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

"I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now." -- Sophia Loren

Hi Persuader,

I'm fascinated with the brain and especially the structure and functions of the brain. The limbic system is the seat of emotion, long term memory, hormones, behavior, and all the senses. It controls our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, hunger, pleasure, thirst, sleeping and wakefulness -- things that we don't consciously ever think about but take place all the time and are responsible for keeping us alive. It is also where we make all of our decisions. It's a very primitive structure.

Why is knowing about decision making important for a persuader? Hmm. . . . that's a pretty obvious one, isn't it?

When we are persuading, we are asking people to make the decision we want them to make. We are working with a part of the brain that is older than the other parts. This is why I often go through the core drives -- fight or fight, hunger, reproduction, shelter -- these are all involved in the same process. It's responsible for something as grand and universal as our evolution and as well as something that's somewhat more mundane as the decision of whether or not we decide to purchase products or services from a sales professional.

Our analytic mind, the logical, mathematical, scientific, time-keeping, synthesizing, deductive part of our mind, is a lot younger. And while they compose a whole -- the limbic system is somewhat naïve of the analytic mind. What I mean by that is, say we smell a scent that brings us back to our childhood. For me, it's Old Spice. When I was a teenager I had a bottle of it. I didn't use it liberally, but very sparingly when I'd go on a date. When my olfactory sense comes into contact with Old Spice, it pulls me back to the 70s. I'm in my car, driving down Highway 84, the Columbia River Highway, on my way to my girlfriend's house.

That's all great and good. But the problem is that my analytical mind doesn't pull me back out of that reverie and I can get into that nostalgic state which sometimes can incite sadness. Getting stuck in a feeling can be awesome and amazing and it can be paralyzing.

As persuaders, knowing this can help us make sales. Think about it -- if you link something as primordial and deep as the core drives, criteria, and your product or service, and if your client or prospect gets stuck in that feeling of attachment to that, then the decision can be made before logic gets involved at all.

So elicit the criteria, use a little rhythmic speaking or repetition in three -- prime the pump, so to speak -- and logically, analytically -- watch as your client's limbic system works to your advantage and theirs where your persuasion is concerned.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

Here's a little fear factor just in time for Halloween and Dios de Los Muertos aka Day of the Dead (which is not a scary celebration, but a celebration of deceased loved ones).

A conversation with one of my students got me thinking about the use of 'fear' in sales. Really, what we were discussing had to do more with cold, hard reality than fear, per se.

I'll put this in the context of real estate just as an example. The cold, hard reality is that what was worth $1.5 million a year ago, may now only sell for $800 thousand. And the hard, cold reality is, this may possibly decrease even more in the coming year or two.

My student asked me, "Would you really emphasize the bleak outlook? Won't that scare the crap out of your potential client?

I told him, emphatically, "Yes and yes."

Why must you emphasize the hard, cold reality instead of attempting to focus on the sunny side of life? First off, you have to talk real to them or they're going to look at you like you're some guy from outer space. Selling yourself as the solution to their problem of selling their house isn't going to happen if you can't sell their house (seems obvious, right?). Reframing yourself as the solution to their problem through persuading them that if they need to sell, and sell now, then they're going to have to face up to that hard, cold reality. They're not going to get what they thought they were going to get based on last year's numbers.

If you sugar coat just to get a listing they don't need you because you can't understand the reality that they're faced with today. There isn't a person in the country, and probably the world over, that feels confident in anything and if you try to act otherwise, you're making a mistake.

This is how to sell in tough times. This is how to do it. This is worth its weight in gold. You need to have the attitude that you are a pro and they are so incredibly fortunate to be able to talk to you and that you can help them, but they've also got to face reality.

So get clear with them. Why did they invite you there? Why now?

And yes, I'm going to scare the stuffing out of them. I'm going to balance that with, yes, it's scary, but it can be done. I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm simply saying, we've got to be smart here, really smart.

Fear works both ways, and so a word of caution here. When you're afraid, you're unconsciously passing on to your fear prospects. You are the rock. You can't be afraid and moreover, you can't be afraid to tell it like it is. You have to just come out swinging.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

"Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it." --Leonardo Da Vinci

Hi Persuader,

Rapport is all about blending, becoming one with our prospect or client, blurring the lines between us and them. If it's 'us and them', we're seeing a difference. If it's right or wrong, black or white, up or down, there is a chasm that we need to overcome. We want to eliminate the difference between ourselves and our prospects. You want to blur those lines every which way such that they think they're you. Not so much you think that you are them, although you will, but that they think they are you.

