Maximize Your Influence

Due to listener demand, Kurt and Steve finally unleash "negotiation's dirty deeds."  These are underhanded tactics and strategies that others will use against you while negotiating.  Before this happens, however, Kurt discusses a recent article about "meeting productivity."  According to the Social Psycholigical and Personality Science Journal (that's a mouthful), standing during meetings creats m...

To start this episode, we lead off with another one of Kurt's geeky articles.  And this study, while strange, is compelling.  As it turns out, there is a vast personality difference between dog and cat owners.  In addition, cat owners actually score slightly higher on intelligence tests.  Dog lovers tend to be more extroverted and sociable, while cat lovers are more independent yet more cautious. ...

Kurt and Steve begin the show by discussing Steve's recent trip to Dallas and how may pounds he put on from eating too much barbeque.  They also discuss Kurt recently celebrating a birthday (happy 70th birthday, Kurt)! This turns into a rant about chicken wings until Kurt and Steve realize that you tune into the show for persuasion tips...not food commentary. There is a common saying in business t...

Is power different than influence?  Absolutely.  One can be influential without having a lot of power.  But as power increases, it gives you more ability to influence.  On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss some examples of when power is used and what the long term implications are.  Many times as persuaders, parents, co-workers, we fall into the influence/power cycle.  We want somebody to do so...

You've met these people before.  The kind of person who has it all together.  They're dressed right.  They know how to talk and they seem very knowledgable.  But something just isn't right.  On this episode, Kurt and Steve talk about "gut instinct" and to what extent our prospecs can tell if we're "full of it" or not.  In this week's "geeky article moment brought to you by Kurt", we learn that "gu...

After a brief rant about their listeners in Iran and the intimidation tactics of police in the United States (get off topic much, guys?), Kurt and Steve discuss a recent study about confidence.  According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, well all have some internal wiring that makes us want to trust strangers.  Despite being told not to trust them our whole life, strangers are...

Charismatic people have a presence whenever they walk into a room.  You can actually be in introverted person and not have a very outgoing personality and still be charismatic.  Once you have charisma people what to be around you.  They WANT to be persuaded by you.  Sales reps, business owners, politicians all know that they can get a lot more lattitude when they have charisma. Next in the podcast...

Leading off this episode, Kurt introduces a recent article that discusses the effect of an optimistic spouse.  This study was conducted by the University of Michigan and is the first study we know of that links the optimism of others to ourselves.  Not only does it make us more optimistic, but it also shows increased health!  In another effort to offend their listeners, Kurt and Steve discuss that...

If Kurt and Steve haven't yet offended you on the podcast, they give it a good try here (all in good fun, of course).  They also discuss the strange fact that a lot of listners to the podcast seem to be from Iran.  After the initial banter that for some reason didn't involve any "food talk", Steve apologizes profusely for not posting the link to the Advanced Influence Course from last week.  Kurt...

Do you like green tea?  Then we have good news.  The Journal of Psycho Pharmacology (yeah, that's a thing) recently released a study showing that those who drink at least two cups a day are "sharper" mentally.  You can read a summary of the study here.  The study essentially discusses how green tea increases the brain's ability to quickly process information.  Kurt and Steve discuss how, if you ca...

Whatever the reason may be, the average person's self esteem is lower than it has ever been in history.  While it's not great to hear that people are feeling worse and worse about themselves, persuaders can use this to their advantage.  In this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss how to use esteem and ego to build long lasting and profitable business relationships.  They also cover a recent article fr...

We've all exeperienced times in our lives when we've felt "out of allignment."  Maybe one particular area of our life, such as finances, just wasn't going the way we wanted it to.  Most of the time we try to fix this by spending more time on the part of our life that isn't going well.  On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss why doing that is the exact opposite of what we should really do.  Develo...

