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Kurt Mortensen?s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.
If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report ‘10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.’ After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!
Over the centuries, philosophers have tried to categorize the very many complex emotions of humanity–no easy task. Philosophers argued emotions are largely influenced by one’s time period and culture. In the persuasive process, you want to eliminate negative emotions while constructing positive emotions.
Aristotle came up with fourteen emotions:
* Anger
* Patience
* Friendship
* Enmity
* Fear
* Confidence
* Shame
* Shamelessness
* Emulation
* Contempt
* Kindness
* Pity
* Indignation
* Envy
We will focus on a few major, elemental emotions, both positive and negative. You don’t want your message to end with negative feelings.
Worry
When your prospect is worried or preoccupied with something occurring now or that is about to happen in the future, your ability to persuade declines. Worry is feeling anxious, uneasy, or concerned about something that may or will happen, or has already happened. I have heard worry referred to as ‘negative goal setting.’ Anxiety creates tension–a fear that occupies our thoughts, which, if encouraged will grow and continue to dominate our thoughts.
You can combat worry in your prospects by modifying their anxiety into thoughts of reality. Bring them back to reality by having them realize we can’t change many things in life. Stress that most of the things we worry about are those very things we can’t change and won’t likely ever happen in the first place. Help your prospects substitute their negative mental images with positive ones.
Fear
Fear is anxiety or tension caused by danger, apprehension, harm, pain, or destruction. The possibility of harm can be real or imagined. Fear motivates and moves us away from unpleasant circumstances or potential destruction. Fear persuades us to do many things we might not otherwise do. Out of fear we buy life insurance, air bags, home alarms, and guns.
Fear does not work in every circumstance, however; if we were solely motivated by fear, we would never speed or start smoking. The proper dose of fear is essential in persuasion. If the dose is too small, it will not stimulate action. If the fear is too large, it will trigger resistance and acceptance will decrease For fear to stick and create action and persuasion, it must include the following steps:
1. The image of fear must be unpleasant, such as threat of pain, destruction, or grief.
2. It must be imminent. Your prospects must feel not only that the fearful event is likely to happen, but also that they could be victimized by its occurrence. They must feel vulnerable.
3. You must provide a solution to the fear. Give your prospects a recommended action to suspend or eliminate the fear.
4. Your prospects must believe they are capable of doing what is asked of them and that doing so will work for them.
Anger
Anger is a secondary emotion. A prospect’s anger is usually an indicator that something else is askew and/or that he needs and wants attention. You can assist in diminishing his anger by determining the key issue he is upset about. It is also often effective to ask for his help, opinions, or advice. This will usually diffuse his anger or even change his attitude and demeanor completely. In some circumstances, you may want to use anger to make a certain point or to evoke a certain reaction.
Sympathy and Compassion
You can generate action for your cause by creating sympathy for it. When we see others victimized by misfortune that was beyond their control, we feel more sympathetic toward them and more motivated to help them. You’ve probably seen this technique used by marketers when they show you pictures of starving children, battered women, abandoned animals, and disabled adults.
Jealousy
Jealousy is the pain caused by seeing others’ good fortune, not because we want what they have, but because we resent them for having it. The cause of jealousy is the false perception that one’s worth lies in the possession of those goods.
Shame
Shame is pain and disrespect felt in connection to regrettable behaviors, experiences, or events. It often involves disgrace or loss of respect for oneself because we feel we have fallen in the eyes of our family, friends, or loved ones. We feel shame because of our vices, our abuses, or any of our perceived failures.
Pity
Pity is empathy we feel toward someone who has been unjustly trespassed against. We often feel pity for others due to death, injury, sickness, calamity, natural disaster, accidents, and so on. We can feel pity for people who are close to us as well as towards people we don’t know at all.
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Kurt Mortensen?s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.
If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report ‘10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.’ After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!