How do we do that? Here's an example: if I were with you and I moved like you move, then what am I doing? I'm eliminating the differences and that's the goal of this whole thing.

The important thing to remember here is that you have to keep your intention intact. You have an outcome driven by your intention of getting the sale. Once that is set, then you go about eliminating the differences so you become like them.

Rapport is an altered state. In this altered state, time distorts and you can enter their reality and bring them to your desired outcome. And you can work with the person as one instead of in addition to them. In other words, you and the person become one.

From this altered state of rapport you can slow down the perceptions of your experience of time. In so doing, you can see more, you can hear more and experience more and this opens the persuasion field giving you more options and control.

Specifically, you can narrow your focus. Instead of taking in the world around you, narrow your focus to something like the rate and depth of their breathing or the colors in their face and how they change, you can also imagine that you are speeding up very considerably and they are slowing down. This is a mental thing so you just need to imagine it. Imagine that your vibration rate is speeding up and that they are slowing down. It's amazing.

Another way to do this is to imagine that time is distorting and giving you tons of time in which to make the sale.

You can look to baseball for an example. The batter imagines that they are so speeded up that when that ball comes, they just see it slowly arching towards them with all the time in the world to swing. They make the ball very big in their mind. They distort a number of visual characteristics so that they can do this.

You can watch and listen to them, to your prospect, far more intently than you are used to doing. All of these things will create this altered state, it will slow down the perception of the experience of time, and it will give you a ton more room in which to persuade.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

One of the first things I teach to new students is the process of eliciting criteria. This is a simple process, but not necessarily easy. I am of the opinion that the greatest truths in life are the simple ones, are the clear ones, the ones that make the most amount of sense.

If you haven't yet elevated the elicitation and utilization of criteria to one of the greatest truths in life, you soon will. For me, this ranks right up there with the law of gravity, the law of averages and the law of attraction.

Something came to me this week as I was creating a new lesson plan for my Elite Coaching Club. There was a change that happened in my life years ago that I've identified rather strongly now. I used to sell using SAD -- the standard American diet of poor sales. I used simply regurgitate features and benefits, cross my fingers, and pray that the person wanted to buy what I was selling.

Then came the big shift: I began using criteria and everything changed. I didn't have to cross my fingers anymore because I was selling, selling like crazy, selling like gravity, selling like averages, selling like magnetic attraction.

If you're in sales, odds are you were taught this SAD way of sales. Think back to when you first started this. Do you recall times when your prospect would identify with something that you were saying and they would say, 'Yes! I want what you have to offer.'

Do you recall the elation that you would feel? I hit on something they want!! I think we're going to have a deal here!!

This didn't happen as often as I wanted because this was before I understood the power of criteria and I would just get elated. I would think, I really figured it out this time.

The problem was that the elatedness I felt was transient because I didn't figure it out, I lucked into it.

The fact is that we had successes in the past, but they didn't happen with the regularity that we really wanted. So we began the process of working on developing ourselves. And if you're involved with me, then the process of criteria elicitation has changed the way you sell.

There's an assuredness that came over me which is something I wish for you too.

It's a shift, an emotional difference was one of having the tools and the ability, and it's a foregone conclusion that I would use them to the benefit of my clients and myself, to really ensure that I could do something to help them.

So to that end, I want you to begin to take on that emotional quality as you start to use the tools of criteria. It's a foregone conclusion that you know how and will use these tools to help your client and you come to an understanding of what can be done. And as you do that, you're setting in motion profound levels of rapport and belief in the mind of that client that will easily get them to give you all of the information you need to rapidly secure their criteria, and more importantly even, their high values.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

Because I have a teenager, I'm hip to some of the more . . . well, hip things going on out there. And because my business is primarily virtual, I am well aware of the extreme power of the internet. In combining both the cutting edge hipness and the extreme power of the internet, I've recently (I know, I know, it's a little after the fact) become acquainted with Facebook.

I had heard about Facebook, but didn't really understand what it could bring to me, or what I could bring to it. And now I'm sold (despite the fact that it's free).

This site along with Twitter (which I recently blogged about) are social and business networking sites, Web 2.0 style, that absolutely have the ability to revolutionize business.

It all starts out like kids in schoolyard, sort of sweet, like, 'Will you be my friend?' People you've worked with in the past, current clients and potential prospects, people with similar interests, friends that you may have in common, even strangers who just like the look of you or the message you're putting out -- you can respond to their friend requests (or they can respond to yours) and you will get a little message on your thread that simply says that you and that person are now friends.

