Maximize Your Influence

Even for the strongest individuals, their commitment level or willpower is not always constant. Willpower is like a battery. As you exercise your willpower throughout the day, the battery power starts to decline. What drains your battery? Fatigue, negative emotions, low blood sugar, suppression of emotions, and even peer pressure will drain your willpower battery faster than anything else. An inte...

Understanding different types of audiences will also help you determine their acceptance level. Following are some different categories of audiences and how to deal with each of them. The Hostile Audience This group disagrees with you and may even actively work against you. For a hostile audience, use these techniques: Find common beliefs and establish a common ground. Use appropriate humor to bre...

When you become a Power Persuader, you will learn to love objections. You will come to understand that when people voice their objections, it actually indicates interest and shows that they are paying attention to what you are saying. The key to persuasion is anticipating all objections before you hear them. Fielding questions and handling objections can make or break you as a persuader. These ski...

The Law of Expectations AND The Impact of Suggestion  The Law of Expectations uses expectations to influence reality and create results. Individuals tend to make decisions based on how others expect them to behave or perform. As a result, people fulfill those expectations whether positive or negative.  Expectations have a powerful impact on those we trust and respect, but, interestingly, an impact...

A great persuader can connect with anyone in thirty seconds or less. First impressions take only seconds to form, but they last a lifetime. This is a critical skill to develop because the cement dries fast. How do you ensure that you're making those early seconds really count? That first judgment or opinion about you is vital to your success. In this fast-paced world, you probably won't get a seco...

Research demonstrates that 81 percent of persuaders talk more than necessary during the persuasion process. They are talking too much,7 and you are likely talking too much. Check this out. When we talk too much and fail to allow our audience to ask questions, it increases the thickness of the brick wall of resistance. Consider the doctor analogy to persuasion, meaning you have to listen and ask qu...

Common Obstacles That Limit Your Persuasion Success The worst time to learn a persuasion skill is when you need it. Persuasion must be mastered before it is needed, or the opportunity is lost forever. In all the years that I have worked in persuasion, sales, influence, and leadership, I have never yet found a perfect persuader.  Ironically, one area of persuasion that is easily overlooked is the v...

Zeigarnik Effect When we feel we've been left hanging, it drives us crazy! We want to know the end of the story. What is the missing piece? We want our tasks to be completed so we can check them off our list. This is also known as the "Zeigarnik Effect," named after Bluma Zeigarnik, a Russian psychologist. This effect is the tendency we have to remember uncompleted thoughts, ideas, or tasks more t...

 "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 min...

I am not going to be politically correct in this section.  I know it is not fair.  I know we should not judge, I am here to help you with reality.  Everyone judges and some of these items are things you can fix – some of them you can't.  Focus on the things you can improve and don't worry about the rest.  This attraction is also called the Halo Effect. It operates by making one positive characteri...

Almost everyone wants to accomplish their dreams, achieve more, become a better person, or pursue bigger and better goals. And we often know exactly what we need to do to make these things happen. So why don't we do them? Why do we fall short of our dreams and aspirations? Check out this article on goal setting Writing down your goals coupled with a strong desire to reach them won't automatically...

How to Command Attention with Power and Authority  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? Check out the article here. The answers to these questions depend on what form of power it is,...

I was asked an interesting question last week on a radio interview.  I was asked, "How can you resist or repel an unwanted persuasive attempt?"  He also asked, "How can you stop someone that always tends to manipulate you?" I discuss this article here , and the persuasion ninja of the week. On this podcast, I talk about ways to resist another person's unethical persuasive attempt.  This is good to...

On this episode Kurt interviews Dave Kurlan. They discuss the biggest mistake that sales people make, baseball and sales, biggest mindset obstacles, self-limiting beliefs and how to reprogram your beliefs, how to get your prospect to pay more attention to you than to your competition, the sales process, good closing techniques, how to create urgency early, how to get past a "slump," how to know wh...

One of the Bricks - Fear of Rejection 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 solves nothing. Ironically, whether we run or succumb, neith...

The Hostile Prospect This person disagrees with you and may even actively work against you. For a hostile prospect, use these techniques: ·         Find common beliefs and establish a common ground. ·         Use appropriate humor to break the ice. ·         Don't start the presentation with an attack on their position. ·         You are only trying to persuade on one point; don't talk about   any...

On this episode Kurt discusses the geeky article of the biggest causes of anxiety. Article here . He also discusses the blunder of the week that happened to him at a burger joint in Southern California. And why first impressions really are important. He also discusses the brick wall of resistance and how we sometimes create it. Has this ever happened to you? You enter a retail store and you're app...

Join Kurt as he interviews Kristin Zhivago. Kristin is president of Zhivago Partners, a digital marketing management company, and the author of the book, Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy. Kristin was one of the first to identify selling as a matter of supporting the customer's buying process. Kristen and Kurt discuss: Biggest blunder people make today in sales & i...

On this episode Kurt discusses the blunder and ninja of the day, and the psychology of waiting and whether or not is a good or bad thing and if it affects your ability to persuade. Atmosphere can also include the tension in the air. Is there a rush, or are customers relaxed? What type of climate are you trying to create? Do you want a quick, fast decision, or do you want your customers to feel com...

Join Kurt as he interviews Travis Truett, the CEO of Ambition, the first sales performance management platform built for the modern workforce thats currently endorsed by Google, Harvard Business Review and more. On this episode they discuss the most common persuasion blunders, how to get in your prospects shoes, biggest changes in the sales & influence world, how to persuade millennials (check out...

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance Leon Festinger formulated the cognitive dissonance theory at Stanford University. He asserted, "When attitudes or beliefs conflict with our actions, we are uncomfortable and motivated to try to change." Festinger's theory sets the foundation for the Law of Dissonance. The Law of Dissonance proves that people will naturally act in a manner that is consistent with...

Join us on this great interview with Dr. Ben Voyer.  We are going to talk about: How persuasion has changed Biggest persuasion blunder Loss avoidance Power and relationships Influential nature of stories Professor Voyer is Loreal Professor of Creativity Marketing ESCP Europe, and visiting fellow London School of Economics.  Professor Voyer is a behavioural scientist that has investigated how self-...

Objection Obstacles All excuses and objections can be boiled down one or more of these seven potential objections: Once you understand that all objections stem from one or more of these seven key areas, you will have a much easier time identifying the root of your audience's discomfort. You will then be able to address their objections in a professional, caring, and non-threatening way. Many persu...

Blueprint to Business is the ultimate guide to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Bestselling author and CEO Mike Alden puts aside the rainbows and sunshine, gets real about what it takes to 'make it,' and gives you the real-world guidance you need to hear. Through anecdotes and advice, he shares his experiences along with those of other top founders and entrepreneurs to give you a realistic pict...

Inside the World of Objections and Concerns  When you become a great persuader, you will view objections differently than most people do. You will even welcome objections and enjoy handling them. Why? You will realize that when people voice objections, it indicates that they are both mentally interested and emotionally involved in whatever it is you are proposing, even if they are skeptical.  Inte...