Whereas logic is the language of the conscious mind, emotion is the language of the unconscious mind. We know that emotions are reactions to perceived and imagined stimuli, not based on logic, but on one’s own personal experiences. Emotions often outweigh our logic. Imagine placing a plank of wood on the ground and walking its length a few times. Easy enough, right? But suppose you placed it a hundred feet in the air between two buildings. You know you can walk that plank–you just did it over and over again. Yet now, emotions and fears outweigh logic. Your ‘what-ifs’ and your imagination supersede the concrete knowledge of your ability to walk the plank.
In his book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman asserts that understanding emotions is more pertinent to leading a successful life than having a high intelligence. Often people of high IQ struggle at work because of their weaknesses in fundamental human relation skills. Goleman calls this skill ‘emotional intelligence.’ He emphasizes that emotional intelligence largely determines our success in relationships, work, and even physical wellness. Emotional intelligence ‘is a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions.’ Emotional intelligence includes emotional management, personal motivation, empathy, self-awareness, and social skills.
When you are persuading someone, emotions provide the springboard for a successful execution of your argument. In fact, I would even say emotions are the energy and very fuel of the persuasion process. Without tapping into your audience’s emotions, there is no strength or energy in your message. Emotion is a power you can harness and use in practically every aspect of persuasion. Remember, logic is important, but emotion helps you catapult an otherwise dull or flat exchange to the next level.
Consider the following advantages of emotion over logic:
1. Arousing the emotions of your audience engages your listeners and distracts them from your intention to influence and persuade.
2. Emotion requires less effort than logic. Logic solicits cognitive effort, whereas emotion is automatic.
3. Presentations aimed at engaging the audience’s emotions are usually more interesting than logical ones.
4. Emotion-based arguments are often easier to recall than logic-based arguments
5. Emotion almost always leads more quickly to change than logic does
You must know when to create positive or negative emotions and when to dispel negative emotions. You have to find ways to tap into your prospects’ emotions, such as hope, love, pride, gratitude, and excitement. If you can do this, you can inspire anyone. Decide ahead of time what emotional climate you want to create, capture those emotions within yourself, and you’ll be surprised how you can transfer those emotions to your audience.
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Kurt Mortensen?s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.
If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report ‘10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.’ After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!
As you prepare your message, understand that we humans aren’t capable of absorbing all of the information you can gather. We are hit with data all day long and most of the time we don’t absorb it. In fact, we are very selective in what we allow ourselves to retain. When we hit information overload, we turn our minds off and retain nothing.
A study on comprehension of television messages produced very revealing results. After watching commercials and other forms of messages, an amazing 97 percent of viewers misunderstood some part of every message they saw. On average, viewers misunderstood about 30 percent of the overall content they viewed Information is just poured out too fast. The evidence that you choose must be selective, precise, and powerful. You can’t afford to bombard your audience with too much information.
When creating the logical side of your message, you have to understand the concept of the number seven. This is also known as channel capacity, which is the amount of room in our brains capable of storing various kinds of information. George Miller wrote, ‘There seems to be some limitation built into us either by learning or by the design of our nervous systems, a limit that keeps our channel capacities in this general range.’ There is only so much room in your prospect’s brain to absorb logical numbers and information. This is why phone numbers only have seven digits.
Spend the time necessary to fully research the types of evidence you want to use to strengthen your arguments. You already know that using the right evidence from the right sources greatly increases the credibility of your message. However, the opposite is also true; poor or irrelevant evidence undermines the credibility of your message. When compiling evidence, consider the following:
1. Use evidence supported by an independent expert rather than facts presented alone.
2. Statistical evidence will be more persuasive when paired with individual case studies.
3. Document the sources of all testimonials.
4. New information is often more convincing than old
5. Evidence consistent with your audience’s beliefs will be more persuasive because they’ll evaluate everything from their own perspectives and attitudes.
6. Build credibility by also acknowledging and even including the other side of the argument. A two-way discussion will bear far more weight than a one-sided lecture
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Kurt Mortensen?s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.
If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report ‘10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.’ After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!
January 25, 2008
There is no argument against a fact - St. Thomas Aquinas tells us. So when I witness self-appointed swamis pushing their ‘cold calling is dead’ mantra, it is difficult not to laugh. The last 15 years of my life is proof that ‘cold calling’ does indeed work; and works to the tune of millions of dollars of new sales revenues, every quarter, for our client base.
