Secrets of Hypnotic Influence and Persuasion Virtual Classroom Series

Today we want to dive into one of the most important parts of the mind. And that is the critical mind, the internal, mental skeptic that very often is throwing up those sales shields. Telling you, no messages can get through here because shields are on full!

In our first couple of classrooms we talked a little bit about outcomes that you can get:

• Closer to
• Further away from
• Have no effect

On the persuasion process and getting closer to a positive outcome that we are looking to do. We also talked about developing our sensory acuity to notice when the things that we are attempting to do are not giving us the desired outcome that we are looking for. And if you have been doing those exercises to develop your sensory acuity one of the things that you have probably noticed is one of the times that clients start to move away is when something triggers that critical mind. Now there are dozens and dozens of things that can get that critical mind to light up and say, “Wait a second! What is going on here?” But two big classes of things that will happen that are responsible for probably, they are the 20% of reasons that generate 80% of the responses that are making the critical mind light up, are one of two things happening. One is, when it recognizes a past pattern that it doesn’t like. And two is something that it hears that violates its frame of reference.

One of the niches that I serve is financial advisors and one thing that financial advisors, particularly new ones will try is the idea of a “complimentary portfolio review”. The concept being, I am a financial expert, you are a prospect who has a lot of money. One of the services that I can provide you is a complimentary portfolio review. I will either identity something in the portfolio that needs attention and you will be glad to know that it is there or I will be able to identity that everything if perfectly in line with your goals and objectives and you don’t need to make any moves at this particular time.

Now on the surface that sounds like something that maybe a good way to get a door open and get a conversation going with an investment prospect. But any financial advisor will tell you that it is a horrible way to do that. In fact, if you were to go door to door in a very wealthy community, odds are good you would get no takers, even if you were knocking on doors all week long! And why is that? Well that is an example of a past pattern repeating itself and the critical mind alerting you to this past pattern, getting ready to play out again. Typically people who have got a lot of money, maybe have gone through that process a time or two and they have come to know the purpose of that financial advisor offering the ‘complimentary portfolio review’, really isn’t to see if things are in line with their goals and objectives. Their goal is to try to sell them something! So just like in the olden days people were trained not to let the vacuum cleaner salesman in the house because they knew once they got in here it is going to take 1 ½ – 2 hours to get them out of there and many people ended up buying just to get them to leave. Anything the critical mind hears that sounds like a sales or persuasion pattern repeating itself is going to cause it to light up like a Christmas tree.

The second thing that will cause it to light up is something that is outside its frame of reference. An example here might be a traveling salesman who is used to staying at the Ramada Inn or the Marriott Garden Inn or the Holiday Inn or Motel 6 and are used to paying $39.00 or $49.00 a night for a hotel room, and then all of a sudden you come along and you are trying to convince them to spend the night with you at the Ritz Carlton Hotel where the rooms are $389.00 per night and that is the discounted rate! Very much outside their normal frame of reference. Sometimes this can be good because it is a curiosity piquing strategy that many people will say, “I am used to spending $40.00 a night, what would be so good about a hotel that someone would be willing to spend nearly ten times that amount to stay there a single night?” It can serve as a curiosity piquing strategy.

So as you are becoming more and more aware of this, it should be easier for you to pick it up. So let me give you a homework assignment with this:

When you see the critical mind is lighting up like a Christmas tree, and if you have been working on your sensory acuity skills it will be very easy for you to see. I want you to immediately do a quick analysis, is it being caused by a pattern recognition system (something they have seen before, something that has become over played in your particular industry)? Or is it because of something that is happening outside of their normal frame of reference? Or is it something else altogether? Part of that other 80% of the outcomes that are only responsible for 20% of the reasons that the critical mind lights up?

If it is a pattern recognition system, I am going to suggest that you find a way to break that pattern. Going back to our complimentary portfolio review don’t have that as part of your repertoire think of something else that is a better way to open! You want to break that pattern! Its way too easy, particularly early on in the sales conversation for the prospect to conclude, “been there, done that, no thanks, not interested!” and its not to say you can’t get out of that particular trap if you fall into it but better to avoid it the first time through!

If you are lighting up their critical mind because it’s outside of their frame of reference, as in the Ritz Carlton example I want you to think about ways that you can use that as a curiosity peaking strategy. Get them curious, get them interested about what is different about you guys that you can command some much more than all of your other competition, why are you different and better than everybody else that is out there doing what you do?