in the finest hotels. Yet, I imagine that you can think of a few famous people experiencing all that, and more – but they are miserable.

Why?
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How to Deeply Influence Others and Yourself

James Van Fleet once said, “Always think in terms of what the other person wants.”

During my nearly 10 years of marriage, I’ve discovered that one of the keys to a successful relationship is thinking in terms of what my wife wants. For instance, there are times when my wife wants to watch a romantic movie when I’d prefer to watch an action movie. You might be saying,”Great! Let her watch her romantic movie and you go watch an action movie on another television.” Good idea, my rational thinking friend. However, if I were to act on that type of thinking my wife wouldn’t get what she really wanted it from the experience. Connectedness. Guess what? I want to feel that too.

In fact, everything human beings do can be summed up this way: Human behavior is driven by our desire to change the way we feel or change the way we behave. Most people take actions to change the way they feel because it’s an easier path to take. Unfortunately, many people indulge in behaviors that are detrimental in the pursuit of changing feelings. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can take complete control of your feelings/emotions in an instant. Want an example?

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Curtailing Customer Returns

Peter Drucker once said,”The best way to predict the future is to create it.” I fully agree! As a part of creating the future, we must include systematic processes that eliminate problems that exist today. The problem of customer returns or buyer’s remorse is what we will work to eradicate from our future in this post. First, I want to reveal some of my research about the reasons people return items and/or back out of deals.

In a survey conducted by the car industry, to determine why people didn’t buy, they discovered that customers feared not buying the right model, paying too much, or making the wrong decision altogether. Overcoming the same buying decision fears are a problem for many companies.

Therefore, it is my recommendation that your marketing department create a 2-step system that 1) keeps your product or service sold and 2) causes people to feel compelled to repurchase from you.

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Elegantly Influencing Employee’s Behaviors in Tough Economic Times

In any time of economic uncertainty, most employees quickly begin to feel “stressed out” about their future employment with a company. The intensity of the employees stressful feelings is closely related to how much their company is impacted by an economic downturn. For example, employees of manufacturers selling goods to the commercial construction industry have suffered damaging reductions in profits. According to the president and CEO of a major commercial construction tool manufacturer, the decreased profits were inevitable with the onslaught of soaring freight, shipping, transportation, and raw materials costs. In addition to that, equipment and tool sales to the residential construction market has been continually sinking for over a year. Companies such as Bosch, Dewalt, Fastenal, and others all agree that the residential market won’t turn upward for at least two more years. As a result, thousands of people have lost their jobs, their homes, and their credit rating.

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Ethically Influencing People Using Web 2.0 Technology

A few months ago I rediscovered a Web 2.0 technology that can be easily used to influence and persuade people to visit your blog or website. Coincidentally, I first read about the technology on a blog. Then Jim Turner, a direct response copywriter and social networking expert, suggested it to me in an email. Upon visiting the website for the technology I immediately noticed these two comments:

New York Times reported,”It’s one of the fastest growing phenomena on the Internet,”and Wired reported it is,”Incredibly useful.”

By now, you’re probably asking, “What is this Web 2.0 technology?.”

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3 Easy Ways to Influence People in the Age of Social Media

Social Networking and Social Media are the hottest topics in the business world right now. They’ve been written about in magazines, blogs, and newspapers. These days there are even stories about Social Networking and Social Media showing up on television news. As a result, tons of business people are attempting to implement these new marketing tactics to attract new customers as quickly as possible.

Here are three basic tools of subsconscious influence and persuasion to use, so that you strategically implement these tactics the right way.

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