Do these sales swamis really and sincerely believe cold-calling is dead, or are they cynically exploiting the fact that most salespeople dislike doing it, in order to hawk their books, motivational tapes and alternative marketing techniques. Aren’t they selling denial to the scared and the spineless? In fact, how much prospecting for new business did they ever do, before they capitulated and, like the fox who lost his tail in the fable, try to convince the other foxes that ‘tails are an unnecessary nuisance‘?
It must be said that the marketplace is noisy and is only getting noisier. All salespeople and marketers are competing in the public square for the same decision-makers’ ears, eyes and dollars. Cold calling by using the Yellow Pages, dialling for dollars or simply contacting firms with little or no knowledge of what they do, or how to add value to their business, truly is a waste of time. But, this is equally true of any other form of marketing. Telephone based marketing has a unique edge, however, in that, unlike any other form of marketing, you will get some feedback, even when the called person is less than fully interested.
How many marketers have aroused interest with a fancy brochure, press article or web advert only to have that prospect Google half a dozen lower-cost or larger (safer) competitors and never communicate with them at all? This is impossible to measure, but it surely must happen, because as buyers we have all done exactly that when buying anything from holidays to cars.
What makes a ‘cold call’ ineffective? It is not the call, so it must be the other word, ‘cold’. Somehow the fact that it is unsolicited, unexpected, unprepared or uninteresting, makes all the difference to the likely outcome. If a salesperson returning from lunch finds an e-mail or voicemail from a decision-maker saying ‘please call me about your product‘, then they will pick up their telephone and do very much the same thing, as they would when they prospect for new business. Their value statement is just the same, the product is just the same, the salesperson is just the same. The only difference is the ‘cold’.
OK, that’s a hurdle! But is it an insurmountable hurdle?
Question: Imagine that the fire department phone you at your office today and say, ‘Hello Sir, your house is on fire!’. That is an unsolicited or cold call too. Would you say, ‘I’m not interested’, and hang up on them?
Can we warm up our calls? Can we make our unsolicited calls, so relevant, credible, vertically focused, curiosity arousing and filled with the promise of value and benefit, that a higher number of decision-makers are hooked? Will changing our conversational tackle and beneficial bait help us catch more fish?
At Elicit we guarantee our clients 100% engagement with decision-makers. That means that 100% of the firms they wish to target will not only speak to us about our client’s value statement but read written follow-up; and then have a second or third qualifying conversation with us about it. We are targeting EVP and C-level decision-makers in Wall Street banks and investment firms. Since we are domain-experts with 20+ years of experience each, we are credible enough to always deliver on this promise, because we can always engage with people. Our calls may be unsolicited, but our credibility in the opening 30 seconds overcomes that.
The bad news for some salespeople is that half of the firms in any market are already disadvantaged in this endeavour, because, by definition, 49.9% have products and services that are below ‘average’. They don’t, or can’t, add as much value as their competitors. Their software products are tired and buggy and don’t do what the users need them to do. They have poor reputations for customer service and are on a path to being acquired or going out of business. Such firms are going to find not just cold calling but any form of marketing a largely fruitless exercise. We don’t take such firms as clients, even if they beg us, because without a good value statement it is impossible to engage senior people. We’re good, but if you want magic then go to Vegas.
But for firms in the top 50%, the good news is that decision-makers, even those big-shots making million-dollar bonuses on Wall Street, are not anything like as tough as Gordon Gecko in the movie of the same name. If you can articulate your value in the opening 30 seconds, they will engage you for another 60 seconds. Get through that minute with your credibility still intact and they will read a follow up e-mail of less than 150 words (the length of this paragraph). When you call them back a week or two later they will re-engage with you, listen and explain how your product or service could potentially fit in to their business, or articulate why it probably would not. Once you’ve achieved a considered response to your value statement, from a decision-maker who correctly understands what your company offers, then you’ve already accomplished everything that any other form of marketing sets out to achieve.
