Questions about Persuasion....

harmlessdot

Hi I'm new to this forum and would just like to put some things out there....

1) What kind of useful advice can anyone here give about persuading a client.

I would very much like if I wasnt told to smile or to relax or to have shiny shoes or to look really good, I mean come on all thats pretty obvious. Im looking for actual things that I can say/do to greatly increase the probability that the client will go along with what I suggest.

Why is that every time I speak to a sales person they have advice for me, advice like give them two choices, be yourself, just sell the client man. Its like there's some kind of secret code to selling that they themselves are unable to decipher.

This surely sounds cynical but all of the sales training that I've gone through all have the same Dale Carnegie stuff rehashed and served up on a different plate!!!

Thomas

What was the dale cargenie stuff like?

Houston

Are you looking for something situation specific or general advice?

Liberty

For compliance try these principles of persuasion: consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. Do you need examples of these in action for what you're offering?

benjamin-benjamin

don't you think there might be a reason everything has some dale Carnegie stuff in it....it might be because it works....here are some tips....
Always agree (there are exceptions)...
use good word tracking (i wouldn't expect you to buy if....)
make them feel comfatable (we are both way too worked up lets just relax and make a logical decsion and look at the facts..)

Coda1108

Also, the Dale Carnegie Sales Trainingg aspects have worked wonders for me.

Basically, persuade your client by leading them (in a sincere way, not exploitive) to see the value of what you're selling to them personally. There are amazing ways to listen to their answers to decipher their personal true buying motives. It might be vanity; it might be pride; there are endless possibilities... but once you've found it for a particular prospect, offering to meet that need will result in a sale.

Jorel

Harmlessdot,

I can not agree with you anymore. It is refreshing to find someone who realizes that while those Dale Carnegie techniques where useful in the day they where written. People are getting tired and agrivated by these old techniqes that are known to everyone. Even people not in the sales community.

I would suggest you do the opposite, that would really spin your clients head around, as well as a few people reading this.

For instance you've been told to act yourself. I say STOP doing that. You are not happy with those results so stop doing it.

Start acting like your customers. Think about this for just a minute. Are you more likely to buy something from someone you know nothing about or someone who is familuar to you, like a friend?

Any person who is honest with themselves will say their friends over the person they know nothing about.

Now ask yourself why is this. Well one because they trust them more. The second is because they are more like the one person they trust more than anyone else, themselves.

So the question is how can you be more like them or someone they trust. The simple answer is to build rapport. There are plenty of rapport building techniqes available so I won't waste any of your time telling you about them. I just suggest you find one or even a few that work best for you, practice them so they become second nature and I suspect you will see your sales soar.

Coda1108

With all due respect, what you suggest (build rapport; think like your customer) are 2 (and only the tip of the iceberg) methods Dale Carnegie Sales Training teaches/covers.

Keep in mind, there is a huge difference between the Dale Carnegie Communications values, and its Sales Training courses. The sales training, while based on the communications principles, are more about understanding your customer, and the value of what you're selling to your customer from THEIR point of view.


Gone are the days of "Be nice and people will like you and therefore buy from you" Instead, it's like you wrote... think like your customer.

Just for the record, I have absolutely no interest in, or gain in any way from others using the DC method. I just know how much it did for me and my sales practices.

Jorel

Coda,

You are right, it is only the tip of the iceberg. There is obviously no way in a post I could cover all the different techniques to use. You can easily see that if you do not have rapport then nothing else will work.

I also mentioned rapport because I believe studies have taken rapport so much further than what DC has done and that if you have good enough rapport you do not need anything else.

For instance when I got in sales and admitatly knew nothing; when I made my first sale because of rapport. To be perfectly honest it was a friend, a neighbor who I had known for well over 10 years. I did not need to know any of the other sales techniques I have since learned.

I am also happy to hear that the DC worked for you in the past. Heck I would be happy if the cave man technique to selling worked. If something is working I am going to be the last one to knock it. I just think that people just now gettting into sales have such better option and there is no sense in learning the same stuff that customers have learned to dispise in sales.

I say this because my first sales coach was like this He had been doing sales training for 30 years and had not updated his process. Yes it worked, but there where better ways available to him and now everyone else. He was just to set in his ways to want to change.

I just hope other do not fall for this same line of sales teachings and from what was orginally posted harmlessdot he wanted a new approach not just something rehashed.

Thomas

Why?

How is that possible? Wouldn't the product being the right solution be more important?

What line of sales teachings, Dale Carnegie?