Candice Lee, Managing Director of True North Asia

I just had a nice coffee chat with the managing director of True North Asia. They provide alternative investment products that are usually reserved for the wealthy.

I am really impressed at how in 6 months they positioned themselves as the local market leaders and get featured prominently on newspapers.

Candice wanted me to listen to her presentation and leverage on what I know about sales pitches.

Heh, I must say I was quite impressed.

In less than 15mins she covered all 5 elements of persuasion as taught by Blair Warren in “1 Sentence Persuasion”.

Here are the 5 elements:

1) Encourage dreams

2) Justify failure

3) Confirm suspicion

4) Allay fears

5) Help throw rocks at enemies

1) Encourage dreams

Let’s face it.

We don’t buy what we need, we buy what we want.

Simply by painting an enticing future for the listener to fully associate it, you would have one foot in the door. By knowing what is important to the listener, you can very deliberately guide him/her to step through the door.

Use as many modalities as you can without sounding cheesy. Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, gustatory, olfactory… Are there more? I am not sure. But at least engage one of the five senses.

Hey you can figure what his/her dominant modality and just focus on that too. Does he always use the phrase “I see the issue here” or “It’s kinda blur to me right now”?

Hah Hah! Then go with visual elements when painting the dream!

Eg: “Hey have you ever thought about standing on the stage and seeing a sea of smiles and standing ovations washing over you? Well, the truth is, the bar is not set very high! All you need to do is learn a few core skills and you will be cream of the crop!”

2) Justify failure

This is to let the listener know why what he tried in the past did not work well.

This one is kinda tricky. You have to make sure that you do not make the listener sound like a fool for not succeeding yet. And not sound like a jerk for being the smarty pants who has the answer.

The trick is to have an emotion of empathy for what the listener went through and share his frustration.

Position your stand as a researcher / explorer who discovered what others who did not spend the same time or lack access to resources could by themselves.

This way, your listener will actually feel good that he is about to be one of the privy ones to know these facts you are about to tell.

Eg: “Hey you know how the rich always seem to get richer? And the common folk are stuck with playing with investments that have poor returns with no guarantee? Truth is that the banks do offer high returns investments with guaranteed gains but you need to qualify as a “sophisticated investor”. I.e. at least 2 million dollar networth. It was never fair game! Finally the gate is crashed. In the information age the common folk can have access to these investment choices if you know where to look and who to consult.”

3) Confirm suspicion

Yup.

You need to confess that this deal is not as perfect as it sounds. Guess what? Without you saying it, your listener is probably already thinking that!

Here is what Kevin Hogan teaches:

Give them something to focus their objections on, then destroy it!

Eg: “But there is a catch… There always is isn’t there? Well, unlike stocks or unit trusts, the typical investment vehicles, there is a high minimum sum to invest in our product. Why do you think they were reserved for the rich in the past?

“Anyway, the amount may be not small (never say high), but if you can get creative to raise the money, then you will be in the big boy’s league”

[This way they are expecting a crazy hefty amount. But when you reveal the real amount, it would seem well within reach]

4) Allay fear

Simple. Buyers want to look like they are making a SMART decision. Remember, after making a decision, they have to tell their family and friends why they did it!

Give him an irrefutable guarantee. Whatever way you can. If you can’t, then give him information that blows his socks away.

So that he can say this to his friends, “Hey, you can think I made a bad move, but did you know that according to <insert credible source here>… Well, I know what I am doing.”

5) Help throw rocks at enemies

Need I say more?

The fastest way to build rapport is to find a common enemy. That’s how Apple rally their troops. That’s how I made friends with an otherwise out of my league super pretty girl when I was in uni. Works every time.

More subtly, let your listener know that you are on their side. You are offering him a chance to prove to his naysayers wrong. Naysayers can even be the status quo! Some just loves to be different! Offering him a chance to stand out may be just the thing he needs to hear.

Read up on “Barnum Effect”. Google it. It’ll give you a good clue on what unites us all as human beings.

——————————

That’s how it’s done! Simple huh?

Go test these out in your conversations. In your persuasion attempts.

You just need to remember 5 elements.

1) Encourage dreams
2) Justify failure
3) Confirm suspicion
4) Allay fear
5) Help throw rocks at enemies

Please leave a comment, share and subscribe if you liked this post!

P.S. Candice is holding another seminar to share info and opportunities on 29 Nov 2010 in Singapore.

Email me at perry(@)Hightrustspeaking.com to get more info on it.

In this clip of 15mins, you can observe what makes a room full of
no nonsense professionals/dignitries laugh about a very sensitive
topic… Condoms.

Free 25 min webinar on public speaking training here.