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Greg Grimer is the CEO of Elicit Intelligence, a sales consultancy practice serving IT Software and Technology vendors. Along with Mike O’Hara he co-produces a regular podcast on how to generate new business and sales opportunities using your wits and a telephone. This is available for FREE at www.coldcallingpodcast.com
January 11, 2008
Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there?s no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.
In-Field training and coaching is an ideal opportunity for the Sales Director or Sales Manager to assess the ongoing training needs of their team.
The Logical In-Field Training Sequence:
The logical approach to field accomplishment training, is to break the call plan down into three sections:
Before the call.
During the call.
After the call.
Before The Call:
Ensure that the salesperson is thinking in terms of their customer?s issues by asking:
?What are the customer?s needs/issues??
?What is their potential??
?What is their turnover??
?What is the trend ? is turnover increasing year on year??
?Are they affected by competition (if any)??
?What are their current commercial concerns??
?What are their commercial objectives for this year??
These questions ensure that the salesperson is aware that whilst the overall aim is to sell the company?s product, the prime objective of the sales call is to sell answers to issues and satisfy needs.
Having established the prime objective, the manager now needs to confirm that the salesperson is properly equipped to achieve them.
Further questioning should establish:
How will the call be opened?
Are they prepared for objections?
What questions are they going to ask to ascertain needs?
What benefits are they going to stress, and how?
What sales aids will they be using?
Are they prepared to ask for the order or gain a commitment?
Have they all the necessary documentation?
During these questions, the manager should make a note of any variance in procedures or note points that have been omitted by the salesperson. The manager must now ensure that the salesperson fully understands and agrees the call plan. It may be necessary to rehearse or reinforce certain aspects of the call at this stage if there is an indication of doubt or uncertainty on the part of the salesperson.
At this stage, it is necessary for the manager to agree with the salesperson the part they intend to play during the call and how to best introduce them to the prospective client. They must also agree with the salesperson to what degree (if any) they are to be involved. To jump in, in order to save a sale, will put the manager in a very awkward situation - whether they succeed or fail, they cannot win. The golden rule is: Agree your role and stick to it.
During The Call:
Never present a double-front to the customer. Stand or sit tactfully to one side away from the salesperson/client.
Watch and listen for any deviation from the agreed call-plan.
What were the reasons for the changes?
What effect did they have on the client, or salesperson?
Is the situation as envisaged?
What is being done badly?
What is being done well?
Is there a specific improvement since the last accompaniment?
After The Call:
Human beings do not like to be told how bad they are - they need to be told how good they are and how better they could be. This is where the formula for effective field accompaniment is used to
its best effect:
Ask ? Teach ? Tell ? Check - Thank
The use of this formula embodied in a simple sequence will enable the skilful manager to achieve:
Cheerful acceptance of correction
Full understanding of the fault
Elimination of the fault
Correct method followed in future
Maintenance of goodwill
Two principles to remember when applying the formula and sequence
are:
Curb yourself
Stick to priorities
Curb Yourself:
This takes self-discipline and constant awareness that you are dealing with a human being with feelings of their own. If the sales call was unsuccessful, then it is an even bet the salesperson is fully aware of their shortcomings in terms of effect i.e. they did not get the sale or a commitment to move to the next stage.The effect has already begun to hurt them most in terms of loss of earnings and achievement. Any reminders at this stage will only accelerate the demotivating forces of failure and create a barrier between the manager and the salesperson.
Stick To Priorities:
Ideally, aim at correcting one major weakness at a time. If the errors are numerous, it is far better to deal with them progressively during a series of meetings. Yet again highlighting a list of errors in one session will only reinforce their feelings of failure.
Praise Them:
Some managers are afraid to give praise because they feel it lowers their status. It does not lower the manager?s status at all. It establishes the manager?s right to give praise and makes them a bigger person in the eyes of their salespeople.
During the call, the manager is not only recording the weak points of a sales presentation, they are also noting the good. Keep praise factual, specific, and above all, sincere.
Question To Reveal: - Ask
At this stage, the manager needs to ask the salesperson:
?Where do you think we could have improved our presentation??
or
?Where did we fail to convince our customer??
or
?Where did we deviate from our agreed plan??
N.B. Note the use of the words ?we? and ?our?.
