Home | Business | Sales
"Do not worry about holding high position; worry rather about playing your proper role." ~Confucius This is a really great exercise to use to explore values and beliefs as they relate to dealing with your affluent prospects. It has to do with the idea of social positions - of being "one up", "one down", or "equal" in social levels to another. Because there are so many variants to social position, these are just generalizations, but if you just think of them as one up, one down, and equal, you'll get it and you'll see amazing results with your affluent prospects. As a nineteen year old, I was working in a health club, and I decided I wanted to be the manager. So I went to see the VP of the company I was working for, and he said to me, 'What can I do for you today, Kenrick?' And I said, "No, it's really what I can do for you. I realize you're probably going to think I'm a smart aleck, but I don't really care because here's the deal: I'm your number one salesman in the company. I hold every record there is to hold. Now you're going to make me the manager." He responded, "Yeah. Sure I am." "You're not hearing me. You're going to make me the manager of this club, and if you don't, I'll take the club next door to one of your strongest clubs, and run yours into the ground," I responded. He looked at me and asked, "Are you serious?" I said, "I'm dead serious." "You can't do that," he said. To which I replied, "What's stopping me?" Then he got an attitude, "You're not good enough." "Okay. Goodbye." That was it. I got up and left. Subsequently, I recruited all of the sales staff who I had originally hired and trained, and brought them to the competitor's place at which time the old company had a fit and attempted to get me back. Here's a perfect example of social positions. Whoever has the most power in a situation is the person who is 'one up'. There's absolutely no judgment involved. One person is not better than the other. Think of it in terms of logical levels of thought. Say I'm eliciting your criteria about selling your house. I finally get to the highest level value which is 'freedom'. For you freedom equals selling your house. You will have freedom if we accomplish selling your house. In order to move someone from one position to another, elicit their highest value and use that value to move them. In order to do this, you'll have to learn how to move up and down efficiently and effectively. Are you approaching everyone as a sales person? Are you coming at them from a lower level, as in, "I'd be so appreciative if you'd listen to a few minutes of what I have to say." If you are, stop. You've got to learn to come in basically at equal and then quickly put yourself into a higher position if you really want your affluent prospects to get your value. And if they don't get your value, they're not going to buy from you. This doesn't mean you're going to come in like an arrogant fool. Maybe you have to go one down to begin with, but realize that these are positions in your head and you had better get good at traversing between them. As you get better at maneuvering these social levels, you'll understand the value of flexibility and fluidity, and this will impact your persuasion skills immeasurably.
Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com
Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
