|
|
Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! |  |
|
Learn Sales Telepathy: How to get into your customer’s head and heart without going out of your mind…
| Guest post by: Michel Neray |
Article Overview: Imagine knowing exactly what's going on inside the head of the person you're talking to about becoming your next client or event attendee. It's not magic or extra-sensory perception -- it's sales 101. And you can learn it...
 |
Free Download - The Power of Yes! By Michel Neray |
Learn Sales Telepathy: How to get into your customer’s head and heart without going out of your mind…
Understanding your market is one of the most essential elements of any sales and marketing initiative. You already know that.
‘Know thy prospect' is the cardinal rule whether you are selling a product or service, cold calling to set up appointments or trying to get bums in seats for your next event.
But how do you get into your prospect's head and heart without going out of your mind - or spending a fortune on third-party research? It's easier than you think. All you have to do is ask four key questions -- each and every time you speak to a prospect.
The more you ask your prospects these questions, the better you'll know the answers before you even ask them. And that's when the person in front of you or the reader on the other side of the cyberworld will feel like you're reading his or her mind.
Imagine knowing exactly what's going on inside the head of the person you're talking to about becoming your next client or event attendee. It's not magic or extra-sensory perception -- it's sales 101. And you can learn it...
At the end of this article, I'll let you in on some other ways you can use this four-question process to improve your telepathic skills and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Want to know more? Well then, let's get started.
Question 1: "When you think about your (insert the topic of your event or area of expertise), what are the things you/your company have going for you - what are your strengths?"
By starting the conversation with this question, you focus the conversation around your area of expertise and establish a good rapport that will be key to maintaining honesty later on, when the conversation turns to problems and risks.
But the importance of starting with strengths is not just a psychological ‘trick' you play on your prospect or audience - it ensures that you maintain a positive, respectful frame of mind. (Always a good thing for good communication, yes?)
Starting with strengths also shows your prospect how your solution or event fits within the context of his or her existing success. Whether in advertising copy or in real dialog, this gets the other person to get their head nodding ‘yes'.
Now you're ready for question two.
Question 2: "What are some of the weaknesses and challenges that you face going forward (in that same area)?"
Some people may be so ‘primed' by the positive discussion you started with that he or she may volunteer something like, ‘I don't want you to get the wrong impression! We're not perfect!'
Other people might need a little probing to get started on their weaknesses and the challenges they face. Here is where practice helps, especially if you focus on a specific target group or niche.
As soon as you can identify a challenge or pain that your solution helps with, you can move on to question three.
Question 3: "What's likely to happen if you do nothing about those challenges - what are the risks going forward?"
This invokes what change management experts call, the ‘burning platform'. The premise behind the burning platform is that people don't change unless there's an immediate compelling reason. You wouldn't jump off a 150 foot high platform unless there was a fire licking at your heels.
Your prospect may be in the middle of a crisis and already highly motivated to act now. Or they may perceive the problem as something to deal with in the distant future.
By probing the answers to this question, you help the other person to feel the pain of tomorrow - today.
The stronger and more painful they feel it, the more likely they'll respond to your call to action. Now.
Question 4: "On the other hand, if we could fix those issues, what do you think you'd get or be able to do as a result?"
This is the easy part. If you have guided the conversation in the order described so far, while still allowing the conversation to flow naturally, the person or people in front of you will probably come to their own conclusions of the benefits by themselves.
And that's the way you want it. Experts in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) talk about ‘away' people and ‘toward' people.
If the person is an away person, he or she may be motivated to act based on the conversation around question three because they want to move away from negative experiences.
Toward people are more motivated to move toward positive experiences and results - and that's where this part of the conversation comes in.
You might need to prompt them a little bit, or interject (where appropriate) how your specific product, service or event will help ensure they get the results they are after, but if you can bite your tongue for a just a few minutes longer, it's always more compelling for people to come to their own conclusions rather than having someone else try to convince them.
Four Ways To Improve Your Telepathic Skills
Here are four ways you can use this process to improve your sales telepathy and establish yourself as an expert in your field:
1. Invite your best prospects for coffee individually and have an old-fashioned conversation!
2. Organize a group meeting of prospects and existing clients. These questions can serve as the agenda.
3. Write a whitepaper of best practices in the industry you are targeting, using these four questions as the interview questions.
4. Develop a self-assessment for prospects to fill out online or on paper that takes them through this process themselves.
