QUESTIONS & CLARITY

Hi 

I have been reading your blog recently  with interest and was wondering if you could clarify something for me. Currently I run my own business and was interested in what you say about influence. I have been meaning to book a 2 day course on how to gain more sales but wondered if yours covers this area. I'm not so much interested in being part of the project but learning how to make my business more profitable. I'm not sure if I can gain the level of training I am looking at for the relatively small amount you charge when the course I'm looking at is over £600. Is the course primarily for young people with no real experience of business? as I have been running mine for four years, but feel I lack in the sales and marketing department.

If you can advise I would appreciate your help.

Thank you 

Andy


Hi Andy,

Thank you for your email, and your questions. Let me answer in this way. The information on influence the course provides is not targeted at the young, as the overwhelming majority of people, in and out of business, whatever their age, will not be consciously using the power of influence effectively, and for those aspects they are aware of, they will very rarely be using any techniques or language patterns in a structured way.

Over the years I have conducted a considerable amount of training in this area to those new to the world of influence as well as those who see themselves as professionals in their own industry. Indeed, the figures  I charge for this form of training are comparable to the fees you have looked at. I'm not sure of the level of training that you will be supplied, but if I take it as an introductory/intermediate course, the power of influence training that you will engage upon within this project includes advanced level. In this case the fee of £100 should not be confused with the level of information or target audience, as the purpose of the training is to benefit the project by bringing on board home grown so to speak, commercially aware, highly confident and skilled communicators of any age, with a full understanding of what works in the entrepreneurial world.

Therefore, the level of information gained over the 24 four weeks would not be equitable with a 2 day sales/business development training intermediate level course, as the amount/power of knowledge given over such a short period would not be comparable.

For your information and to clarify the level of understanding and expertise an individual undertaking the course will gain, I have included a summary list of the areas  any professional who is engaged in influence through sales, business, politics or life should use as a check list of understanding. For without the knowledge of how and when to use the skills and techniques listed (this is purely the power of influence aspect of the course, which also covers the power of understanding, self belief (entrepreneurial) and the law of attraction), facing life is like fighting with one hand tied behind your back, so I congratulate you on taking the positive step to improve your skill level which ever route you take.

I hope this goes some way to helping your thoughts.

Kind regards


Presentation Structure
A I D A attention : interest: desire : action.
Warm up
Statement of intent
Who what where why how
Closing doors
Creating the need
Urgency
Price conditioning
Four aspects of a sale: The client  The product  The pitch  You

Fundamental Tools:
Conceptual selling
KISS overcomplicating the issue :Keep it simple stupid, 
FAB Feature Advantage  Benefits
Open Questions    & closed questions
Third party stories
Balance is the key
Belief                   Trust in you, your product and your company
Understanding     What the product can do and what it will do for your client
Money                  Eliciting do they have the money?
Prejudging
Making judgments on people we meet for the first time
Psychological blackmail by implied consent
Hot spots
Create the dream
Taking possession
Pressure release
Conceptual closing 
Trial closing- If I could would you
Closes:     Alternative          assumptive          silent          lost sale 
Objections:    Agree  -- overcome --- close
Negotiation
Seeding
Open questions closed questions
Repetition reframing and repackaging
Building value and price conditioning
Third party stories
Objections:handling Agree overcome close
Objections: ignore, shelve, overcome
The take away
Consolidation 
Third party influence
Never talk past the sale or after the sale
People buy at different rates based on what kind of people they are 
Self-motivation
End game is the conclusion of the process. 
Complicity by implied acceptance
Patience and the window of opportunity
The personal baggage
The face with distortions- the five perceptions of life
Commonality Finding areas of common ground with your prospect is an essential tool to gain rapport. 
Beliefs Values Rules
How to win
Past performance,  present performance,  future performance

NLP techniques 
Changing tenses
Presuppositions
Subconscious suggestions
Eye accessing Q’s  
Surface text sub text
Visualisation
Inducing states
Sub modalities
Double bind
Anchoring
Triggers

Approach Rules:
PMA Positive Mental Attitude
Maintain Enthusiasm and have fun
Retain and maintain Control
Concentrate on the concept
Kiss Keep it simple stupid
DO’S:
Assume they will buy
Be a leaders not a follower
Law of equal response
Have Empathy not sympathy
Talk as equals but not quite
Who’s selling who
Two ears one mouth, use them in that ratio
Always keep closing
Be all things to all people
Continually elevate the closing process
Stand your ground and defend your product
Give only enough information to get the sale
DON’TS:
Don’t become truly emotionally involved
Don’t walk away first
Don’t think they need to know what you think you would need to know to make decision
Don’t talk past the sale
Don’t talk money too early
Don’t over talk people
Don’t be too eager or over enthusiastic
Don’t sound like a salesperson, 
Don’t be too keen to please
Don’t express an opinion other than on your product
Never thank them for their business or appear too humble
The questioner has control
The seven urges to avoid

Client objectives:
Rapport
Relaxation
Finding commonality
Creating confidence and trust
People buy people
Getting clients honest
Consolidation

Understanding clients:
The not interested reflex
Breaking the pact
Smoke screen objections
Fight or flight  
Fear off loss sense of gain
How people feel is the key to impulse buying
People always like a bargain
Generalisation deletion and distortion
Third party influence 
Buyers are liars
Psychological profiles
Matcher or mismatcher
Pain or pleasure
What's in it for me question.

Physical approach:
Tonality
Eye contact
Mirroring
Pacing
Body language
Two ears one mouth
Eye accessing cues


Personal objectives:
Goal setting
Memory techniques
Time line