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They’re All Tuned to WIIFM

Written by: Sandy Schussel

Article Overview: Be Impressed, Not Impressive. Spend most of your time with someone making him or her feel that you're tuned into his or her station and you're bound to have better results.

They’re All Tuned to WIIFM

Whether you're making a sale, asking for a referral or interviewing for a position, the people you work with are usually tuned to one station--WIIFM ("What's in it for me?").

"I'm not getting enough of the people I sit down with to hire me," Rick, a financial advisor, told me.

"I keep getting job interviews," Mara, a Call Center trainer who is a casualty of a recent merger, exclaimed, "but I don't get offers."

In both cases, I discovered the same problem:

They spent their time talking about their skills, their abilities and their experience, with too little of the time spent discussing what the prospective client and employer needed.

Rick was proud of-and spoke eloquently about--his licensing and certification, his list of prominent clients and his assets under management. Mara spoke about her accomplishment-packed resume.

"Be Impressed, Not Impressive," was one of Dale Carnegie's rules for successfully connecting with people, in his classic book, How To Win Friends and Influence People.

I suggested to Rick that he would do much better if he started his interview-and spent most of it-engaged in conversation about his prospects:

"I'd like to spend most of our time during this meeting finding out about you, if that's okay. I'm guessing you had something specific on your mind when we set up this appointment. Why don't we start with that?"

I suggested to Mara that she learn as much as she could about each company and their training departments before her appointments, and then ask them more about what they're doing as a company and what they were looking for in a trainer.

A few days later, I heard from both Rick and Mara. Rick landed a new client--a local doctor he had been hoping to work with. Mara received her first job offer.

Be Impressed, Not Impressive. Spend most of your time with someone making him or her feel that you're tuned into his or her station and you're bound to have better results.

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Article Tags: accomplishment, appointment, appointments, assets under management, call center, casualty, dale carnegie, few days, first job, how to win friends and influence people, interviewing, job interviews, job offer, local doctor, mara, merger, prospective client, prospects, referral, training departments



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