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Empathy And Persuasion |
By:
Kenrick Cleveland |
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Empathy: The ability to identify with and experience the vicarious feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another person.
This has had untold benefits in my persuasion for years and now I'm sharing it with you.
First, an exercise to get into the mindsets of our affluent clientele. . .
This is about responding to your client or prospect's experiences. In a previous article I wrote about the pink bubble, and how to use that for rapport building. Well, in this exercise, we're going to figuratively experience what they experience.
And when you do this, you build up in your prospects and clients a huge amount of trust. Rapport is right around the corner.
By employing this technique, you'll be able to naturally understand and gain deep rapport with someone you don't know very well.
For this exercise you'll need a partner. Here's the set up:
Ask your partner to think of anything. Call it 'A'. Notice how their body is arranged - facial features, breathing, muscle tension, gestures, etc. - and take a mental snapshot. This is how they represent thought 'A'.
After you've got your mental snapshot, break their state by having them look around the room or walk around and name three things they can see. This helps them to reorient, get their mind off 'A' and return to their normal state.
Now, have them think of something qualitatively different, though not necessarily opposite. Call it 'B'.
[NOTE: When you first do this exercise thinking of the opposite may make it easier, but I encourage you to develop your skills and not use something opposite once you've got the hang of it.]
Have them break this state.
Here's where things get interesting. Have them think of either 'A' or 'B'. They're not supposed to tell you which, but you are to figure this out by looking at their expressions, their snapshot.
Switch roles after a few tries and let them experience what you're thinking. This exercise helps you really know the people you're dealing with.
Of course you're not going to practice this and role play with your prospects. This is an exercise to fine-tune your observation skills and should be done with friends or co-workers.
Eventually you'll be able to recognize the smallest of changes in their states as you talk with them.
Although they will not be able to pin point the feeling they get, they will feel connected to you.
What's the point? It's just another way to gain fast and powerful rapport at the same time putting your prospect into a state where they are feeling understood.
You can also use this to determine if someone's lying to you.
If someone explains that their finances are "perfect" but they are slouched or some other physical clue tells you they're being incongruous, this is really a dead giveaway that they don't have an ideal financial picture.
You can use this along with other persuasion strategies to gain that deep sense of trust and rapport with your prospects getting to the heart of their needs, wants and desires, with your product or service becoming the answer they were looking for.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques. Click here to get your own unique version of this article.
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Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article56241.html |
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