What Are You Full Of?

Confidence . . . when we interact with our affluent clients and prospects, we need to exude confidence. We need to show them what we are made of. There's a point where confidence becomes over confident and self assuredness becomes arrogance. These are not good things to be full of. Being competent, self assured and having a solid sense of self are excellent things to be full of.

Persuasion relies on our prospects perceptions of us. The reputation of people who sell isn't always flattering or accurate. In past articles I've written about how we can overcome objections and what the biggest block is in sales, partially fueled by an old-fashioned, slick, exaggerated parody of what a sales person is.

We are not slick sales robots. Those sales people take traditional sales training. . . we are learning the art of persuasion. They regurgitate features and benefits. . . we, connect our products and services uniquely to our client's and prospect's deepest core values and criteria.

We are on the path of persuasion excellence and taking our tactics, techniques and strategies out of that negative frame and replacing it with what we know to be true about persuasion, we are able to really shine.

Take a step back from your work for a moment and think on the following: how do you come across to your prospects and clients? How are you being perceived?

Are you exaggerating your products or services in any way? If so, people will figure this out, if not immediately, they will be underwhelmed once they get the product or service. In persuasion an incredibly powerful technique to use is over delivering, not underwhelming. Give an overview or outline of what you're going to give them and then give more.

Are you sabotaging yourself with sloppy, untrustworthy language? 'Honestly', 'seriously', 'truth be told'. . . .These diminish credibility and create incongruities and inconsistency. Linguistic precision is a huge component of persuasion. Cleaning up our own language incongruities gives us a huge boost.

Bragging too much or talking badly about others is another common pitfall some sales people use. These things don't make you look better, but reflect quite poorly.

How about scapegoating? Have you ever come across someone in sales who constantly sloughs off responsibility? Being responsible is a huge factor in people perceiving you as trustworthy. With that said, there are benefits to scapegoating if used properly and this tactic is used all the time in advertising and politics.

Last, but not least, we have to really understand when not to talk. A huge percentage of the art of persuasion is about listening. Knowing when to keep your mouth shut is highly persuasive behavior. Conversely, knowing the right questions to ask helps immensely. Practice and study will help these distinctions become second nature.

In order to come across as not full of it, we need to be not full of it.

About the Author

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques. Click here to get your own unique version of this article.

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