The more you use these four questions, whether in conversation or using one of the other methods above, the more you'll understand your market - and the more you'll improve your sales telepathy skills.
Happy selling!
A Great Life Starts in Your Imagination
Safety With an Open Heart
An Attitude of Gratitude Is Every Day Not Just One Day
Feeling Disconnected From Your Partner?
Sales Talk Versus Sales Babble
|
About the Author: Michel Neray RSS for Michel's articles - Visit Michel's website
What makes you different as a person is what makes you better... in your business, your career and your life. Michel Neray combines a science degree of University of Waterloo, an MBA from McGill University, and a career as a creative marketing copywriter, advertising agency director and marketing executive. A visionary and entrepreneurial game-changer, in 1995 he founded Portfolios.com, the world's first Internet search engine for advertising and creative professionals. As a consultant and facilitator, Michel helps his clients discover, communicate and focus on their greatest value and true competitive advantage. It’s what he calls their 'Essential Message'. This results in massive increases in sales and a powerfully differentiated market position. As a motivational speaker, Michel empowers his audiences to dig deeper than the usual marketing messages to access a well of meaning and purpose that drive sales as much as they drive productivity, engagement, resilience and cooperation/collaboration. If you believe feedback forms, people love his humor, stories and energy. Since 2008, Michel has held a variety of leadership positions in the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, and has spoken professionally in more than seven countries around the world. Michel co-authored The Great Crossover, which made it to Jack Canfield’s Achiever’s Recommended Reading List. In 2005, his chapter, "Everything Starts With A Conversation" was selected as the lead for the book, Sales Gurus Speak Out. He’s married with three children, two dogs, three snowboards, a whitewater canoe and a black belt in Karate. Click here to visit Michel's website   Conversational Selling Tips |
Related Forum Posts
Re: need pricing help please
- I agree that allowing customers to choose digital or physical product delivery is a good idea.
If you are handling large volumes of orders then outsourcing the process is an excellent idea.
Handling physical orders yourself is a demanding occupation, as I know from experience, but on the other hand, if you are doing it on a small scale it also gives you some good opportunities to personalize your service with hand written compliment notes and so forth.
Also, you can learn a lot from your customers if you deal with them through every part of the sales process.
Once sales volume picks up, outsource the operation - you'll probably save money as well as time.
DH
How to develop sales contacts?
- Unfortunately starting off there isn’t a whole lot of easy tricks. But when you get those 2 interested prospects from sales calls and turn them into customers, you need to develop a referral system that gets 3-4 good prospects from each of them.
That's the key to prospecting in sales, referrals from satisfied customers. Sometimes they'll give you the business without having to ask, but normally you'll have to pry a little and ask them who they know that could use your service or product.
Re: Sales with no start up fees.
- What really attracts customers is sales, but I don't mean sale on everything. Just on a couple of products. For example you make different sales for 1 or 2 products that lasts for a week or two. Make sure to make a sale on something you need to get rid of. Having sales on different products every couple of weeks will attract many different customers if they see there's different variety. Of course this depends on how big the business is, but try something like that see if it works.
Hope this sort of helps.
Re: Is Ewen Chia a SCAM artist?
- The PPG a scam? Now This is annoying, but I don't think these people will make a sale out it. When I click on an ad like this I want to see what they have to say, what was their experience with the PPG, I want to read about the good and the bad and not go to the sales page.
You CAN'T put the PPG and scam in one sentence. This is the best support group I ever was a part of, and I wish all support and training groups will be like this one, and I will add this to my testimonial! These people work with their heart and sou, and they are the kind of mentor i want to be.
Ewen Chia also started his way with PIPS, and he had to learn it by himself, he never had the PPG to help him, talking about determination
Marketing strategy
- In the means of sales and marketing, the sales people does not involve in situations and decisions which affect their customers. In the area of advertising agency, financial situation once organization is not well-equipped. If there is no proper communication between the customers and the sellers, there is no proper marketing in markets. Its sad but true fact.
Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.
Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
by: 
4 Building Blocks of an Effective Talent Management System
Simon Fuller Quotes
Lesson #3: “Tell ‘em quick and tell ‘em often”
Searching for the Stars: How Yang and Filo Took Their Business to New Heights
Salesperson Wimp-Out: I Need Help 
Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Effective Leadership
The Value of Small Businesses
Do You Pretend To Listen To People?
Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.