Trying On Someone Else's Skin
Kenrick Cleveland
We've all heard the saying, you can't know a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes. This technique is a figurative expression of that saying. It is about how to gain rapport by putting ourselves inside the person we're trying to persuade. Harper Lee wrote in To Kill a Mockingbird, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
climbing into our prospect's skin, we can share their experience, feel their affluence, understand their decision making strategies and emotional states. This helps us to give them exactly what they need through our products and services.
The other than conscious mind is a goal seeking mechanism. We have strong pattern recognition software already at our disposal. We are able to pick up characteristics of others so that when we "step inside" of them, we've already formulated an experience of them.
We can jump into another's skin by imagining yourself as them. Let your other than conscious recognize the pattern of them, understand your pattern, and blend the two.
Is it real? I don't know. I don't really care. It's a mental construct. I am making it up in my mind. I'm making up that I'm now in your body looking through your eyes.
This is one of the fastest ways of gaining rapport I have ever seen or used and specifically when we're working with the affluent, if say, we are not as wealthy as we expect we will be yet, this is a really powerful simulation.
Assume that there are a very finite number of patterns that can exist. Go to a bigger level, think 'astrological signs' or personality types or any number of systems you can work with. We have many different ways to classify people, and our pattern recognition systems seek out the limited possible combinations.
All of these constructs are speculation. They may not be accurate, but because we are with the person we're attempting to persuade, we are also able to instantly change as we understand more and more of them. We're capable of 'correcting' our image of them and changing our strategies fluidly.
When you step in, you want to leave yourself behind and see through their eyes. When you do this, it establishes rapport at a very, very profound and deep level. Once you're in them, you've really moved along the process of rapport, and you've moved it along because you're so completely identifying with all of their behaviors, and all of who they are.
One way you can make this more powerful, more tangible, is to "feel" what their clothes feel like. If the person is of the opposite sex, you might feel what their gender feels like and actually take on a few of those characteristics.
What are their physical characteristics? How does it feel to have those characteristics? Notice when you step into the other person, where you feel the connection to them. Do you feel the connection in your stomach, in your feet, in your hands, in your chest, in your head? Where do you feel the connection? By asking yourself these questions you'll deepen the rapport.
Keep this in mind before you do this: if the person is physically sick, mentally ill, or if you have the intuition that they might not be a savory character, do not jump into them. This can be hard to shake off and may stick with you in an unpleasant way.
This is incredibly powerful. Even if you're not particularly in touch with your energy, you can still use this effectively.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion strategies. Get your own completely http://www.uberarticles.com/?id=17188&b=79 unique content version of this article.
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