Secrets of Hypnotic Influence and Persuasion Virtual Classroom Series

The Concept of Frames

So today I want to introduce you to the concept of frames. And in introducing you to the concept of frames I hope I am going to be able to reframe what may be a very limiting belief that you may have as a salesperson. And if not you personally, maybe a member of your team can benefit from this particular piece of knowledge.

So what exactly is a frame?

The easiest way to think about it is the frame of a picture, that holds the end of the picture that is the end of what you can see based on that particular frame. So a frame could also be thought of as a box that holds ideas or the limit of somebody’s map of the world. If you have ever experienced anybody that has a limiting belief you are literally in a situation where they are banging up against the limits of their frame or the limits of their map of the world.

So what is an example of that? Well I was having a conversation with a salesperson the other day and I was talking to him about perhaps doing some peak performance coaching to help him take his business beyond the next level to a significantly higher level. And I started talking to him about closing ratios and I said, “of the people that you sit down and talk to. What percentage of them at the end of that meeting end up opening an account with you?”

And he didn’t really have those stats, so he was taking some rough guesses and kind of flipping back through his notebook getting a rough idea. There is an interesting frame right there, I can run a good business without keeping any statistics about how well I am doing! Not a very good frame in my mind but that is another story. And he said, “well of the people who were serious about doing business,” now that statement lights up my critical mind like a Christmas tree. What do you hear when a salesperson says that? “Of the people who are serious about doing business my closing percentage is x.” In his case it was about 60%. But what do you immediately think? If you are like me, the first thing that popped into my mind is “what a second! How many people are you talking to that aren’t that serious about doing business?”

And he immediately said, “In our industry we have got a lot of tire kickers. People who aren’t really that serious, they are just looking.” Now I don’t know what industry you are in, and I don’t know if I have ever done any work in that industry at all. But I can tell you here is what has been my experience, it is very rare that people will spend very much (if any) of their scarcest and their only non-renewable resource, which is their time just to go out and kick tires. In fact, my experience has been just the opposite that in most industries there is many, many more people out there who need a product or service, in fact need it desperately but they are so busy that it just hasn’t got up to the sense of urgency yet that they have taken care of this problem. Even though its one they identified they definitely should be taking care of.

So here is my second theorem of sales success.

Your prospects won’t invest any of their scarcest and their only non-renewable resource, their time, unless they know at least on some level that there is a good chance that meeting with you and making that investment is going to benefit them to some degree. Its going to fill some gap that they have got right now between where they are where they would like to be. I pulled into a car dealership on a very rainy day, one day and I pulled up, got my umbrella out, went walking in and was blowing all of the water off and a salesman came up to great me and I said, “man it must be tough selling cars on a day like today?” And he looked at me and he shook his head and he said, “not at all when people come walking into our dealership on a day like today I know they are serious about buying an automobile!”

So the statement I made to him must be tough to sell cars on a day like today that is a frame. Which he very effectively had already reframed in his mind and he actually reframed it in my mind as well. It is also a frame for the salesman to say of the people who are serious about buying, because he is mentally accepting the fact that many people are not. So think about this for a second if it is your mental frame that a third of the people who come walking in the door really aren’t very serious buyers. How invested are you going to be in the conversation? It certainly hasn’t been my experience or the sales people who I work with in a speak performance coaching relationship once they look into it a little bit more.

Your homework assignment is to begin to notice do you have some frames? And a good way to recognize that is identify them as limiting beliefs that slow you back. And do your clients have limiting beliefs? Begin to develop the ears to hear the beliefs they have that are limiting them from moving forward. And we are going to continue to talk about some ways that we can reframe those in your clients and prospects mind.

And if you want to dive a little bit deeper into that material, both the membership site and the JumpStart Program, I have got a lot of resources in there to help you with your reframing and your mental acuity and answering objections. And we will talk a little bit more about that in future virtual classrooms.