Maximize Your Influence

Increase your scarcity with your product or service and you will find your prospects begging to get started.  Make sure you follow the 3 critical aspects of scarcity.  Make sure your urgency is immediate, legitimate, and believable.  The Sweet Psychology of Indulging During a Pandemic Want to know how to increase scarcity and urgency?  Want to know how to keep prospects and coworkers to keep their...

Deep down we want everyone to listen to our message and we want to influence them to our way of thinking.   Every day you either persuade others to your point of view or they persuade you to theirs. We have learned from society to use intimidation, coercion, control, force, or sometimes compromise to get what we want. Candidates who use humor on Twitter may find the joke is on them One of these di...

There is a strange psychological phenomenon in regard to drawing conclusions.  If someone tells us exactly what to do, our tendency is to reject that forced choice.  Especially when we feel like it is our only option. The solution is to offer your prospects a few options so that they can make the choice for themselves.  People feel the need to have freedom and make their own decisions.  If forced...

We can't fix this habit in ourselves or in our prospects until we understand the WHY of procrastination or the WHY or putting things off.  While there are many different psychological factors motivating a person's tendency to procrastinate, the number-one reason is fear of failure or rejection. We often exhibit avoidance, reluctance, apathy, and rationalization when we are afraid. Does your prospe...

No one can follow through on an act or message without first thinking or seeing in his or her mind that it is possible to accomplish it.  You can mentally achieve participation by helping your audience visualize and see in their mind how your product or service will help them. Another key aspect of creating an image or vision in their mind is to use metaphors and similes.  These persuasion power t...

As a persuader, you need to help your audience be one step closer to taking action. As a Power Persuader, your goal is to decrease the distance someone has to go to reach your objective. Your task is to make it as easy and as simple as possible. You need to decrease the mental, social, or physical distance they need to travel to be persuaded. Do you want to know how to simplify the persuasion proc...

What makes someone successful?  Why do some people achieve wealth, while others don't? How can we predict who will make it big, who will barely make ends meet, and who will fail?  How do we quantify the characteristics of highly successful people? Are you prone to feeling guilty? Then you're probably more trustworthy, study shows Sales Hacks Great persuaders don't even have to use closing techniqu...

The Law of Involvement suggests that the more you engage someone's five senses, involve them mentally and physically, and create the right atmosphere for persuasion, the more effective and persuasive you'll be.  Your prospect's could listen to an entire presentation and not feel or do a thing.   How do you keep attention during this new world of online meetings? We have Zoom, Gotowebinar, and Skyp...

The great persuaders I have found and interviewed are happy people.  They love and enjoy life. They are very successful.  They attract people to them.  How does society define success?  By fame, fortune, achievement, or material wealth.   When Likes Aren't Enough: A Crash Course in the Science of Happiness Notice that every single one of these measures is external.  None of them has anything to do...

Has this ever happened to you? You enter a retail store and you're approached by a sharply dressed persuader. You are interested in buying, but the salesperson is a little aggressive. You get an alarming feeling in the pit of your stomach and then do what many of your customers do to you. You lie! You say, "I'm just looking; I'll come back later," or "It's too expensive," or "I have to talk to my...

Why do you get so much resistance, especially when it is a no brainer for them to say yes?  It usually comes back to a bruised ego or low self-esteem.  It can be easily fixed with a little praise and understanding of human nature.  Most people don't praise because they are concerned it will appear phony, their prospect won't believe them or they might even get upset.  Impostor syndrome is more com...

What skills do you need to influence in these crazy times when everyone is full of fear, doubt, and despair?  You need to have personal courage and radiate confidence in your prospects. The Latin root of the word courage means heart, bravery, will, and spirit.   People eat more when dining with friends and family How do you get your prospects to have more courage, overcome their fear and make a de...

