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Getting Personal |
By:
Kenrick Cleveland |
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getting personal
Kenrick Cleveland
In business, we have rules of decorum, obviously, but I am of the opinion that some rules were meant to be bent. Not broken entirely, but molded and bent to suit your persuasive needs.
"Professional decorum" dictates that we don't get too personal with our clients and prospects. But I truly believe that the people we work with and sell to are really craving that personal touch.
Adding storytelling to your business interactions is one way to build and keep amazing relationships that will last a lifetime.
One of my favorite ways to create fast and powerful rapport is to start with the following statement: "Let me share a secret with you. . ." A secret? I like secrets. They're exciting. And doesn't the word 'secret' sort of compel you to want to know more? Sharing a secret with someone makes them feel special.
Working 'secrets' and personal anecdotes (nothing absurd, but definitely pointed and geared toward the matter at hand) speeds up our client's and prospect's trust in us as the answer to their needs.
When I'm teaching students on coaching calls and in seminars, I, on occasion, open up and tell a few stories about some serious and regrettable mistakes I made in the past as they relate to persuasion and sales. These stories are uncomfortable for me to recall, but are very important in putting out there as I am most interested in training people to be persuasive in the right way, with honesty and integrity being at the top of the list. These stories are not easy to recount because I did some things I'm not proud of as a young man. I consider them to be hard earned learning experiences and having overcome them is something I am very grateful for. Learning from my past and overcoming these incongruencies in the way I am inside and the way I act in the world, is valuable for people learning persuasion to understand--as in, here's what *not* to do.
Getting into the more personal aspects of storytelling is only part of persuasion. I am always certain to step outside of my first person narratives and explain how personal storytelling is an art. When you think about it, you can be an artist of almost anything. You can be an artist of business, an artist of personal relationships, an artist of persuasion, an artist in the kitchen, an artist with actual art supplies. When we start to think of all of life as a creative canvas, magical things can happen as a result. Some of the creativity we express is natural, other bits of our creativity, we've had to nurture and grow. I can tell you this: I was not born the persuader I am today. I've literally put years of practice into attaining the level of expertise I have today and each day I am grateful again for having put the time into learning such an amazing art.
My suggestion. . . find a personal story that relates to your business and start relating it to your prospects and clients. Watch how this quickens rapport and trust by magnitudes. We all crave a good story.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent prospects 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.
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Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article71398.html |
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