Maximize Your Influence

After Steve gives the full report on his recent trip to Puerto Rico (including a priceless blunder by the Ritz Carlton resort), Kurt discusses this week's "geeky article moment." A recent article on Psych Central reveals the advantages of both active and passive communication styles. The rest of the show centers around a recent interview Steve conducted with Brad Harker. Brad is the author of The Laws of Influence - Mastering the Art of Sales, Leadership, and Change. He operates a sales company, FoundersInc.com and actively consults with professionals and organizations in the disciplines of sales, leadership, and influence.

To kick off this episode, the guys discuss what is likely the most offensive article they've ever featured on the show. Kurt insists that it's Steve's doing. We'll let you read it for yourselves, but just know that "hand's on" father's might be uhm...smaller. For the main show topic, Kurt and Steve discuss some of the non-verbal habits that can kill your charisma. Use these habits and your sales career will never get off the ground. Conversely, they discuss some of the habits that the charismatic instinctively do. Implement these habits into your behavior and you will be perceived as more charismatic. We all want to do business with charismatic people!

A recent study shows that if you want to look trustworthy, you should also look happy. What's the catch? Looking happy doesn't necessarily make you look competent. Kurt and Steve discuss this study and how persuaders can walk the line to acheive maximum trust and competence at the same time. On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss recent obervations they've made about Negotiaton's Dirty Deeds (yes, they are done dirt cheap). When your prospects resort to infantile tactics that have worked for them since childhood, you have to tactfully let your prospect know "that doesn't work here" without jeopordizing the potential business arranagement. Finally, Steve throws a sleazy real estate developer under the bus for this episodes persuasion blunder.

In persuasion, there are a few words and phrases that a lot of people say, but that they don't really mean. In a recent article on Inc.com, 11 of these terrible sayings are reviewed. It's an entertaining article and Kurt and Steve discuss it in detail. Have you ever received an annoying voicemail from a salesperson? Or better yet...have you ever LEFT an annoying voicemail? We all have. Many think leaving voicemials is pointless. Otheres will leave them for days and not get any results. On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss how to leave an effective voicemail that will get your prospects to call you back.

When it comes to persuading others (through owning a business, church, non-profit), it's all about networking. Anyone who has ever been successful can attribute at least a part of that success to meeting the right people at the right time. But what if you hate talking to strangers? Can you be an effective networker? A recent article published in the Harvard Business Review discusses this very issue. On this episode, Kurt and Steve answer an email from a listener who wants to learn how to ask more effective questions. Effective questions should move the conversation further and bring the prospects pain and or motivation into clearer focus. They should make the prospect feel in control while the persuader is actually the one calling the shots. There are a number of ways to accomplish this and Kurt and Steve discuss them in detail on this episode!

If you're like most people, you don't really enjoy paying taxes. A study in the UK recently discovered how to vastly increase the rate of collected taxes, just by adding one simple sentence to collection notices. Kurt and Steve discuss this on the show. You can find an article from CNN Money here. Many say there is such thing as "beginners luck" in sales. But is it luck? Or is that beginners haven't learned some of the habits that plague veterans? On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss three of the key mistakes that verteran sales people make. Getting back to basics and avoiding these mistakes will help you see an almost immediate increase in your sales results!

Nobody has a perfect self esteem. We all have insecurities in ceratin areas of our life. The same is true for your prospects. Raise a prospects self esteem and you'll catapult your chances of persuading them! On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss a recent article that gives Five Tips For Raising Your Self Esteem. Is your prodcut or cause desperation or inspiration based? Your prospects are all either running towards or away from something. It's essentially the difference between inspiration and deseperation. Using the wrong kind of motivation on your prospects will backfire everytime. Tune into this episode for great tips on how to leverage the power of dual motivation!

Did you know that the noise of an aircraft engine can cause you to crave different foods? A recent study by Cornell University makes some compelling links between decibel level and food cravings. Kurt and Steve discuss the artice and also learn a new word! There's one thing that annoys your prospect more than anything else: unsolicited small talk. Many of the stereotypical sales annoyances (fast talkers, lack of knowlege) are still high on the list, but in this day and age your prospect wants to see value. They want to feel like they have a reason to talk to you. Only then does should you make a serious effort at buildng a connection with them. Otherwise the unsolicited small talk will kill your presentation before it begins!

Is optimism overrated? A recent study from the University of Utah thinks so. Kurt and Steve discuss the study and what it means for persuaders. Some of us are better negotiators than others. Some of us respond differently to different tactics. Negotiation is all about researching your product and what your prospect needs and wants. Failure to do so inevitably leads to insulting your prospect and that's a tough one to come back from. On this episdoe Kurt and Steve discuss how to make an offer to your prospect that sets the negotiation playing field, without insulting them.

Do you know somebody who is always blaming other people for their problems? Is it you? The fact is, we all do it. And sometimes we're right. A recent article, however, shows why blaming others is not productive...even when it's completely true. We all know the stereotypical profile of a persuader: fast talker, slick, stretches the truth, etc. And we all know that this style of persuasion is not nearly as effective as it used to be. In this day and age, introverts are the best persuaders. Kurt and Steve discuss why this is and we can apply techniques that come naturally to most introverts.