Month 2: The Science of Persuasion – Why We Buy (Listen to ‘Day 2’ Audio in your Mastering Influence App)
LAPS – Listen, Analyze, Practice, Share.

First Listen to the audio referenced above. Then Analyze the audio content further by reading the notes and completing the exercises in the Learning Management System. Now you are prepared to Practice that which you have listened to and analyzed as you work with your clients and prospects. Finally, on the last Friday of each month our entire sales organization will gather to Share key learnings and applications in market.

The power of influence is the single, most important skill you can master.

Lesson Files
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Most people will not buy your product or service (or do their homework or take out the trash) unless they feel some type of pressure to do so. There are two kinds of pressure:

- External pressure created from the outside (such as through a television advertisement or a salesperson’s demands.)

- Internal pressure created from the inside in the form of an innate desire for your product or service.

Of the two, internal pressure is much more powerful since people buy for their own reasons.

ERBN LRBN DRAB - The Science of Persuasion

ERBN - emotional reasons to buy now

LRBN - logical reasons to buy now

DRAB - dominant reasons to avoid buying

Rapport. To create long-term impact, you must show people that you care about them and that you have their interest in mind and that you are like them.

Ways to create rapport:

• Bring up a mutual interest
• Give a gift which induces reciprocity
• Give a referral
• Tell a story
• Give us a sample of something
• Pay a compliment
• Make a startling statement
• Give more of yourself than another would expect
• Listen

4 out of 5 consumers agree – they are paying more attention to their mail delivery because they are always on the lookout for their package deliveries - as ecommerce increased 50% during the covid pandemic and is still growing. Pure Spectrum Market Research.
   

• But not all mail. They pay most attention to mail that mimics the traits of the packages they are on the lookout for. Mail that piques the same curiosity and triggers the positive anticipation of ‘what’s inside?’ And that mail is called cooperative mail and Valpak Clipp is the leader in cooperative mail.

Asking questions is your most powerful tool for influencing people. When you understand what people believe and how they make decisions all you have to do is show them that buying your product or service is consistent with those beliefs. That’s all selling is.

Questions help you…

• Find out what’s really going on in peoples heads
• Find out their real motivations
• Find out their beliefs
• Test close
• Take pressure off
• Show you really care
• Build rapport
• Induce reciprocity
• Put people in state
• Bring out and overcome objections

Congruency means that your verbal and nonverbal communication matches. Congruency comes from feeling absolutely certain about what you’re saying. The person who feels the most certain will be the person who is the most influential.

In terms of sales congruency, this means being certain that what your offering is worth more than what you’re asking in return; remember buying is just the transfer of emotion, your congruency will help people feel certain that if they make this decision, they’ll get more pleasure and less pain.

Congruency must be maintained daily; otherwise, you fall victim to the law of familiarity ie. if you are around anything long enough, you take it for granted.

It’s absolutely critical to manage your emotional states. If someone cancels an appointment and you let that put you into state of frustration, you’ll diminish your ability to influence. When you practice state management, you’ll learn how to discipline disappointment and take negative states like rejection and turn them around, so they empower you.

While innovation is celebrated, daily progress and execution is revered.

Proactive, timely and thoughtful communication is essential for success.

Review the four primary tools of influence below. Identify your weakest area and do the assignment for that area today. Repeat the assignment for the other areas over the balance of the month. Pick one area and focus on it for several days in a row.