Calibration Effect
Kenrick Cleveland
Back, twenty some years ago when I was selling gym memberships, there was a trainer who was a great guy, really funny and sociable, but he just never understood how to communicate with certain people. In a way, he was genuinely himself all the time, but on the other hand this often brought him right up against a wall where he was ineffective in his job.
What I didn't know then, that I know now, was that he had a problem with calibration. Calibration is simply an aspect of rapport.
Calibration refers to the process by which you fine tune yourself to the movements, cadence, tone, rhythm, etc., of another person. If I notice that you are a person who sighs a lot, I'm going to sigh and breathe a little deeper than normal. If you're a twitcher or someone who fidgets, I'm going to get a little fidgety to match you.
The calibration effect refers to the impact we have on those around us as well as their effect on us. When we are out of sync, we often manifest problems. By checking in with our own state and the states of those around us, we pick up a wealth of information.
In essence, calibration is akin to a working with a person's energy.
Recently I posted an article with the exercise of 'trying on someone else's skin'. By becoming one with our potential clients we speed up trust and rapport incredibly. The response I get most often when I do this is 'Man, it feels like we've known each other forever.'
When that level of calibration is achieved, it's almost impossible to limit ourselves to this incarnation, meaning, 'Wow, man, did we know each other in a past life?' Even if you're not a subscriber to this way of thinking, the feeling your potential (fill in the blank) will come away with is, 'This person is like me. This person is comfortable to me. I trust this person. I want to do business (or work with, or buy from, or do other things with) this person.'
Another phenomenal calibration exercise I posted an article about is the concept of surrounding ourselves in pink bubbles. This is a mutual calibration which encompasses both you and your prospect or client and evens out the level of energy between you again creating an instant trust and rapport.
Many of us work a lot with groups of people and for this I have a third rapport building/calibration exercise called 'Group Rapport-Shovel it Up, Filter it Out'. This is a hot one and I absolutely used it most recently in Vegas with phenomenal results. For one thing, my energy was supercharged the entire time (until I sat down after the third full day and thought, 'Uh oh, I shouldn't have stopped. It's going to be hard to get up now.')
So go back and check out these posts. You're going to really be able to internalize the importance of calibration in the process of rapport and your results are going to skyrocket.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques 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 techniques.
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