As I write this, I now have 183 friends and growing, and that after only one month on Facebook. (If you want to be my friend, here's my page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715037097)

What are the possibilities here? I happen to think the sky's the limit. (I always think the sky's the limit.) I am looking for people who have their hands raised. This is the real core of marketing and networking. I am looking for people I can connect with who I can truly help to flourish and grow with persuasion training. My intention is to reach as many people I can for mutually beneficial relationships.

On a side note: another aspect of marketing I'm exploring is that I now offer my clients 20% of every student they bring me. That's 20 % of every Elite Coaching Club member, every Persuasion Factor member, and any future program I offer. What does this mean to my students? Well, as long as they're in the program, if they bring me five Elite Coaching Club students, they can be in my Coaching Club for free. WOW!! That's huge.

I have really exciting plans for 2008 that I will be unveiling in the coming months that I'm absolutely thrilled about and that I am certain will thrill you too. As always, I am eager to hear what is on your mind, my students, and what I can do to improve your experience and learning of persuasion and the benefits it is bringing to your life.

So for now, I'd ask you to sign up on Facebook, look me up, become my friend, and stay tuned for the amazing things to come.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

There's an English idiom that goes, "The devil is in the details." I'm sure you've all heard it. It implies that the small things in plans or schemes are often the things that take the most time in the long term. Well, in criteria elicitation, we need to dig a little deeper than just the surface act and get a little dirty with the details.

Criteria is the cornerstone of all sales. It is, to use a sports metaphor, like getting the ball down the alley each and every time. When we further define the criteria, it's a strike dead on every time.
Here's how definitions work.

In my career I've done a lot of trainings and students come to see me for a myriad of reasons. For example, two people come into a training. Both of them, when you ask them their criteria, say that what's being taught in the training is important.

If you ask them, "Is this important to you? Do you really want to learn this?" Both of them will say yes.

Yet each one has different criteria when you elicit it.

When you ask the first person they say they're there because they want to learn new skills. And so your follow up question is to ask what that means and they say that they want to see a list of skills and they want to participate in exercises using the skills so they can learn them.

The second person when you ask them what's important about what's being taught in the training, they say, it's to be recognized. That's a completely different criteria. When you ask what that means, they might say, they want to have the class participants recognize their skill and they want to be recognized by the instructor as skilled.

Both people willing to come to the training, both people willing to pay for the training, both people are in that training but in reality, if you think about it, you've really got two radically different subsections.

For any of you that have taught in front of a group, you'll know what I'm talking about here. In any group you're teaching, there will be a section of people that probably know your material and maybe reasonably well, or at least think they do. There will be a group of people that are star struck, thinking, wow, I'm really in the presence of a master.

Then there will be the majority of the people that are interested in really wanting to gain knowledge and see if there is something of value to them in what you're saying.

But it's important that you begin to understand that every time you think you know what someone wants, unless you ask, you don't. You're not on target. You're not on track. And until you both elicit the criteria and elicit the meaning, the definition, you're missing the boat.

Knowing criteria is a good start. If you want to bowl strike after strike, the key is to learn how to define their criteria.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

"Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous."
--Leonardo da Vinci

Hi Persuader,

As a young man, I believed in raw ambition, brute force, and getting my way no matter what. I felt like in order to persuade, I had to really work hard, I had to conquer, I had to dominate. Well, thankfully, blessedly, we are not young forever. And we have the potential to mature, to learn, and to ripen.

I now understand that I don't have to be 'in domination' but 'in dominion'. My power doesn't rely on someone else being disempowered, but it relies on my inner sense of power, an assuredness that can only be obtained by being in dominion.

We've all tilted at windmills in our own ways, battling imaginary enemies in fights that are unwinnable (many times that enemy we are battling is ourselves). Why do we do this? Well, because we've got certain frames set in place that we either grew up with or which were engrained in us through schooling or society that say, 'work is hard' and 'achievement only comes through struggle'. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

For years I didn't get that 'struggling with my weight' was keeping me stuck. The languaging was setting up a brick wall. Even the term 'losing' weight is a metaphorical minefield if you think about it. Who likes to lose? Loss is something we strive to avoid.

What happens when we're in dominion is that we release the struggle and live in the now. There is absolutely nothing more powerful than being present. My mind isn't racing ahead thinking, 'I have to have my way' or 'I've just got to make this sale' or 'I can't wait for my date on Saturday night'. . . instead, you're experiencing exactly the moment, whatever that might be. And if that moment is about you selling your product or service to a potential prospect, the best way that moment can be used is in stopping, listening, eliciting, and getting to know exactly what it is that this prospect wants and needs on the deepest level.