By using these words, the manager is involving themselves with the salesperson?s shortcomings and not launching a direct attack. A self-diagnosed failing is easier for the ?ego? to accept and there is more of a chance that it will be remembered in the future. The manager needs to bear in mind that the salesperson may genuinely not know where they have gone wrong.
Skilful questioning coupled with tact will usually reveal these points.
Correct: - Teach & Tell
This is a selling job and offers an opportunity for the manager to use the experience gained by their own efforts and those they have observed from other salespeople during field accompaniments.They need to sell an improvement by teaching and telling the salesperson:
How they should do it.
Why they should do it.
What would happen if they did it.
In order to check the manager now needs to:
Question For Understanding:
People learn at varying speeds and if the training given is to be used effectively, then it needs to be fully understood i.e. ?OK Bill, let us go through it again to ensure that we have fully understood it.? or ?OK Bill, let us benefit from one more check before we try it out on our next customer?.
Check him on the ?How?, the ?Why? and the ?What? would happen if …? principles of training.
Habits:
Habits are formed by continuous practice, successful field training consists of getting salespeople to form good habits and we must ensure that the practice these good habits repeatedly. Check any tendency to depart from good habits from the beginning, ensure that they do not start bad work habits such as being late for appointments, untidy equipment, dirty car etc.,
In Summary:
The success or failure of field training depends absolutely on the ability of the field trainer. If a salesperson fails it is through either bad selection or bad training.
Copyright ? 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved
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Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group To find out more about the author, read his latest articles or to subscribe to his newsletter for dedicated sales professionals, visit: http://www.jonathanfarrington.com
You can also now visit Jonathan’s Blog at: http://www.thejfblogit.co.uk
January 6, 2008
What style of management best describes you? Of the most common 4 there is a ‘best’ one? Take a look at this list and see which you think you are. Careful, after you read about each you might want to change your mind.
- AUTOCRATIC MANAGEMENT
- WORK MANAGEMENT
- INDIVIDUAL MANAGMENT
- DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPANT MANAGEMENT
Autocratic Management
This is the ?my way or the highway? manager. You will recognize this by the string of broken salespeople left in their wake. They will get results, but will experience high staff turnover. Their customer relationships are poor and they get very little repeat or referral business. The result is high advertising costs in an effort to continually find new customers. The cost in human capital,i.e., recruiting and training is even greater.
WORK MANAGEMENT
This manager believes in but does not have complete trust of subordinates. Their time is spent checking and double checking for errors, abuse of company policy and gets bogged down in details that do not promote sales. Their focus is on organization and structure. Important yes, but not the main objective. Selling is secondary to this manager. This style makes a great assistant sales manager under the right guidance.
INDIVIDUAL MANAGEMENT
Confidence and trust in his people is the strong suit of this manager. They share information freely with salespeople and are ‘one of the gang’. This can lead to confusion if the need arises to exert the authority of their position.
DEMOCRATIC/PARTICIPANT
According to A. L. Mazlow, renowned management expert, 80% of employees respond positively to this style.
Since style number 4 is the most desirable lets find out why.
Is involved. Takes action.
Are you a manager who creates business? When business is slower than you would like what steps do you take? Use slower periods for one-on-one sessions with your salespeople. Schedule additional training. Do now allow your people to be idle.
Has empathy and genuine concern for employee growth and success.
This is worth repeating…THEY DON’T CARE HOW MUCH YOU KNOW UNTIL THEY KNOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE. You are the person they look up to. It is your responsibility to help them. They have to know you have their best interest at heart. At All Times.
Solves problems through the use of knowledge and expertise.
Your people will respond to ‘let me help you’ much quicker than ‘because I told you to do it this way’. Show them why your way is beneficial to their success. It may take a few moments longer but the result is long lasting.
Create change when necessary, not for the sake of change.
People like stability. Do not get on the program of the month club. Find what works and stick with it. This allows your team to concentrate on selling, not learning the new program.
Develop people for the future.
