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Could You Use Persuasive Selling?

Written by: Cheryl A. Clausen

Article Overview: There’s a stark difference between persuasion and manipulation. No one has to tell you when you’re being manipulated. You don’t like it, and it’s a dangerous tactic to use.

Could You Use Persuasive Selling?

There’s a stark difference between persuasion and manipulation. No one has to tell you when you’re being manipulated. You don’t like it, and it’s a dangerous tactic to use.

In contrast you regularly persuade yourself one direction or another and enjoy doing so. Note a key difference. Manipulation is the result of an external force. Persuasive selling is the result of a guided internal force.

Your ability to persuade is a direct result of your ability to guide your future client through a thought process. Rather than forcing them down a path you want them to go you’re helping them discover their own path. It’s an interactive process.

Let’s use an example to help you understand how persuasion works. If I say the word kitchen what do you see? I’ll bet you didn’t see the letters k-i-t-c-h-e-n. Nope you got a mental picture of a kitchen.

Plus you didn’t picture just any old kitchen you saw your own kitchen or perhaps the kitchen of someone who means a lot to you like your Mother. I didn’t have to manipulate you to get you to see a kitchen in your mind’s eye it happens automatically.

Now if I wanted to manipulate you I could try to force you to see the kitchen I wanted you to see. That’s a bad idea. Instead now that you have that kitchen in your mind I’d ask you to describe it to me.

I’d listen carefully and pay close attention to how you described that kitchen. As you described it you might include visual details, smells, perhaps even feelings. The more you told me about that kitchen the greater opportunity I’d have to discover what was important about what you were describing.

I could discover the gap between what you were describing and what you want. The entire time we were talking you’d be in the driver’s seat and I could ride along and find out what I needed to find out. The more you told me the clearer you’d get about what exists today and what you want to exist.

The clearer you’d get about why that’s important, and what its worth to get that. You’d persuade yourself about what you wanted, the best way to get it, and why you need to act. You’d persuade yourself to act now to avoid what you don’t want if waiting would make things work.

Persuasion is all about triggering the opportunities that help your future clients persuade themselves to buy. It isn’t manipulative. It is a cooperative effort between you and the potential client where both you and the client win.

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Article Tags: bad idea, feelings, gap, manipulation, mental picture, persuasion, tactic, thought process, visual details



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