Changing People's Minds by Communicating with Emotion

The way to move people to action is through emotion. Whether you want to change someone's mind or get them to take action on something they are already in agreement with. Emotion is the key. Think of emotion as energy in motion. People respond to emotion and make decision based on emotions and then justify their decisions with logic and rational arguments and then defend their decisions with supportive facts. So to change someone's mind you must give them both the emotional reasons and the rational arguments. This will require you to first uncover their true motivations, drivers, desires and wants as well as their needs. Communicating with emotion means using energy and enthusiasm to connect at all levels - mental, emotional and spiritual. Communicating with emotion means demonstrating your conviction in your position, argument or beliefs.
“The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions.” - William F. Scolavino
You earn the right to ask questions if they are motivated by your sincere interest to understand other people and their situation. Then listen with your eyes. Yes, with your eyes...

• 7% Verbal (Words only)
• 38% Verbal (tone of voice, speed of speech, facial expressions, etc.)
• 55% Non Verbal (Body language)

If you listen only with your ears you can expected to get 45% of the message at the very best, because the greater part of the information is emotional and is communicated through visually observable indicators like facial expressions and body language.
Great salespeople use emotion to connect and communicate with others, earn the right to ask diagnostic questions and listen with their eyes and hear with their minds.

"Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.”

Becoming A Trusted Advisor

Speaking to the EEMEA sales team at Orange Business Services Sales Kick-Off 2007 in Faro, Portugal. The key ideas presented in "How to Over-Achieve in 2007 by becoming a Trusted Advisor" were:

• The Sales Cycle vs the Buying Decision Process


• Stages of Sales Proficiency


• Building Trust


• Creating Credibility: Expected vs Exceptional Credibility


• Engaging Diagnostic Conversations


• Asking questions with impact


• Listening with your eyes


• Sight vs Insight. Sight = seeing with your eyes. Insight = seeing with your mind


• Communicating in Technocolour


• Using Emotion = Energy in Motion


• Creating a Culture of Excellence

How Great Sales Professionals Create and Use Networks

In the January 2007 edition of Harvard Business Review, there is a great article entitled: "How Leaders Create and Use Networks." What I found extremely insightful and highly applicable to sales was the Three Forms Of Networking:
1) Operational. where most contacts are internal (within your company) and specific to functions and skills required to getting the current job done.
2) Personal. here contacts are mostly external and oriented to current interests and potential future interests and also a wonderful source of references.
3) Strategic. here contacts are internal and external to your organisation often with experience and expertise very different to our own and orientated towards the future.
I see a huge level of applicability to sales. Let me explain by taking a quote from the article.
"What differentiates a leader from a manager, research tells us, is the ability to figure out where to go to enlist the people and groups necessary to get there." If we replace "leader" by great sales professional and "manager" by good sales professional, I think you will find that we have captured the single biggest difference between what separates good from great in sales today.
Success in sales tomorrow will be increasingly dependent on a) our ability to reinvent ourselves, ie. find new ways of defining our role in sales and b) developing new relationships, ie. networking. These two factors will enable us to deliver new levels of value to our customs.

Complimentary e-book: 10 Ways To Find More Prospects

Many of you requested a single document containing the 10 articles in an easy to read Executive Summary format. Well here it is.

10 Ways To Find More Prospects: The e-book

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10 Ways To Find More Prospects (Part 10/10)

Never Eat Alone (Part 10/10). This has got to be one of the most productive and enjoyable, yet least used methods of prospecting that I know of. This is the quickest way to get to “privileged conversations” with a real exchange of information and ideas. I have found that people are far more open, honest with you and direct when they are relaxed and enjoying a nice meal.
Ask questions about them. The secret to being a good conversationalist and getting people to talk openly with you is very simple. Talk about them. Ask questions about them, about what they do, about their families, about what they like/dislike and about their concerns. Your sincere interest will be rewarded with information that is rich in fact, opinion, emotion and prospecting potential. Make them part of your network by building the foundation of a long relationship that you can come back to in the future.
Gain Industry and Market Intelligence. Ask them what they know about your areas of interest: eg. Market trends, industries, sectors, customers, projects and people. Ask who else do they know amongst their colleagues, associates and friends who may have the same interests, concerns, problems, etc. Always try and get 3 referrals before coffee. Do this right and you will come away with the equivalent of thousands of Euros worth of industry knowledge and market data, plus 3 referrals and a friend for life for a total investment of a 50€ lunch. That’s got to be the best ROI that I know of!
Lets assume that most people eat 3 meals a day and that most people work 5 days per week. That means that you have 15 opportunities to eat with someone per week. Set yourself a goal of: 2 lunch meetings, 1 breakfast meeting and 1 dinner per week. Start planning your agenda now! Good Luck and remember Always Be Prospecting.
Part 10/10 in French