I read the books and went for the seminars to learn how to be better, how to be good enough to get paid.

But it wasn’t until a one to one coaching for 20 mins with T. Harv Eker that helped me really GET it.

Harv is possibly one of the most captivating speakers and seminar pitchman today. I’ve watched seminar pitches since 2005 and I’m passionate about it.

Harv goes beyond the persuasion models and order of elements of influence. He is a performer through and through.

In our one to one coaching, he had me on the stage delivering my pitch and throughout the presentation, he barked at me.

He would suddenly stand up and give a demo of what I should have done… in the middle of my presentation… then tell me to continue from where he coached.

Every 2 sentences, he shouts:

“Boring!”

And that really sunk in.

There is no such thing as a bad speaker. The opposite of a good speaker is a boring speaker.

As a speaker, there are really simple tools that you can use to be less boring.

Just three to start with.

1. Volume

2. Rate of speech

3. Movement

Vary these 3 and you will find yourself becoming more interesting to the group.

The moment you find yourself in a pattern, you sense your audience getting into the trance you don’t want, vary one of the 3 as stated above.

When T Harv Eker speaks, this is what he does….

Now leave me a comment and share this post!

Believe me…

If there is one person who can share with you the core difference between speaking that is just “good”, and speaking that drives people to action, it’ll be me.

I was the victim of watching really boring and “old school” public speakers.

Then I attended some kick ass seminars. One of them cost me more than $15, 000 just to learn from one speaker his selling from the stage techniques. Another cost me another $5000 just to learn how to craft a powerful introduction for myself that builds rapport and credibility at the same time. Many others to give me exposure to what the greats do.

Here is the core difference that helped me move from a “boring-free-club-level-competition-contestant” to a “sought-after-workshop-leader-endorsement-getting-speaking-coach”

You ready?

Conversation.

Yup. That is just it. Conversation.

Now before you look for my home address to look for me to gore my eyes out, here is what I mean.

Old school speakers speak at the audience.

New rules of speaking dictates that you must speak WITH the audience.

What is missing from the presentations from old school speakers is that the audience is passively listening.

When it is time for them to take action, the inertia is too high!

Imagine that from the very get go you can condition your audience to have a conversation with you.

To take small low risk actions you ask them to do.

Imagine how easy it would be to eventually ask them to decide to take an action or make a decision?

Now would it be drop dead easy?

Of course not.

But at least the inertia of them getting off their butts to come chat with you or your staff to clarify before they decide is so much easier!

So my friend, as you are practicing your presentations, think about your audience.

How can you get them to interact with you early and often?

Talk to you soon!

Comment and share this post!

In order for you to do a seminar and easily close sales at the end of it, you must handle the following :

• Poor audience response
• Audience not moved to action at end of talk
• How to be interesting to the audience
• How to be credible without sounding like a show off
• How to warm audience up quickly
• How to handle tough questions on the spot
• How to build up the anticipation to the final offer
• What to say to transit smoothly
• What to say to get audience to like and trust you during the pitch
• Exactly what to say to close strongly
• What objections to cover before going into the sales pitch
• How to do the sales pitch without “turning off your audience”

Before your next seminar, make sure you go through this checklist and have a response to each of these sales killers.

“Rapport is the currency of persuasion”

This is true not only in one to one sales situation but also in a presentation setting.

So you are probably wondering…

If rapport is about matching and mirroring, increasing similiarities and decreasing differences, how do you do it with an audience…?

Well my friend, you are in luck. In this article you are going to learn the quickest, simplest and most effective method for an audience to like you as a friend and trust you with their credit cards in the first 5 mins of your presentation.

The key is to have a cleverly crafted “earn the right” story.

This story you share with your audience about yourself is to serve these purposes:

1. Your audience feels like you are one of them
2. Your audience believes that they can do it too
3. Your audience secretly wants to have what you have or do what you do

So how do you craft the story?

Here is the order:

1. Tell them your achievements
2. Tell them a confession that you were not always this brilliant
3. Tell them your failures / oversights / obstacles
4. Tell them the turning point

This way you can absolutely show off and let them drool over your achievements, but still remain humble and down to earth.

Armed with this story, you are going to earn fans and definitely, customers.

Who knows, this may even become a viral tool for you! People love to tell stories to others! Give them a worthy one!

Now start cracking on your “Earn the Right” story!

Spread the love: leave me a comment and share this post!

The trigger you are going to read about is… “Scarcity”.

It is basic human reflex that when something is in limit supply, it would seem that much more valuable to them.

In your pitch, you must put in some form of limitation. You can use quantity or duration. Something that would make them feel that they will lose out if they do not take action right now.

