Persuading Others

Aug 6
20:19

2007

Alvin Day

Alvin Day

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We all know that persuasion is the key to sales but how many of us were taught effective persuasion techniques in our formal sales training? Learn an effective way to persuade others using their own motivations.

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When I began my sales career,Persuading Others Articles my training left me with the impression that sales was about product and customers, supply and demand. Sales training, often includes explanations about product, organization of the company, perhaps a little background on major accounts, but rarely is any attention paid to the part of selling that is truly its most important factor, Persuasion. Persuasion is a challenge that I have come to enjoy. It is the most important tool in any sales professionals arsenal and the ability to persuade others of your ideas and propositions changes the unpredictability of sales into a practiced and repeatable pattern of success.

In my many years in the sales profession, I observed human behavior, a subject that fascinates me greatly. I learned that a deep understanding of people’s motivations is perhaps one of the most powerful tools any sales professional can use to persuade others. While I am ever a student of this subject, my experiences so far led me to record a process that created repeatable and predictable sales success throughout my sales career.

Take the following example: Toni began her network marketing career with a great deal of success in the area of recruiting. She focused on building a large team and by the time a few months had passed, she had reached her goal. Given that her company was holding their annual convention locally, Toni wanted to ensure that her entire team would attend. This was proving more difficult than she imagined. In her meetings, Toni talked about the importance of attending the annual meeting. She spoke about the requirements of the company and the commitment to success that each team member had made – the lecture did very little to convince her team that they should invest the time and money in the annual meeting.

Toni’s approach was not convincing because she spoke about things that reflected her point of view. She had attended the annual event her first year because she believe that it would be crucial to her success. She wanted to learn first hand the new product information and speak to as many top performers as she could. The idea of missing an important formal event that would contain so much valuable information that would be needed throughout the following year was not even an option for her, the information was just too important.

A mental shift was necessary in order for Toni to create a persuasive argument that would inspire her recruits to consider the event as important as she did. Instead of beginning with an (almost lecture-like) speech on the formalities of the event, Toni should have worked to understand the motivations of her team. If they had already done well since being recruited, perhaps they would be more swayed by the rewards and recognitions being handed out at the event. If they had struggled to see results so far, Toni should speak of the inspirational and motivation aspect that the annual meetings bring.

In trying to persuade you must remember that your prospects are always wondering how your proposition will serve them. Approaching a prospect with a formal lecture does not often inspire action because it gives few reasons to act. When you can understand your prospects’ motivations and why they may benefit from following your call to action, you can communicate these benefits in your sales pitch. Approaching your prospects by clearly communicating what is in it for them is more likely to heighten interest in your proposal as well as your closing rate. 

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