Do you like this podcast?  Do you hate it?  Either way, please leave us your feedback on Itunes!  Also if you have anyone to nominate for the weekly "persuasion blunder" or the weekly "persuasion ninja", please send your comments to maximizeyourinfluence@gmail.com.  After a brief chat about March Madness and the inevitable disappointment that every fan sets themselves up for every single year, Kur...

Have you ever met a sales person who just came on too freindly too fast?  How did it make you feel?  Chances are you couldn't get away from them fast enough!  All persuaders know they need to develop a rapport with their prospects.  But the seasoned pros know how to build enough value to open the door and then build enough rapport to seal the deal.  On this episode, Kurt and Steve get into the mec...

If you stood in front of a mirror and gave your typical sales pitch, you'd likely be shocked at the amount of non verbal behavior you display.  More often than not, this non verbal behavior detracts from your message and causes subconsious alarms in your prospect.  First, you must eliminate bad non verbals.  Second, you must implement GOOD ones.  Kurt and Steve give some valuable tips for doing th...

When presenting, especially to a group, it's often impossible to know what personality type your audience is.  That's why it's important to use the T.E.S.S. system (testimoinals, examples, stories, and statistics).  This allows you as the presenter to speak the language of everybody in your audience.  Most people in an audience will relate to stories.  However, there are always others who prefer t...

Whether it's to just one person or a staduim full of people, all persuaders are presenters.  Presenting involves taking the stage or spotlight to persuade others to accept your idea or product.  We've all been in presentations before that were boring, offensive, and ineffective.  Conversely, we've all been in presentations that have completely captivated us and put us in the mood to be persuaded. ...

Have you ever had a day where you didn't feel like doing something you KNOW you needed to do?  How about everyday?  The fact is sometimes we just don't have the emotional gas in the tank to do something that we know we need to do on the logical level.  On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss a recent article by Harvard Business Review that gives some great tips on getting past this motivation hurd...

Have you ever been involved in a negotiation with somebody and wondered "can we just drop the facade?  can we drop the formalities and get to the point here?"  Well, the answer is no.  When negotiating or persuading, many times people expect the ritual.  They expect the "dance."  While it may seem like skipping the formalities will get things done faster remember: persuasion is a people business a...

Have you ever walked into a business and just had a bad feeling from the start?  Chances are, the owner of that business did not know how to effectively use "The Law of Association."  On this epsiode, Kurt and Steve discuss how you can leverage color, smell, and music to your advantage...even if your business is done exclusively over the phone. 

When it comes to effectively persuasing others, the most difficult obstacle to overcome is often ourselves.  On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss how we can control and even eliminate beliefs that may be holding us back.  In light of the upcoming Winter Olympics, they also discuss some of the visualization techniques used by professional athletes and how we can use those same techniques in our...

We've all heard that "assuming the sale" is one of the most effective persuasion tactics out there.   But how does one avoid crossing the line from "confidence" to "shallow and transparent?"  On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss the Law of Expectation and how persuaders can assume the sale without offending their prospects.  They also put to bed a few myths about "neuro linguistic programming."...

Have you ever had the great displeasure of dealing with somebody who could never admit they were wrong?  Or somebody who was constantly full of themselves?  On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss a recent article by Harvard Business Review that revealed "why we love narcissists."  The points from the article reveal that many narcissists have characteristics that attribute to great leaders.  So wh...

We've all seen it: a late night infomercial parading testimonial after testimonial across the screen.  After watching for a few minutes, we inevitably think "wow, if that guy can do it, why can't I?"  When used effectively, testimonials give clients the courage to make decisions.  Testimonials should be credible, believeable, attributable.  In this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss how you can ramp...

It's a well known fact that humans look to others to validate their own actions.  On episode 22, Kurt and Steve discuss how this powerful concept of "Social Validation" can be used to create massive action when it comes to persuasion.  Prospects can be trained to behave a certain way through marketing and sales efforts...a way that makes your job as a salesperson or business owner that much easier...