So that’s why more signups will happen when you apply scarcity in your presentation.

Truth be told, your audience would probably be telling themselves that the smart thing to do is to not be emotional and think about it over night.

Discuss with spouse first. Basically, slowly talk themselves out of the sale.

Your job as the persuasion artist is not to let that happen.

In the seminar world, we always tell the audience that the seats are limited due to the nature of the program. We cannot possible handle so many participants due to logistics.

As a consultant, you can tell your clients that your calendar only allows 2 more new businesses as time is needed for research and formulating a plan.

Here is a story  that shocked me!

Candice (an aquaintance) watched a brilliantly executed presentation by Robert Allen, the author of “Multiple streams of income”, and registered for his program – despite attending the free workshop just to accompany her friend!

Robert Allen had 60 empty seats in front of the stage and told the audience that he can only mentor 60 Malaysians in his time here. There were 250-300 people in the audience.

Very quickly, the seats filled and they were led to swipe their cards.

This is really cool…

There are altogether 2 psychological triggers at work here:

Scarcity and Social Proof.

Everyone can see that there are REALLY only 60 seats available.

Here is the kicker –

they can see the masses moving to the seats, filling it up fast.

Now if I was Robert Allen’s presentation consultant, I would place 10-12 of my own people in the audience and as he makes the offer, my people would stand up and fill the seats.

This give the audience an assurance that they are making a choice that other people are making too. This overcomes fear and inertia.

Warning: Please do not immediately go and replicate the method before reading this caveat.

Allen is able to pull this off partly due to the fact that he has good rapport with the audience already, and the energy of the crowd is primed to buy.

Make sure that you know the audience is compliant to your commands and the energy in the room is high and positive.

That’s right.

Do it correctly, and you can expect a buying frenzy like bargain shopping on pay day. Do it wrong… and you can start stacking chairs 10 minutes after your presentation is over…

Well, believe it or not, its now up to you to go test these out! Good luck!

Now leave me a comment and share this post!

If you can make your audience participate with energy with you, it not only makes it enjoyable training, you also make them feel happy to buy what you sell!

In this article, I am going to share with you the most effective way to get your audience’s energy level up in the first 60s of your speech or training.

When I coach my participants and clients, I have this template I want them to follow in the first 60s.

Scan -> Hook -> Appreciation

In the “Hook” section, you’ll need to get your audience to respond by raising their hands.

You’ll need to really demand that response and not let them go if they don’t. This sets the tone that you are in control.

Next, you’ll have to appreciate them for something and get them to interact with each other.

You can appreciate them for being punctual, being an active learner seeking out knowledge, or just for being there.

Then make them turn to the person next to them and say a phrase like,

“Thank you for being punctual”

or

“Thank you for being here”

This way they will be warmed up to speak and they’ll definitely be smiling. The energy in the room immediately raises by 100%.

This is especially powerful if your audience knows you are there to sell them something at the end of your presentation.

This little exercise loosens them up and warms them up to you!

This would only mean you’ll get more compliance in the training, even when you are asking them to buy your service or products at the end.

Wouldn’t that be great?

Yup, that is true…

No one will want to listen to you if you are a nobody. Luckily you are going to learn the secret of how I get millionaire speakers and bestselling authors to endorse me.

The first key is to… impress them somehow.

For Adam Khoo, I worked with him as an employee for a while and I headed his sales team. When I was working there, I made sure he knew what my value was and what my core skills were.

I created a sales team and process from scratch and generated more than half a million dollars of sales in less than 6 months for his company. I also helped run seminars and closed sales as a speaker from the stage.

If you want an endorsement, then you need to earn it first.

Start devising ways to get in contact with your admired celebrity endorser and start creating results for them.

The second key is to keep tooting your horn.

Here is something that Asians have real trouble with. The fact is, if you don’t toot your horn, then no one is going to do that for you.

Sant Qiu contacted me first. Imagine that. A full calendared celebrity author business consultant contacted me to do business with. He did not even know if I was successful or not.

But remember my article about topic?

He was very interested in the topic I claimed to be an expert in.

So here was what happened.

He contacted me to chat. Probably did that to size me up. Then he offered me a part to play in a consulting work he had. After we partnered up and consulted for that company, he was impressed enough to promise me a glowing testimonial and partnership to create a product!

All that would not have happened if I did not post on my Facebook updates regularly about what I do and results I achieved.

Now there is a way to toot your horn without sounding too much like a showoff and here is the gist of it.

State your achievements with an emotion of gratitude.

Third key is to make it easy for celeb to decide.

Here is what I mean.

This is the message I sent to Adam Khoo for the endorsement.