The question of the day is about mood. Does your prospect's mood affect your ability to influence them? Does your personal mood affect our ability to persuade others?  Let's find out! Mood plays a major role in how people make decisions about time management Learn to be aware of their moods and your attitude.  Great persuaders know when it is time to help your prospect change their mood.  How do y...

Want Success?  Want Wealth?  Wondering what is taking so long?  The formula is simple.  Start thinking, acting, and doing what successful people are doing.  Success is an open book test.  Time to get the answers.  The key is to model professional athletes or millionaires.  We call this the "success mindset" or "mental programming." marshmallow experiment Join me for this week's podcast that will g...

Great persuaders are great communicators. Well-known motivational speaker and best-selling author Jim Rohn said it best: "When I learned how to effectively persuade and communicate, my income went from six digits to seven digits." Your communication skills are critical for your success, yet this is another set of overlooked skills that are not effectively taught in school. Communication includes p...

Closing skills were the big thing twenty years ago. We were taught that closing skills were all you needed. If you did not persuade enough people, you had to learn more closing skills. Nowadays, sure, it's nice to have a few closing skills in your persuasion toolbox, but shouldn't you spend more time opening up your audience before you even think about closing a deal with them? Join me for this we...

More than anything else, passion recruits the hearts and minds of your audience.  Great persuaders radiate heartfelt passion.  When the audience can sense your passion and genuine conviction for your cause or product, they will emotionally jump on board.  We all love people who are excited and filled with believable zeal for their subject.  Passion is critical to influencing others, yet less than...

Great persuaders know and understand how to use different forms of power, but if you're like most people, you just cringed at the word "power."  Is power something we're really allowed to talk about?  Is it good or bad?  Can we have power over our audience? Eyes and citrus smell could help cut hospital infections There are many other positive forms of power that can be used during the persuasion p...

Do you suffer from the Wobegon Effect?  What is it that you've been telling yourself and everyone else you do really well, when in fact you don't do it well at all—or at least you're not above average, as you've been trying to convince yourself and everyone else?   Join me for this week's podcast on 10 Sales Mistakes Costing You Money.  Find out what mistakes you are making (and don't even know it...

Let's discuss how the fear we all have can destroy your ability to persuade and influence.  We all experience rejection in small doses every day.  But what about when we persuade for a living?  Rejection seems to take a higher toll. We avoid rejection like the plague, but it affects your income.  Running away from the rejection solves nothing. Letting our fears overtake us and paralyze us also sol...

Scarcity plays a large role in the persuasion process. Opportunities are always more valuable and exciting when they are scarce and less available. We want to be the ones to own the rare items or to get the last one on the shelf. The more the scarcity of an item increases, the more the item increases in value, and the greater the urge to own it.   Now the key with scarcity and urgency is in the ap...

Commitment has a lot to do with perspective.  When you consider your personal perspective, do you see the big picture, or are you swept up by the whims of the moment?  You have to make sure your perspective is rock solid; otherwise, your commitments will be flimsy.  We all know that when someone says, "I'll try," it will never happen. "I'll try" versus "I will" are two different attitudes.   With...

Join me for this week's Podcast on How To Apply Behavioral Design to Persuasion.  We will discuss the two simple psychological shifts that will increase your ability to influence.  Discover  how to get your prospect in the right "MindState" that will open the doors to persuasion. I also interview Will Leach, who wrote : Marketing to Mindstates."   He said: If you're a salesperson, you can likely a...

It is common sense to realize you have to keep your audience's attention in order to persuade them.  If you lose them, you lose your chance for them to understand and accept your proposal. We know from our own personal experience that we tend to let our minds naturally drift when we are listening to other people.   Another helpful tip is the primacy and recency effect.  You should strategize the s...

Great persuaders can maintain the attention of their audience. Research shows that people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.  The moment you lose their attention, you can no longer persuade them. You could have a great Website, be a sharp dresser, publish a great brochure, or have any manner of impressive credentials. The reality is, however, that the number-one persuasion tool is...