Secret Language of Influence: Master the One Skill Every Sales Pro Needs - Softcover

Seidman, Dan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814417264 ISBN 13: 9780814417263

Verlag: AMACOM, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Spanning the use of storytelling, humor, emotion-evoking language, and questions that advance the sale, this entertaining and practical book demonstrates the power of words to break down resistance and incline buyers toward purchase.

A few simple words--the right words--can transform an awkward sales call into a comfortable conversation and a resistant prospect into a happy customer, which is why author Dan Seidman teaches you to think of influence as something occurring at a level just below the buyer’s awareness.

The Secret Language of Influence does this by explaining not only how to identify the right words--and which to avoid--but how to use strategic key words and phrases with different potential buyers. You’ll learn the best ways to approach buyers who are:

• motivated by benefits vs. problems (i.e., wanting to hear about the money they’ll save rather than the pain they’ll avoid);
• proactive vs. reactive;
• big picture vs. detail oriented;
• systems thinkers vs. creative minds;
• and those who are influenced by external feedback (testimonials, evidence) vs. internal factors (feelings, personal experiences, beliefs).

Today’s buyer is savvy and all too familiar with traditional selling techniques, but great selling is invisible. By identifying different ways buyers are motivated, salespeople can quickly customize their conversations and lead prospects to a yes.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

DAN SEIDMAN is a globally recognized speaker, consultant, and trainer on selling and influence. He is the author of Sales Autopsy, and his regular columns reach more than 2 million readers monthly online and in print.

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If you want to make more sales, you need to speak the buyer’s language. Some buyers are like tortoises and others are like hares. Some are big-picture buyers and others are detail-oriented. And some, no matter how many fabulous benefits you describe, would rather hear about the pain they’ll avoid. Your job is to figure out what kind of buyer you’re selling to, and which words will lead them to “yes.”

You don’t have to be a mind reader. It’s simple to do when you’re attuned to the subtle yet powerful force of language—listening carefully to map out your customer’s mind, then choosing words strategically to act as tools of influence.

The Secret Language of Influence is a remarkably simple yet effective new approach to selling. Packed with stories, dialogues, and examples, the book delivers more than 30 psychologically insightful strategies for pinpointing how different people make decisions, and tailoring your sales message to match. You’ll learn how to:

• Use pattern interrupt to grab attention and overcome resistance

• Motivate proactive buyers who rush forward (then change their minds) and reactive buyers who make decisions slowly and methodically

• Figure out if your prospect responds to external feedback (testimonials, evidence) or internal factors (feelings, beliefs)

• Match your dialect to appeal to visual, auditory, or kinesthetic thinkers

• Ask potent questions that elicit clear clues about your buyer

• Use storytelling, humor, and emotions to maximum effect, and more!

Great persuasion skills are invisible, happening just beneath a buyer’s awareness. With a few simple words—the right words—you can transform an awkward sales call into a comfortable conversation, and a resistant prospect into a happy customer.

Dan Seidman is a globally recognized speaker, consultant, and trainer on selling and influence. He is the author of The Ultimate Guide to Sales Training, and his regular columns reach more than 2 million readers monthly online and in print. He lives in Barrington, Illinois.

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CHAPTER 1

Breaking Buyers’ Patterns

THE “MOST ELUSIVE PROSPECT” . . . I’m selling for a company in

Chicago. When I’m not on the road, I’m pounding the phones at my desk,

generating leads. Today, in fact, I’m breezing through my contact manager

when I stop and stare at the notes section of one record.

There’s the date and time of the last call, and next to these notes are the

letters “lvm,” short for “left voice mail.” Below this note is a string of identical

calls going back three years. We have “left voice mail” messages for this

woman forty-six times!

Now, what would you do with a prospect like that?

“What is there to lose?” I think, so I dial and—surprise—get her voice

mail. I wait for the beep and leave a message.

“Congratulations! This is Dan Seidman of corporate recruiting. You

have earned our company’s prestigious Most Elusive Prospect Award. We

have called you forty-six times—today makes forty-seven—and you have

never returned a single call. I just wanted you to know that nobody in our

entire database, with thousands of companies, has ever ignored us as frequently

as you. Thanks for not calling. And congratulations on your award.”

I hang up.

And what do you think happens? Ninety minutes later the woman calls

me! And I get an earful. “You stupid jerk! I don’t have to return anybody’s

calls, ever. How rude to leave me that message. Don’t ever call our company

again. You’re a jerk.”

I manage to get a word in—“Wow, I had no idea you’d be upset. I’m so

sorry”—and bang! She hangs up the phone.

Oh, man, what did I do? Well, at least she called me and not my VP of

sales.

Moments later, the phone rings again. It’s her! She proceeds to tell me

how awful she feels popping off at me like that. And, actually, my message

was pretty funny. And, yes, she does use services like ours. Then she asks if

I would please come in to see her next week, to talk about our offerings.

Yes, she became a client and no, my VP never did hear about my coldcalling

strategy.

You’re wondering, What happened here? The story I just told illustrates

what’s called, in psychology, a pattern interrupt. Its roots are fascinating,

and the strategy is useful as you learn to better influence others.

The late Dr. Milton Erickson is considered one of the world’s great psychologists.

He perfected pattern interruption and other creative influence

techniques to help patients work through problems that result from being

stuck in a pattern of thinking or behavior. His ability to help patients

change behavior—and to stop doing those things that are damaging to

themselves and others and instead do things that are useful—is legendary.

And isn’t influencing your buyers to change really the ultimate goal of

selling?

As I mentioned in the book’s preface, as sales professionals, we need to

help prospects to change products and services—to change their minds.

And as you probably know from experience, people often follow a wellworn

path when encountering situations where discomfort occurs (a sales

rep calling, for example). Dr. Erickson revealed how we can move them off

this path and, by doing so, open up the possibility of different outcomes. In

other words, we’re going to break their tried-and-true patterns.

Learning to Respond in an Unexpected Way

So let’s return to the example of selling: Sales pros encounter similar problems

every day when prospects throw the same old objections at them: “We

don’t have money for this. . . . Let me think about it. . . . Call me in six

months.” But what if salespeople can learn to respond in an unexpected

manner? They can break that bad dialogue and create a useful conversation

that is more likely to end in a decision. But first, how did that jump from

the world of psychology to the world of business occur?

The bridge between pure psychological counseling and related business

applications was built by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, creators of

neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a technique used in psychotherapy

and in organizational change management. Bandler and Grinder studied

and then modeled Erickson’s techniques. Bandler had some fantastic success

experimenting with and testing the pattern interrupt technique on

patients in mental hospitals. He decided to find extreme cases of antisocial

behavior—people who had spent years institutionalized—and treat these

individuals differently than traditionally trained doctors were taught. His

results proved both astounding and at times humorous.

In one case, Bandler was called in to help treat a man who thought he

was Jesus Christ. Here’s a fellow who insisted he was someone he was not,

in spite of counselors saying, “C’mon, man, you are not Jesus. What makes

you think that?”

...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: AMACOM
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0814417264
• ISBN 13: 9780814417263
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: HarperCollins; https://harpercollins.co.uk; ; "The News Building 1 London Bridge Street,"; London; SE1 9GF; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland