How much of your success depends on your ability to influence the thoughts and actions of others? Whether you have it written as part of your job title or not, we’re all in “sales”. Why not be the best that you can be? As an influencing leader, you must first realize how your influencing efforts are cursed from the start.
The Curse of Knowledge1 is a condition that comes from knowing so much about your topic that you struggle to connect with your audience. It’s easy to become cursed. When you’re a subject matter expert, you naturally assume others have a similar frame of reference. But, how could they?
In order for you to become an expert, you’ve had to immerse yourself in the details with what you do and how you do it. It can be really rewarding when you share. Rewarding for you. But maybe not for your listeners or readers.
Your listeners’ or prospective customers’ favorite frequency is WIIFM: “What’s in it for me?” If you want the potential “buyers” of your ideas, products or services to share your enthusiasm, you need to communicate their successful outcome before getting into what and how. Or why would they care?
Whether you’re selling an idea, a product or a service to another person, it helps to understand how a buyer’s mind works. Let’s first understand that buying decisions are inherently emotionally based. We typically seek to rationalize what our emotions have already decided for us. This explains the proven sequence that occurs when people make buying decisions. For a sale to be made, a person must, in sequence, buy:
To pass that #1 test of anyone’s buying process, they must buy you. If you don’t clear that first hurdle, the other two won’t matter.
What is the best way for others to buy you? Simon Sinek, author of the book Start With Why believes that “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.”
I believe that this is true whether your selling an idea or a transaction. Why? Because I “buy” what Simon Sinek believes. While his video is 18 minutes long, it is a potential game changer if you can learn to apply it.
It depends on how you start. And you well you’re able to tune in to the ever popular frequency: WIIFM.
Tom Lemanski helps accomplished leaders unlock potential, solve complex challenges, and amplify their impact.
Effective leadership is the key to driving meaningful, lasting success in a fast-changing world.
Tom’s focus on innovative strategies and self-awareness creates transformative results for leaders striving for the next level.
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