Yesterday afternoon, I decided to take a break from work and go to Starbucks around the corner from my house for a double espresso.
Usually, I can resist the subliminal pull of the baked treats Starbucks has ingeniously displayed at the checkout counter. Still, my willpower gave out that day, and I ordered a chocolate chunk cookie. (Did you know that all the calories are magically dissolved if you eat the cookie with espresso?)
The young woman behind the counter smiles and says, “Today is buy one get four free.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense,” I say incredulously.
She laughs and says, “Well, that’s the special for you today,” and hands me the package of four cookies.
The restaurant manager brought me a free dessert at dinner the night before.
On a recent date, my companion and I were ungraded to VIP seating at an improved comedy show – even though I did not know anyone at the theater.
So what does all this mean other than if I keep eating all these free sweets, my scale will be very angry?
There are big sales and persuasion secrets hidden in my tales.
In each case, I was friendly and present, asked questions, and brought the folks into my reality. This is cool stuff, so let me explain each puzzle piece.
- Friendly: I smiled, looked into the eyes of the people I was talking with, and projected a positive and fun energy. In my live events (the next one is happening in January), we do a lot of work with energy. It is a huge secret that is transformational once you learn it.
- Questions: A cornerstone of sales is asking questions. In traditional, old-fashioned sales training, these questions are self-serving and highly manipulative. In my Psychic Sales training, the questions are designed to learn about what your prospect wants, needs, and desires on a deep level.
- Being present: I listened to the people’s answers. I was truly interested in what they had to say. Most people are never present. They are too busy thinking about what they are going to say, or worse, their mind is completely somewhere else. People can feel when you are listening and pretending to listen to them.
- Brought them into my reality: In the above scenarios, I also opened myself to these people after I got them to open themselves. I asked them questions about my situation and listened to their answers. For example, at the comedy improv show, I talked to the woman at the ticket counter about the date I was on. Tongue in cheek, I told her the woman I was with liked me. I said I was still deciding if I liked her and asked her what she thought. By the way, my date was standing right next to me while the conversation was going on. (That’s an entirely different strategy!) By opening myself up and sharing personal things, I brought the ticket counter woman into my reality in a fun way.
Just to let you know, I was NOT looking to get free stuff in any of these scenarios. It just happened as a result of what I did. As I’ve said before, the difference between manipulation and persuasion is intent.
My intent in these cases was simply to have fun, make people laugh, and feel good. In a selling situation, your intent should be NOT to just sell your product or service at all costs but rather to find a solution to your prospect’s problems and to fulfill their wants, needs, and desires. This will result in MORE SALES than if you focus on selling your product.
HUGE: When selling, you want to be externally focused, NOT internally focused.
If you reread the four points above, you will see they are all externally focused on the people I was communicating with.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this post. Comment below.
Kick butt, make mucho “DEEnero!”
Dave Dee