Maximize Your Influence

These skills are essential in persuasion and leadership.  What about managers and politicians?  Are they leaders?  Do people trust them?  Probably not.  What needs to change?  Join me for this week’s podcast on Why Politicians Are Not Leaders And Have Low Trust.  Why Democracy Produces Incompetent Leaders – And How to Fix it Discover how to adjust your influence/leadership style.  Find out if you are a true leader or one of those politicians/managers.  Let’s become true charismatic leaders.

We were taught through the years that closing skills were all you needed to persuade and sell. You had to learn more closing skills if you did not sell enough people.  Nowadays, sure, it's nice to have a few closing skills in your persuasion toolbox, but shouldn't you spend more time opening up your audience before you even think about closing a deal with them?   24 Sales Mistakes to Avoid in 2022 (and Beyond) When closing skills are used at the wrong time, in the wrong place, or with the wrong person, another brick is added to the wall of resistance.  When people sense that they are about to be hit with a hard close, the wall increases in thickness and strength. What other mistakes are you making in the persuasion/sales process?  What do you need to fix for 2023?  Join me for this week’s podcast on Top Sales And Persuasion Mistakes To Fix This Year.  Learn what you need to do to get better skills to persuade with power in 2023.

"Door-in-the-face" is one of the most common techniques for implementing the Law of Contrast. An initially large and almost unreasonable request is made, likely to be declined—hence the "door slammed-in-the-face" as the prospect rejects the proposal.  Then a second smaller and more reasonable request is made.  People accept the second request more readily than if they'd just been asked outright because the contrast between the two requests makes the second one seems so much better. Does the Door-in-the-Face Technique Really Work? Want to know more about how to use Door-in-the-Face?  You can also discover when DITF will backfire on you.  Find out the do’s and don’ts of this great persuasion technique.  Join me for this week’s podcast on DITF – When, How, Can It Backfire (Door In The Face Technique)

During each persuasive encounter, you must be careful with what gestures you use and don’t use.  Your gestures can attract your prospect and build trust or repel them and trigger distrust.  When you are aware of your body language, you can synchronize your nonverbals to create instant likeability and rapport.  You can create positive subconscious triggers.  If you don’t have to understand these nonverbals, you could come across as lying or nervous.  Masks can put cognitive performance in check Are you unknowingly doing some of these gestures and triggering distrust?  These are just a few of the things you are doing that could hurt your ability to influence.  Join me for this week’s podcast on Negotiation - Deception and Dirty Mind Tricks #2.  I will reveal the why, what to look for, and how to deal with deception.  

What dirty mind games do people play during negotiation and persuasion?  What do they use to intimidate or change your perception of reality?  They tactics are not to use but help you be aware of when someone is trying to use these dark tricks to get their way. Psychological Power is people's ability to influence you while disguising their true intentions. People who are adept at using Psychological Power seek to alter another individual’s perceptions.  10 Moves to Reduce Deceptive Tactics in Negotiation Join me for this week’s podcast on Negotiation - Deception and Dirty Mind Tricks #1.  I will detail many of these dirty tricks and why people still use them.  We will also talk about some solutions to each one of these tactics.

What does it take to persuade with power in any encounter? Think about it. When was the last time you didn't get something you wanted?  What happened? Did you fail to get your point across? Were you persuaded by someone else? Our understanding of persuasion and influence has changed dramatically.  In the past, we did not know or care how consumers thought or what prompted them to buy or take action. The challenge is that many of persuasion rules and sales are changing fast.  What worked a few years ago – no longer work.  You must be aware of adjusting your persuasion and sales techniques to the new world of influence. 16 Latest Sales Trends & Forecasts for 2023 Join me for this week’s podcast on Surprising Sales and Persuasion Trends.  You will discover what has changed and how to adjust for the future.  Where does technology fit in?  Join me to get the tools and techniques to understand the game of sales

The mental trigger of potential loss causes such great anxiety in people that they act to prevent the loss—even though they might not be completely interested in the product itself. Imagine making a decision where you have all week to make up your mind, and you have the reassurance that when you return tomorrow, the item will still be available at the same good price. You could take days, weeks, or months to make that decision. How do you create legitimate scarcity?  How do you make them feel it is urgent to make a decision ASAP?  How does this affect the human brain.  Join me for this week’s podcast interview with Mindy Weinstein.  We will discuss How To Create Legitimate Scarcity And Urgency To Increase Buying Desire. For more info about Mindy and her work, visit her website here.

Humor can be a powerful tool to create rapport. Humor makes the persuader seem more friendly and accepting. Humor helps gain attention, enables you to create rapport, and makes your message more memorable. It can relieve tension, enhance relationships, and motivate people.  Appropriate use of humor increases trust in your audience. Another aspect of humor is the smile.  A smile is free, generates a great first impression, and shows happiness, acceptance, and confidence. Your smile shows you are pleased to be where you are, or you are happy to meet this person. As a result, they become more interested in meeting you. Smiling also conveys a feeling of acceptance, which makes your listener more trusting of you. It has been shown that sales representatives who smiled during the sales process increased their success rate by 20 percent. However, as with traditional humor, use a smile appropriately. Global collaboration led by Stanford researcher shows that a posed smile can improve your mood Does a fake smile work?  Can a smile backfire?  Can humor hurt influence?  The answer is both to all of these questions.  Join me for this week’s podcast on How A Smile (Certain Ones) And Humor (Targeted) Increases Likeability And Influence.  

The Law of Verbal Packaging states that the more skillful a person is in the use of language, the more persuasive they will be. People are persuaded by us based on the words we use. Words affect our perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and emotions. The words we use in persuasion make all the difference in the world. Language misused will trigger the wrong response and decrease your ability to persuade.   ‘Annoying’ people say these 75 things, according to Reddit users I take a deeper dive in this week’s podcast with all those words you are using that repel people and cause a bad association triggers.  The votes are in, and I am going to say you are guilty.  You will be surprised by the top picks.  This week’s podcast is Top Words You Are Using That Repel, Offend And Annoy.

Have you heard about foot-in-the-door" (FITD),  or the "sequential request theory? Basically, it is a means of using a person's self-perception to motivate them to take a desired action  When an individual complies the first time, they perceive themselves to be helpful.  If they are asked to comply a second time in an even greater way, they are more likely to consent.  The key to using FITD is getting the person to initially agree to a small request. Join me for this week’s podcast on Triggering The Right Response: Yes vs No.  How do you use FITD?  Do you know when to get the yes, the no, and maybe?  You will discover how to be more influential by triggering the right responses.  Even find out how to turn a no into a yes.