You will find no greater satisfaction as a Sales Manager than seeing one of your people receive a promotion. You are the one who gave them the skills and knowledge. You helped them succeed. They will not forget you. I receive phone calls, cards and letters from people who are General Managers, General Sales Managers and Sales Managers who started as beginning salespeople that thank me for what I taught them. It is a humbling and rewarding feeling…YOU Can Never Get what YOU want until You help someone else get what THEY want.
Create a clear road map to achieve objectives.
You are the leader, they want to know how to get there. Do you have a plan? Is it clear cut and understandable? Does everyone know what part they play in your plan? What is their plan? Do they know their daily schedule?
Be pro-active, not reactive
When dealing with potential adversity it isn’t always going to go your way. You must be the calming force. Take time to collect your thoughts before you say anything. Be the leader and teach your people how to deal with downturns in business, customer relations problems or employee unrest.
Create a sense of belonging.
Everyone needs to belong. It reassures us. It is a place of comfort. Make your workplace that place.
Invite input.
You do not know it all. Sorry to burst your bubble. Your people have great ideas. People who are newer to your business see things from a different and fresh perspective. Listen to what they say and evaluate their ideas and suggestions.
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Copyright 2006 MasteringSelling.com
December 26, 2007
If you can get someone to mentally commit to a product or a decision, he is likely to remain committed even after the terms and conditions change. This is why when stores, for example, advertise very low prices on a television set, they include in small print, ‘Quantities Limited.’ By the time you get to the store, all the bargain televisions are sold, but you are mentally committed to buying a new TV. Luckily for you, there are more expensive models available. So, you go home having spent $300 more on a television set than you originally planned, just because you needed to maintain a consistency between your desire for a new TV and your action of being in the store.
This tactic is also often used when goods and products go on sale. For example, a customer may be lured to a store by an incredible deal on a pair of nice dress shoes. Upon inquiring, the disappointed customer learns from the salesperson that her size is not in stock. Just as the customer is about to leave, the salesperson miraculously displays another strikingly similar pair–but this pair is not on sale.
Think of a time when you purchased a new car. Have you ever noticed that when you’re about to sign the contract the price is $200 more than you expected? Well, someone conveniently forgot to tell you about the air conditioner or some other feature found in your car. You pay the extra $200 anyway because you’re mentally committed to that car, and you don’t want to go through the whole hassle and headache of trying to renegotiate the deal.
Often car dealers promise an incredible price, even a few hundred dollars below a competitor’s price, all the while knowing it’s not actually going to go through. The deal is offered only to motivate the buyer to purchase from their dealership. Once the customer decides to buy, the dealer sets up several conditions, each of them causing the customer to feel increasingly committed before finding out the real price: lengthy forms are filled out, great lengths are taken to set up specific financing terms, the customer is encouraged to take the car home and drive it to work, to run errands, to cruise the neighborhood. The dealer knows that while the customer is out joy riding, she is thinking of all the many reasons their purchase is justified
These tactics are even used when high school students and their parents are narrowing down the colleges they should attend. Just like car dealers, colleges often give a low estimate on your costs, and it’s not until after you’ve signed up and registered that you discover your actual costs.
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Kurt Mortensen?s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.
If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report ‘10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.’ After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!
December 25, 2007
Most of us feel more harmony in our lives when everything is consistent: our jobs, our homes, our habits, even our soft drinks. Consistency is the glue that holds everything in our lives together, thereby allowing us to cope with the world.
Think of all the people you admire. I’ll bet, by and large, most of them are consistent, congruent people. What they believe, what they say, and what they do (even when no one is watching) flow together seamlessly. Typically, a high degree of such consistency in one’s life is indicative of personal and intellectual strength. People are naturally more inclined–even subconsciously–to gravitate toward and follow individuals who are consistent in their behavior. The converse is also true: Inconsistency in one’s personal and professional life is generally considered undesirable. The person whose beliefs, words, and deeds don’t consistently match up is seen as hypocritical, two-faced, confused, or even mentally ill.
Leon Festinger formulated the cognitive dissonance theory in 1957 at Stanford University. He asserted, ‘When attitudes conflict with actions, attitudes or beliefs, we are uncomfortable and motivated to try to change.’ Festinger’s theory sets the foundation for the Law of Dissonance.
