Hi Persuader,

I want to just mention this basic truism of persuasion: the power is in the presentation. The power is not in the closing.

When I was a young man, I had been in sales for a couple of years and I was excelling quickly so they made me a closer. I would be the guy that when the sales person was missing his or her mark, I would come in and try to still get the sale.

I was good at it. I did really well. But after a couple of months of doing this, I began to see some patterns emerge. It was funny because each of the people that worked for me at the time, I could tell exactly where I would have to shore up their presentation in order to close the deal because I knew what they weren't doing well.

Further, it seemed like the same people had the same patterns and I always felt, back then, that if they would just do a better job in presenting, my job would be really easy. In fact, I probably wouldn't be needed nearly as much, if at all.

Most of the time I was able to turn it around; sometimes I couldn't. The bottom line is, that the power of every single sale is in the presentation, not in your ability to argue or close.

My Magical Objection Mastery series, the 24 doorways into a person's mind, enables you to persuade before the objections come with huge success in overcoming the objections that will inevitably come up in a person's mind. Knowing how to do that kind of framing and reframing is incredibly important and there's nothing finer in my opinion than the Magical Objection Mastery program.

There are some incredibly important characteristics of having really convinced someone. If you've done that, closing in the typical sense isn't really necessary anyway.

Imagine just for a moment that you bought something that you were really happy with and the product or service worked well for you. Identify this in your mind. One you have done this, I want you to go through this list. Did you feel trust towards the person? Are you aware now as you think back about it that you didn't have much doubt at least about the person? Did you feel an urgency to get what they were trying to sell you?

You probably had a desire for it. I'll bet you saw the value in the product and you were visualizing owning it and benefiting from it. Buying it was relatively easy.

Now imagine for a moment that you did that and then the person started doing some kind of old fashioned closing techniques. They said, "If I can show you a way to get this and save time, energy and money, I'm sure you would be interested in doing that now wouldn't you?"

As you hear that statement and you're contrasting it with the good feelings you had at that time, I'll bet you that kind of statement doesn't sit well with you. In fact, it'd feel pretty funny if someone tried to do it to you.

If you've been persuasive in what you've presented, if you've been careful to observe whether or not your prospect is with you the whole way, agreeing with you, if you've been continuously linking to their values and more then getting the sale will be really easy.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

"An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing." -- Samuel Smiles

Hi Persuader,

I've always been an instant gratification kind of guy. When I'm hungry, I want to eat. When I'm thirsty, I want some water. When I'm in traffic, I want to be moving. And when I'm persuading, I want it to work, immediately, if not sooner.

But lately, I've been understanding and even enjoying the benefits of delayed gratification and anticipation. In visiting a Latin American country such as the one where I find myself, life does not move at the speed of Starbucks. Life moves with a rhythm and tempo of the people, of the earth, of the seasons. It's taking a huge internal shift, one which I'm alternately struggling with and relishing as quite enjoyable and expansive. Letting go of the controlled chaos of the big city life of Seattle and its outskirts, and moving into the speed of this life I am now experiencing has been the biggest adjustment and challenge and has expanded my frame of the world immeasurably.

When the air is dense with humidity, the temperature is in the upper 80s, 90s, higher, movement becomes more languid, like you've just entered a steam room. You can almost imagine fish swimming by your face in the thick air as you walk through the streets like in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. Siestas become almost mandatory when the sun is at its high point. Work gets done in the morning and at night.

This is not at all a suggestion to slow down or relent any in your persuasion studies or in your work, however, as I suggested in a previous article about getting out of your comfort zone of familiarity, there are also benefits to speeding up or slowing down the tempo of your life to further embed and deepen your learning and expand the frames within which you find yourself.

I had a friend once who told me, 'I can't meditate. I've just got too much going on in my mind. I don't think it's for me to just sit there and not think.' But when I asked her what she 'thought' about when she was on her treadmill or elliptical machine, she said, 'I don't think at all.'

It's a matter of taste, I suppose. Many people are comfortable with the adrenal charged experience of a big city. Many people couldn't live any place with more than one stop sign and any sign of traffic or commotion sends them into a panic. Some people can switch between worlds and have developed a comfort in all types of settings, and I believe this versatility is the hallmark of a good persuader. Persuasion is truly about being a chameleon and experiencing the differences that places and people have to offer, even if that means slowing yourself down for a time or quickening your pace. This is most definitely a tool that will serve you well to practice with.

So as I take a little bit of my own medicine and develop a taste for anticipation and delayed gratification, I hope you too will challenge yourself with a different pace for periods of time.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

"Great wealth and the lack thereof, both provide for unbelievable experiences that we might not otherwise have had."

Is the cup half full or half empty? It's a common 'test' or indicator of what your attitude is. What's your focus -- half full or half empty?

Both are accurate. Both are absolutely accurate. The glass is half full and half empty. To that end, we have tremendous opportunities right now in this seemingly half empty economy. In light of persuasion, since some of the best minds in the world are even telling us that this is where the greatest opportunity is what we need to do first is know how to manage our expectations.

I was talking to one of my coaching groups earlier today about how it's not so much what happens to us, it's how we think about what happens to us. That's easier said than done but I'm going to give you a bit of the explanation I was giving to my class and it's simply this: the idea that we're born into the physical world, into this place, to earth, in which time is such an enormous underpinning of all that we are and all that we have, is truly amazing.

Time, if you think about it, it's something that we take for granted. It's a presupposition of all that we are and all that we have ever been, all that we've done, and time forms just an elemental aspect. However, time a bit arbitrary as well.

It doesn't necessarily exist where there's no cycles. With the earth, there's the cycle of the sun rising and setting and there's the cycle of birth and death and so, how many suns will rise and set before a person is no longer here.

Time forms an integral part of all that we are and all that we do. And so the key to having an even deeper understanding is that time is so very real and not real at all.

I think all of us would choose to have the great wealth more than anything, but the fact is, is that again, it's how we think about it. I really believe that thinking about things begins with a great understanding of where we are, an acceptance of where we are, and so to that end, it's really good if we just look at our lives and write a snapshot of where we are and where we want to be. Where are you? Where is your business?

In it really boils down to what we think of it and how do we use it to our advantage. Again, it is not that we are in any way limited by what's being thrown at us, we're limited about how we think about what's being thrown at us.

Once you've done that, and you really see clearly where you are and what you want then I would answer the question in your snapshot, how do I feel I can best use persuasion skills to get ahead?

Why do I say you should answer that question? Because it puts, as a presupposition into your mind, that you're going to be using them and if you are, you're going to be more successful than you would be otherwise.

Put these kinds of presuppositions into your head because they're going to do amazing things for you. This is something I've been thinking about an awful lot lately in my own life and how can we use it to our advantage? It all starts with what's between our ears and then it goes from there.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland