When it comes to excelling in sales, you must perfect your powers of persuasion. In order to effectively persuade, your language, your presentations, your approach in general should reflect issues, items and concerns most relevant to your target. When you learn how to approach each target in a way that can influence their decisions, you wield great power. Learning to influence others will allow you to achieve great results.
Whether you are in a business situation, selling products or services to a prospect, a family situation bargaining with your kids to go to bed on time or in a social situation, seeking to bring your friends to your way of thinking, the basic elements of persuasion are the same. You must approach your subject with a well planned presentation designed to convince them of your logic.
Take the following example: Todd is very excited about his new network marketing company. He can just see himself quitting his job, driving an expensive car and living a flash lifestyle that would be the envy of everyone he meets. In his attempts to recruit people, Todd describes this same vision. His first target is a friend and neighbor. He knows she could use the extra money as a single mother of two. They have had many conversations about her financial difficulties.
He starts by talking about the flash car his new business is going to afford him. When he sees that this has little effect, Todd goes on to talk about the extravagant lifestyle his prospect could enjoy. This too has little effect. Apart from the talk of being able to quit her job, his prospect didn’t seem to care much for any of the benefits Todd described. He couldn’t understand it because these were the same benefits that had sold him on the opportunity.
Todd’s three approaches failed. When he planned his presentation, much thought and effort went into what he would say but little went into what the prospect would actually find interesting.
There is a simple set of steps I tend to take when trying to persuade someone. I have found, like a scientific experiment they can be repeated over and over with similar results. First, Todd needs to check his own demeanor, when you walk into an impossible situation you should believe without a doubt that what you want is possible. Your voice, stance and approach should project this belief.
Todd began his pitch by going into the details that excited him. He was a young single man with no children. Thoughts of a sports car, flash lifestyle and fat bank account crossed his mind daily. On the other hand, his target was a single mother of two. Thoughts of dental bills, college funds and unpaid sick days plagued her thoughts; an expensive car meant nothing to her.
Todd should have constructed a presentation that spoke to the concerns of his target. With an approach more tailored to hit the objectives of his target, he could have had a more successful pitch.
Persuasion powers can do wonders for your sales career, it can even do wonders for your personal life. To acquire and achieve great things both professionally and personally, you must learn how to ask for them in the right way. When you unlock the key to powerful persuasion, you unlock the key to influencing others. This is the greatest of interpersonal skills.
Alvin Day’s Sales Training and Self Improvement Advice have helped many sales professionals and success-seekers reach and exceed their goals. For more of Alvin Day’s FREE resources, visit http://www.AlvinDay4Free.com
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