Verbal Business Skills, Series #3: Persuading

Fair Oaks is typical of most communities: More often than not, your prospects here will not transform themselves into clients. They'll need convincing. At times, they may even want to be convinced. Sooner or later, dealing with prospects and/or customers, you’re going to find yourself in a situation that warrants your persuasive skills be used.

When you find yourself in that position, here are the 5 Keys To Success When Persuading:

1. Be sincere. You believe in the value of your product or service. You know others have benefitted from using it. There’s no need to be anything except authentic and genuine in your description of it and its benefits.
2. Be confident. You have a good product or service. Others use it and are repeat customers. You trust in its value. Speak with confidence that the logical and reasonable choice is "yes."
3. Ask questions they can positively answer. Let them hear themselves say the words that will expedite the process. “What do you see (feel) will benefit you from using this?” “What would be the most sensible reasons to begin now?” Let them identify their need (problem), and invite them to tell you how your product/service would provide their desired solution.
4. Use visuals and/or statistics and/or emotions. Listen to their vocabulary. Their words will convey the predominant style – visual (“Yes, I see.”), auditory (“I heard you say…”) or kinesthetic (“I feel these are important.”). Use visuals (pictures, graphs, samples, etc.) with visual people. Relate statistics with auditory individuals. Paint an emotional picture (touch their heart, appeal to their compassion, etc.) of their problem, solved, with the kinesthetics you encounter.
5. Most important: Always communicate (speak, demonstrate, gesture for emphasis) in terms of the immediate benefits for them. Long-term benefits are nice, but people act on getting what they want (not what they need) now (not down the road).

Give these 5 Keys To Success a try the next time you feel (see? sense?) the need to persuade.

From the Coach’s Box:

Practice your delivery often with an associate or a loved one. Make up a scenario in which a client or prospect is offering the chance for you to persuade them. Explain the scene to your practice client/prospect. Organize your delivery, using the 5 Keys described above. The specifics will be unique depending on the set-up, but the process should be repeatable, using your own words, always with the same intention: persuasion. Before long, you'll be ready for the real thing. After you’ve used these Keys in a real situation, let me know how it went.