The Law of Dissonance states that people will naturally act in a manner that is consistent with their cognitions (beliefs, attitudes, and values). Therefore, when people behave in a manner that is inconsistent with these cognitions, they find themselves in a state of discomfort. In such an uncomfortable state, they will naturally be inclined to adjust their behaviors or attitudes to regain mental and emotional consistency. When our beliefs, attitudes, and actions mesh, we live harmoniously. When they don’t, we feel dissonance at some level–that is, we feel awkward, uncomfortable, unsettled, disturbed, upset, nervous, or confused. In order to eliminate or reduce such tension, we will do everything possible to change our attitudes and behavior, even if it means doing something we don’t want to do.
Imagine that there is a big rubber band inside you. When dissonance is present, the rubber band begins to stretch. As long as the dissonance exists, the band stretches tighter and tighter. You’ve got to take action before it reaches a breaking point and snaps. The motivation to reduce the tension is what causes us to change; we will do everything in our power to get back in balance. We seek psycho-emotional stasis at all times, much like we experience the ever-present, driving need for food and water to satisfy our physical being.
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Kurt Mortensen?s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.
If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report ‘10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.’ After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!
‘Buyer’s remorse’ is also a form of dissonance. When we purchase a product or service, we tend to look for ways to convince ourselves that we made the right decision. If the people around us or other factors make us question our decision, we experience buyer’s remorse. On feeling this inconsistency, we’ll look for anything–facts, peer validation, expert opinion–to reduce the dissonance in our minds concerning the purchase. Some of us even use selective exposure to minimize the risk of seeing or hearing something that could cause dissonance. Often people won’t even tell family or friends about their purchase or decision because they know it will create dissonance.
Listed below are some situations that might create dissonance.
* You are a strict vegetarian but you see a stylish leather jacket on sale and want to buy it.
* You made a New Year’s resolution to exercise every day. It is now halfway through February, you have not yet been to the gym once.
* You are on a stringent diet when you see Ben and Jerry’s ice cream on sale at the grocery store.
We find what we seek. If we can’t find it, we make it up. In politics, members of different parties will refuse to peaceably or tolerantly listen to opposing party commercials. Smokers won’t read articles about the dangers of smoking. Drug users don’t spend much time at clinics. We don’t want to find information that might oppose our current points of view.
A study by Knox and Inkster found interesting results at a racetrack. They interviewed people waiting in line to place a bet, and then questioned them again after they’d placed a bet. They found people were much more confident with their decisions after they had placed their bet than before the bet was made. They exuded greater confidence in their decisions and their chosen horses after their decisions were final and their bets were firmly in place
Younger, Walker, and Arrowood decided to conduct a similar experiment at the midway of the Canadian National Exposition. They interviewed people who had already placed bets on a variety of different games (bingo, wheel of fortune, etc.) as well as people who were still on their way to place bets. They asked each of the people if they felt confident they were going to win. Paralleling the findings of Knox and Inkster’s study, the people who had already made their bets felt luckier and more confident than those who had not yet placed their wagers.
These studies show that to reduce dissonance, we often simply convince ourselves that we have made the right decision. Once we place a bet or purchase a product or service, we feel more confident with ourselves and the choice we’ve made. This concept also holds true in persuasion and sales. Once the payment is given for your product or service, your prospects will usually feel more confident with their decisions. Have them make the payment or finalize the choice as soon as possible! This will increase their confidence in their decision and they will look for reasons to justify that decision.
When buying and selling shares of stock, investors commonly stick with stocks that have recently slumped in price, with no prospects of recovery. Rationally, the best decision is to cut their losses and invest elsewhere. Irrationally, however, investors often hang on, ensnared by their initial decision.
Many times, even when we have made a bad decision, we become so entrenched in our belief that it was right that we will fight to the bitter end to prove it. We can’t handle the dissonance in our minds, so we find anything to prove our decision was right. We become so embroiled in justifying our actions that we are willing to go down with the burning ship.
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Kurt Mortensen?s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.
If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report ‘10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.’ After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!
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