It requires intention, attention, and patience. You might not 'get it' right away. You might struggle with your future thoughts sneaking back in or get stuck on thinking of times when you didn't make the sale. Let these thoughts come and go, take a deep breath, and then consciously focus again on exactly what the person you are persuading is telling you.

I will tell you that my life has changed incredibly for the better since I made the conscious decision to be present. Letting go of the struggle to control all possible outcomes and force things has allowed me an inner peace that is indescribable and something I highly recommend. It's the very essence of elegant self persuasion.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

I recently had a student ask me, "Kenrick, how do you keep track all of these persuasion strategies? Every time we have a call, you pull out another technique. Sometimes I can't even remember to use the 'unconscious hello'."

When you learn a new language, are you fluent in a week?

When you learn a new instrument, can you play Rachmaninoff after a couple of lessons?

Persuasion is just as rich a subject as either of these and more because once you've learned a language, you know the language. But persuasion is an ever expanding field of study with amazing breakthroughs happening all the time.

So to put I simply, the best way I know to become a master persuader is to master the basics. And to master the basics, you have to do what people do when they're trying to learn something: PRACTICE.

'Learning' has been traditionally broken down into five different categories: imprinting, habituation, associative learning, observational learning and play.

Imprinting is a phase-based learning usually associated with young animals and humans and is the process by which babies learn from their parents. This, obviously, has no use for us in learning persuasion, but for the fact that the brain state which is achieved by use of the light and sound machines closely resembles the brain state of the very young.

An example of habitual learning is when an animal first responds to a stimulus, but if it is neither rewarding nor harmful then eventually, the response diminishes. This kind of learning rests mainly in the other-than-conscious.

The two types of learning that we most utilize in our quest for persuasion mastery are observational learning and play. The first, we're all quite familiar with: observing and repeating. 'Unconscious hello'? Observe. Repeat. We need to pay attention and then emulate.

Lastly, play. I call the homework at the end of each call 'home play' because I love the concept of play and playfulness as a way to enjoy our learning and enhance our experience of not only persuasion, but of life in general.

We're all successful in our fields. Many of us have high pressure work environments. And yet, I can't help thinking that part of what we do when we meet for our quarterly meetings is quite playful. Role playing, camaraderie, even the occasional game. Some play is unrestrained and has no outcome, but our play has a clearly defined goal, as does our work.

Back to my frustrated student's question. Persuasion is play. Persuasion is observation. Persuasion is habitual. Persuasion is repetition and emulation and commitment and intention. And it all comes in time with persistence.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

"It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction." -- Pablo Picasso

Hi Persuader,

Sometimes in persuasion, the thing to do is to get provocative. I'm not talking about being inappropriate or crass, I'm not talking about being overtly sexual, but I am suggesting that you access the core drives a little, those primal drives that link each and every one of us as human animals, and specifically I'm thinking of the drive to reproduce.

Seduction need not be limited to the realm of mating or luring someone away from accepted principles or proper conduct. Being seductive in all aspects of your life is really a very deeply persuasive attribute. Being seductive is to win over and attract, enticing someone into our desired mindset or position.

Someone once told me that they flirt with everyone -- men, women, all ages, all nationalities, all shapes and sizes, all the time. This struck me as deeply odd until I realized they were not flirting in the sense that they were looking to 'hook up' (as the kids put it) but to charm. Once I reframed it in my mind, I realized that this is a great way to be in the world. How fascinating it is to allow everyone you come into contact with the deeply charming version of you which is usually reserved for attractive person you're trying to "get closer to", so to speak.

Here's another way to view this: it's rapport with a twist.

Now, this isn't for everyone. For example, for women, this can be a rather messy can of worms if not done with very clear boundaries. Men are highly susceptible to being flirted with or being charmed and the best bet is to be extremely obvious that this is how you interact with everyone, not just them.

Everyone loves to be given special attention and this form of rapport and criteria elicitation incites that very delightful feeling of being given that special attention.

Here's another way to access this powerful motivator. Insert into your conversation words of a titillating variety. This is a roundabout way of stimulating these drives that will give sometimes vague, sometimes intense triggers of that core drive.

Phew. . . sorry about that. I was just giving an example and got a little carried away, but now you get the idea.

Don't go too off the charts with this one or people might think you're creepy, but there is great benefit in turning on the lights and bringing these things out into the open to expose how they can turn us into better persuaders.

So while I may not exactly admit to being a flirt, I will say that I do enjoy the process of charming as a way to persuade and, in general, a way to make people feel good.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland