Persuasion is Like a Game of Follow the Leader

Persuasion is like a game of follow the leader, Drew Stevens PhD writes in the Changing Minds.org (persuasion).  Does he really mean it is as simple as that? All you need to do is take a good look around you and you will notice that anywhere or anything people are flocking to, has become a leader in it's niche. Persuasion is like a game of follow the leader and the one with the most followers…wins!

Persuasion is like a game of follow the leader

"When you were a kid did you ever play follow the leader? Do you ever wonder why there are things that attract us to certain people? Buyers today become attracted with those that are not only contrary but offer value, substance, something the community can benefit from."

"Think of this. When there is a new diet doesn’t most individuals tend to flock towards it? When there is a new television show, why is it that many need to view it? The reason there is some benefit statement, something of value that attracts us."

"For those entrepreneurs and practice professionals, gosh even selling professionals believe it or not – similar systems apply. Therefore it is important to build systems and support tools that allow you to create a universe that develops visibility and creates community."

"Why because when you create, share and dispense valuable content you become the thought leader in your universe. This makes you invincible and gets others attracted. When this occurs you create a community that flocks to you while telling others of your value. Don’t believe?"

"Great examples include the incredible community of Facebook that does not advertise, the incredible activity of Apple retail stores – the busiest store in any US retail shopping mall and yes-even celebrities. Joe Paterno’s termination created a storm of activists. This is the incredible value of creating community, they surround you, they talk about you, and they protect you."

So what are key methods for establishing visibility and community?

  1. Provide presentations to local community groups and present content congruent with your marketing message.
  2. Create a “meme” a marketing message that does not stereotype you but offers information based on your value. Email me and I will provide you a quick template to create a valuable meme.
  3. Get involved in local volunteer community programs so that your neighbors know you.
  4. Write tip sheets and articles in regional periodicals or those national periodicals for associations were you are a member or seek membership.
  5. Create alliances with others that allow you to build off of the others active network.
  6. Use a series of self-promotional integrated marketing messages that create shameless promotion on your services and value.
  7. Use the 4 to 1 referral system and achieve multiple referrals from every one person you meet.

"Just like the games when you were a child of follow the leader you must become the leader. You must build the connections, so that people follow you, believe in you and cannot move without you. When your community becomes your marketing department, you have a world you own and cannot achieve without your value."

The Most Persuasion

Persuasion is like a game of follow the leader and the strongest leader will usually have the most followers and followers means attention, traffic, opportunity, strength power and most importantly in this case; money.

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    Language of Persuasion and Covert Hypnosis

    Persuasion has a distinct language of its own.  There is a distinct language of persuasion and covert hypnosis that an individual must master in order to become really comfortable with any hypnosis technique. Today's article found on Slaw.ca (persuasion) on how to close more clients using persuasion, discusses mirroring and other anchoring techniques that speak the language of persuasion and covert hypnosis with every single word.

    persuasion

    Persuasion in the Real World

    "In his book, Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. discusses many factors that affect how persuasive you can be with others. Cialdini was also one of the authors of Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, co-authored by Noah J Goldstein and Steve J. Martin."

    "Lawyers can use these persuasive techniques to help them increase the percentage of inquiries or initial consultations that turn into paid client engagements."

    "People like people who are like themselves; they hire people that they know, like and trust. In your initial consultation, you need to build up the like and trust factors in order to increase the chances that the potential client will want to work with you by the end of the consultation."

    "In an earlier post, Who Are You Marketing To, I talked about clients being a reflection of you:"

    "People do business with people they know, like and trust. Clients are attracted to people who, at least in some ways, resemble them. In order to trust someone, you must feel comfortable that the person you’re working with shares some of your values and goals. Identifying your individual values and what you stand for can help clarify the kinds of clients that you will work best with."

    "In other words, you can identify the kinds of clients you want to work with by understanding more about yourself. In the same way, expressing an understanding of who your clients or potential clients are and what their concerns are can help persuade clients to retain you. The authors of Yes! suggest that mirroring behavior plays upon the natural inclination to like those who are similar to you; reflecting the client’s words and body language can help you seal the deal."

    "I’ve talked about “speaking your clients’ language” before (most recently in the context of networking); instead of using legal jargon or words only lawyers use, use the words your clients use. Legalese and jargon create more distance between you and your audience."

    "If your goal is to demonstrate your expertise and show potential clients and referral sources that you understand their problems and can help them, you want them to feel like they know you and that you understand them and their problems."

    "Mirroring verbal language makes clients feel understood. It increases their positive feelings toward you and makes them more likely to decide to retain you to represent them. Matching the rate and volume at which you speak to your client and mirroring their body language can further reinforce those feelings of closeness and comfort, foster rapport and can also aid in your persuasiveness."

    "Don’t make sudden or drastic changes, but be cognizant of how the potential client speaks and their body language. Be careful not to mimic or copy the other person exactly or your efforts can backfire."

    "Mirroring may not work in situations where a client is anxious or overly excited – in that case, mirroring by repeating the client’s concerns back to them, making sure that they know they have been heard and understood, but consciously not mirroring their anxiety level or rate of speech may be more persuasive."

    "In those instances, you may be more persuasive by being more calm and reassuring, and you may even be able to get them to mirror you. When the potential client begins to mirror you, you’ll know you are well on your way to being in synch and signing a new client."

    Practice Persuasion All The Time

    There are so many ways to practice the art of mirroring and the more you practice of course, the sooner you will master it. Mirror with your family and friends. Try it out on people at work or when you go out. Practice it even for few seconds with a waitress or barber. You can practice the language of persuasion and covert hypnosis almost anywhere.

     


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      Incorporate Covert Hypnosis into Your Way of Thinking

      Covert hypnosis is something you should use everyday.  To become a successful hypnotist you must incorporate covert hypnosis into your way of thinking. If you are able to do this successfully you will never worry about getting "caught" using covert hypnosis techniques. When you become confident and more natural at speakingusing covert hypnosis with people and using the powerful techniques regularly you are able to fully incorporate covert hypnosis into your way of thinking and truly make a difference in your own life and the lives of others.

      Covert Hypnosis Fears

      "A number of hypnotists newly venturing in to the arena of covert conversational hypnosis fear they will probably be caught utilizing their skills by their unwitting hypnotic subjects. This is an interesting fear to possess since it is to suggest that these hypnotists are doing something wrong or something bad, an issue that you intend to ‘get away with.’ Except this becoming very unhealthy attitude to possess towards what exactly perhaps one of essentially the most powerful vehicles for positive change and improvement there is always, it is also something of a self fulfilling prophecy."

      "Think of this, the unconscious system is highly perceptive, even when we aren t always competent to consciously access these perceptions. I am sure you know what it’s intend to see someone, even before you speak to them, and merely automatically receive a feeling about them. Maybe you’ll like them, perhaps you won’t. These feelings will seem totally unjustified, but they’ll be 100% real. If you did use covert hypnosis in an unethical manner, people would unconsciously proceeded to associate you with all the negative results of your hypnotic suggestions, and will just naturally begin to mistrust you. So, to be a matter both of ethics and of pragmatism, forever use covert and conversational hypnosis for good…"

      "So anyway, now that we’ve that out of the way, lets think about this whole ‘getting caught’ thing from another angle. Perhaps can remember or at least imagine a time when one of your friends or perhaps a family member has been upset about something. You have it to talk to them, to console them, and then they will move to you and accusingly challenge just ‘you’re just attempting to make me feel better!’ Now obviously on reflection its as straightforward to think ‘well duh! Of course i really want you to feel good, whats wrong with that!"

      "But in the moment, some of us accept the accusation for what it is, and abandon them alone for their sadness. As silly because this definitely is, it reveals to us a crucial factor when doing covert hypnosis: People hate being influenced. No matter whether you are seeking to persuade anyone to buy a car or just simply to feel good and be happy people as a rule hate knowing regarding this, frequently to their own detriment."

      covert hypnosis

      "This, obviously, presents us with another ethical dilemma. Why influence people if they prefer not to be influenced? Well keep in mind this, every day we influence people, always. We communicate with people every single day of our own lives, and take a look at and move people to make better decisions, to feel full and satisfied, to become happier and recover from their very own problems. The truth is also, many people accidentally use covert hypnotic tactics without realizing the harmful outcome of what they are doing…

      "So, given that we’ve laid the land techniques of only using covert hypnosis to be a ‘force for good’ and established that influence is known as a natural part of everyday life, a crucial skill which covert hypnosis simply means that you can master, lets get back to the stage that this short article: getting caught.

      "Firstly, avoid making the common mistake of talking differently when doing covert hypnosis. Lots of people get the idea that as soon as you begin using covert hypnosis, your entire voice and physiology must change. This is certainly only a bit silly, because, really think about it, covert hypnosis is definitely an unconscious process, so naturally your unconscious need to accomplish almost all of the work."

      "When you are consciously inside your head going “now i use a presupposition…’ you interrupt the natural hypnotic flow, you commence to sound robotic and uninteresting, you be understood as you will be delivering a prepared speech and individuals immediately realize somethings up and stop absorbing your suggestions…. let the hypnotic patterns to flow automatically from a subconscious mind, then, once your listeners are really in trance, once they ve are in love with your natural and irresistible flow of smooth suggestions you can commence to gradually lower, and deepen your problem, and set a hypnotic trigger, an anchor, which can instantly send them back into trance after you apply it…"

      Continued Here

       

      Covert Hypnosis As A Way of Life

      Incorporate covert hypnosis into your way of thinking, into your subconscious mind and let it become something you do naturally without much effort. In that way you can use covert hypnosis techniques and not alert anyone to your motives.  Covert hypnosis comes easily with practice and you won't have to worry about getting caught using covert hypnosis.

      Add your questions regarding covert hypnosis and comments below

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        How to Handle Tough Customers with Persuasion Techniques

        Persuasion techniques are valid everywhere.  Everyone needs strategies for how to handle tough customers, such as persuasion techniques. With persuasion techniques by Michael Lee, author of "How to be an Expert Persuader" (persuasion techniques) you get the chance to turn that "less than cooperative: client who may be already escalating his or her anger,  into a warm, friendly, happy client again. How? You are wondering. It' s not as hard as you think to know how to handle tough customers with persuasion techniques. 

        Persuasion Techniques

        "Persuasion techniques are essential to apply in the field of sales and marketing, as dealingwith an irrational customer is one of the toughest situations you can tackle. How do youexactly alleviate the fury of a buyer who is livid because of something you, the service or product, or your company failed to perform? This is where influence and persuasiontechniques may come in handy.Because the field of sales is not a walk in the park, there will be times when you will beshouted at, and even hurled harsh words by clients who are not satisfied."

        "Don't bealarmed. This is a normal situation. And being so, there are ways to rise above them sothat you don't break down, too.First, find out what the client is angry about. Is he complaining about your service? Is heunclear about certain points in the agreement or the product? Did the problem come fromyou or did it spring out of his frustration over something he misunderstood? What are his sentiments exactly?"

        "You can find this out by being calm with the client, no matter how irritable he is. Askpolitely what the problem is and request that he explain it to you. Don't interrupt and try todefend yourself or correct him while he explains. Wait for him to finish and then enumerateall your responses to his problems.Often, the customer does not really want to know exactly what you are doing to rectify thesituation, only that you tell him that steps are being undertaken to correct it, and when precisely this is expected to be solved."

        "One thing clients hate most is continuously waiting for solutions that are not certain to happen.When you have figured out what he needs, level with him. Building rapport with your clientis one of the best ways to get into a straight conversation with him without the flare-ups.This means adopting his current mood. If he is angry, let him know that you understand hisfeelings. If he is frustrated, empathize. Clients appreciate people who they know feel their pain. When you have succeeded in this, you can expect to have a much calmer discussion right after."

        Using Persuasion Techniques

        I just had this exact thing happen to me recently and it actually took place through emails so I was simply using written words (and persuasion techniques) to communicate which made the whole situation more challenging or easier I'm not sure.  In the end my calm reactions to his outbursts kept us moving forward and I was able to persuade him to see things differently and he apologized for reacting so rudely. Knowing how to handle tough customers with persuasion techniques can be very useful.


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          Persuasion More Effective When You Use the “Unexpected” Message

          Persuasion is more effective when you use the "unexpected message" and back it up with strong arguments. Why? People will listen and pay more attention to your message if you had and unexpected element to it. The problem is if you don't deliver something worthwhile the persuasion is lost. Swaycraft Persuasion Techniques discusses the surprise element for effective persuasion.

          Persuasion Research

          "In consumer research at least, experts can be more persuasive when they express uncertainty. Uncertainty works here because it is unexpected: we expect experts to be certain about their position because of their specialized knowledge and training."

          "Many authors suggest unexpectedness as one of the persuasion cornerstones. For example, Heath brothers make unexpectedness second element in their SUCCESs formula. (SUCCESs stands for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Story – see their bestselling Made to Stick)."

          "Overall, this is solid advice. But it can also backfire."

          "Research indeed shows that in general unexpectedness boosts persuasion. The reason: unexpected message surprises your audience; they pay more attention; the more attention they pay the more likely it is that the message will sway them."

          "In essence, people are more likely to meditate on your message if it surprises them.

          "But here is a critical requirement: your message must be supported by strong arguments. If not, your message will be ineffective or will even backfire because your audience will be more likely to spot any flaws."

          Sources:

          • Richard E. Petty, John T. Cacioppo, Rachel Goldman, “Personal Involvement as a Determinant of Argument-Based Persuasion,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 41, 847-55 (1981).
          • Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo, Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Persuasion (1986)

          Unexpected Persuasion

          I know this works with children, I used to watch my kids' pre-school teacher do this all the time. She was always prepared with a silly song or an unexpected detail, and it held the interest of most of the kids while she taught what she needed to. It's works in advertising and relationships and business, persuasion is more effective when you use the unexpected message. 
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