Secrets of Hypnotic Influence and Persuasion Virtual Classroom Series

‘Cobb’s First Theorem of Sales Success!’

Your closing ratio is going to be inversely related to the percentage of the conversation that you control during your sales interaction, or to put it more succinctly, the more you talk, the less likely you are to walk out of there with the order.

In fact it’s not just theory, there is scientific research that backed that up recently in the world of financial services sales. A study found that 87% of the people who met with a financial adviser elected not to do business with him, when they were listing the top three reasons that they decided to hesitate. Among the top three reasons for 87% of the people is, “I didn’t feel understood!” Said another way financial adviser didn’t really understand what it was I was trying to accomplish or said another way, “he did all the talking, he didn’t really give me an opportunity to tell my story.”

So let’s talk about a couple of little different techniques about some ways that we can get the conversation to open up. To get them to do the talking, to get them to prime the pump.

One technique you are probably all familiar with is the idea of open-ended questions. Those are questions that begin with our five friends who, what, when, where and how. And one way I like to get the ball rolling is to begin a conversation with an open ended, open frame question. Many people when they first start interacting with the prospect nervous about there being any dead air. So they often begin into this long diatribe about who they are, how long the company has been around, what their process is, what makes them unique and they are controlling the vast majority of the conversation from the very start of the transaction.

I am going to suggest that you do the exact opposite!

If you are in a situation where your prospects are coming to you, either because you are marketing in a way that lets them to raise their hand and come to you all you are in a retail typesetting where clients are typically coming to you. Begin with an open frame, open-ended question. Here are several different ones that you can use:

1. An easy one is if they are coming to you. How can I help?
2. Why are we here today?

If you get a reflexive almost smart-alec type comment, “…well somebody called and suggested I come in,” or, “I saw your ad in a newspaper. I heard your ad on radio and decided to come in.” We can still reset that a little bit and go for another opportunity to get things to open up just a little bit. And that simply is to say, “yeah I know but we are running various ads all the time. What is going on in your life right now that responding to the ad today made so much sense to you?”

There is two opportunities to dive into the conversation, but dive into it in a way that you are turning it over to them, you are eliciting their story their floodgate experience. Now will that always works? No of course not!

There are going to be times when you are going to have to go through other techniques to get them to open up but you have heard the old adage ‘ you don’t want to talk past the close’. I believe it’s also true that you don’t want to talk past the opening!

With people you have been pursuing, I think the best way is to go through that second technique we used on coming to us. Replay what happened in order of view to be sitting there. It could maybe be, “you have been on my mailing list for six months now, I know I recently sent a letter out to you telling it was a good time to get together to do a review. And I am curious what is going on in your life right now that this meeting today makes so much sense to you?”

The goal is to get them to open up, to share their story. To have what we call in the world of hypnotic influence and persuasion a floodgate experience. Because when you achieve a floodgate experience you are literally going to get all of the information you need to create a sales presentation that is so one track, so on target, so perfect for your client that it is going to be is absolutely irresistible in the only place that it really matters, the mind of your client or prospect!

Now inside the membership site and on our Jump Start Program we talk about a technique called ‘ hyper open-ended questions’. This is also a very powerful tool, that I am going to be talking to you about in future virtual classrooms to embed in their question itself the presupposition that there is a gap between where your client or prospect is today and where they would like to be.

And as I said we will talk about that in future virtual classrooms or you can join the membership site or grab your copy of the jumpstart program, if you want to dive into that material right now.

But in the meantime if you just want to go through the virtual classroom, your homework assignment at this is. With the interactions that you have, begin with a hyper open-ended, open frame type of question and set is one of your primary outcomes. For every interaction that you have, that you get applying to reveal their story and have a Floodgate Experience.