Maximize Your Influence

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 can get away with it, getting your clients to have a green tea or a coffee may help your prospects make decisions faster. Steve facitiously accuses Kurt of promoting "persuasion roofies." After discussing the article on green tea, Kurt and Steve begin discussing the concept of selling with stories. Selling with stories allows you to access your prospect's subconcious mind. We've all heard the adage that "facts tell, stories sell." A good story at the right time is very persuasive. Stories grab attention of bored prospects and engage people who weren't previously interested. Stories also persuade without detection. If you tell your prospect overtly "do this, do that", it just doesn't work. But if you can sell with a story about a prospect who had a problem and solved it through your product, you stand a much better chance. Stories also allow you to build credibility without sounding arrogant. Saying things like "hey listen to me, I went to Harvard" or "I'm the best there is" can be a turn off. But telling a story that involves you using your expertise or your education lets people know your legitimate without you coming across as arrogant. Stories that you've lived are easier to tell. But if you don't have a story that you've lived that's applicable to what you're selling, borrow something from a colleague or co-worker. What's most important is passion. If you can't passionately tell the story and use proper inflection, you'll be just like somebody who can't tell a joke: everyone will feel sorry for you. Also be sure to pick out the top objections that you typically receive and make sure the "character" in your story over comes them. People like to visualize and feel what it's like for somebody to get past the same objections that are bothering them. Just make sure it fits your audience, supports your product, and answers their questions. To finish of, Steve presents the blunder of the week. Apparently some multi level marketing companies are training their reps to visit realtors who work at model homes. The purpose of these visits is to recruit the realtor into the multi level marketing company. One of these marketers recently committed a huge blunder by dragging the realtors profession through the mud in an effort to get them remorseful enough to make a career change. Kurt and Steve give this one a thourough "persuasion autopsy."

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 from the Harvard Business Review that will change your perception of how to brand your products and services.

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. Developing a life built around balance allows you to perform better in all areas of your life, in less time. Kurt and Steve also tackle this week's persuaison blunder and feature a new persuasion "ninja."

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, Kurt and Steve launch into attraction, similarity, and humor. In another geeky Kurt article moment, we learn that humor helps medical patients better manage chronic conditions. In other words, laughter is the best medicine, according to the Journal of Health Research. Kurt ties this into the fact that if we can get our prospects to laugh, the doors to persuasion swing wide open. Your audience becomes a lot easier to persuade. Nothing lowers somebody's guard more than humor, and nothing is more effecive that the use of self depricating humor. Not only is humor extremely effective, but so is attraction. Being "too perfect" however, can make people feel jealous. But if you're above average in the looks department, you're automically judged to be more intelligent and trustworthy. While this might be offensive to some, it's just reality. Kurt discusses a few studies that show that more attracive convicts in the judicial system get lighter sentences, and more attractive students in universities get better grades. There are three parts to attractions: looks, clothes, and personality. Kurt briefly discusses the "booth babe" industry. "Booth babes" are attracive people for hire that staff booths at trade shows in an effort to generate more traffic. Steve confesses to having hired booth babes in the past. Whether or not you're considered physically attractive, one thing is for sure: you choose the clothes you wear. Paying attention to fashion can go a long way. The point is that we need to be aware of how people may be judging us. At the risk of sounding superficial, Kurt and Steve talk about some of the basic things that we can do to enhance our appearnce such as basic dental hygeine. Steve offends the listeners in the United Kingdom by implying that they have "pirate teeth." However, Kurt convincingly establishes the fact that these basic things are easy to do and take away common subconcious objections. Kurt then discusses the number one complaint about trade show reps: bad breath. We live with our own breath all day and may become oblivoius to the fact that it's just down right nasty. Never assume that you're breath isn't bad. If you're interacting with prospects face to face, make sure you always have mints. Period. Not only is bad breath a total deal killer, but good breath can actually help your chances. Also, Kurt and Steve discuss a persuader who is awarded the blunder of the week...AND the ninja too! How is this possible!? Check out this episode to find out!

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 mechanics of building rapport and what critical mistakes you should avoid.

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 this as well as how to identify and take down a heckler...without having your audience turn against you.

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 to be convinced with statistics, testimonials, and examples. On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss how to implement this system into your presentation and sales pitches.

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. On this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss how preparing to present is half the battle. They three time tested methods that will help you prepare to present with power.

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 hurdle that impedes all of us. They also get into how to effectively use humor in persuasion, as well as some recent peruasion blunders...and ninjas...associated with the Winter Olympics.

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 and people are emotional. In this episode, Kurt and Steve discuss some ways to effectively go through the negotiation process and quickly get the best outcome.