“Hi, Perry here I’m conducting speakers training and wanna request ur endorsement. I’ve been helping speakers generate more sales with speaking which I can’t share who due to current contract. But they are POE grads and they did $25K more in their preview with my coaching! It’ll really help this little fry to break into the league with your endorsement adam Would it be more convenient to draft out one and allow you to edit? Perry”

His reply.

“Sure. No prob”

And I got myself the endorsement! See what I did there in the message to him?

I tooted my horn. Then I was humble and grateful about it.

Just model that and see what happens for you.

Hey all you have to do is to take some action. I procrastinated for almost a year before I asked for an endorsement, which was silly it seems. Since I’ve been able to get 100% of endorsements and testimonials I request for.

If numb witted ole’ Perry can do it, you sure can.

Now think who you want to endorse you. And find some way to contact them!

And SHARE this post and leave me comments!

I am going to pull the curtain apart and reveal to you the fastest, easiest and most effective way to use a presentation to sell your products and services.

More importantly, you are going to learn how to do that without feeling guilty about asking for money at the end of your talk, and your audience actually can’t wait to buy whatever you are offering!

Sounds like a load of bull?

Well, remember… I came from the world of seminars and pitch making.

I’ve personally experienced a long line of impatient buyers worried they can’t get their spot after I made the offer.

But here is a confession…

I’ve also done presentations where I stare at my navel after it and wondered why everyone disappeared like a bomb scare!

In this post I want to first share with you what works so you can replicate, then what are the common pitfalls so you avoid the heartache (it is wrenching… for experienced presenters, you definitely know how it feels…)

First – What works

Here are the elements that must be present for you to successfully pull off a presentation that sells.

1. Control of the audience’s energy
2. Topic must interest the crowd
3. Audience convinced that you are the authority on topic
4. Audience entertained, educated and empowered by your content
5. Permission granted by audience to do your offer
6. Proof shown that your offer works
7. Urgency, scarcity or exclusivity of offer presented
8. Reverse risk – give a form of guarantee / lower the barrier of entry
9. Close strong
10. Parting story / quotation by famous person/ statement

Students of copywriting will find this order familiar.

The order of elements to incorporate into a presentation that sells is similiar to a long form sales letter. If you are not sure what I am talking about here, then you needa get your ass cracking and learn copywriting!

This field of salesmanship will literally help you turn your words into money!

You will learn how to push emotional buttons in the correct order and close sales like a machine!

There is a science to influence and it has been well researched. From Claude Hopkins to Dr. Robert Cialdini, there is no lack of laws and techniques that you can apply to presentation.

Here is a kicker…

Knowing copywriting alone will not turn you into a presentation sales machine.

It is safer to use written words to persuade because the reader cannot see your body language or hear your tonality.

They can only infer your enthusiasm with your ALL CAPS or exclamation marks. They can only infer your pause for effect with your dot dot dots…

With a live audience… you are totally naked.

You have one shot to say the right things in the right way and rub off the rigth way. There is no backspace or taking a coffee break to think up your best line.

The trust and rapport between presenter and audience is as thin as a stretched plastacine.

Once you say something that offends them or makes them feel negative about you, you are gonna suffer in your close.

The energy of the room will be so toxic that you want to skip right to the closing statements just to get off the stage. You will perspire, you will blush and you will stammer when the audience stares straight back at you and wants you to die.

Think I am exaggerating? Heh… then you must be an amateur.

Pros know when this happens. And it happens to all pros when we do this long and often enough. There will be days when we bomb.

It is impossible to always find yourself in front of an audience that adores you and your offer.

The key is to know what to do in those situations and still win.

Go take a look at what was #1 in the list of elements essential for a presentation that sells. You’ll understand what I mean here.

So how do you ensure that you say the right things in the right way?

Here’s how:

You must use these 4 Speaking Models when presenting.

1. Humble Monk/Nun
   • Humility, open-ness, building trust and likeability
2. Enthusiastic Child
   • Energetic, funny, playful
3. Inspiring Warrior
   • Motivating, charismatic, confident, certain
4. Caring Bastard
   • No excuses, sick of whiners, frustrated at other’s lack of results, disdain for mediocrity

Oh yeah… I forgot to remind you. I am potty mouthed. Deal with it.

T Harv Eker in his $10,000 4 day trainer’s training seminar teaches that you need only 2 emotional states when presenting to sell.

1. Heart
2. Enthusiasm

The 4 Speaking Models encompasses the 2 must-have emotional states.

So how do you use the 4 Models?

According to your natural speaking style, you can pick one as a dominant Model.

But for maximum effect on your audience and have them eating out of your palms, you must master all 4, and use them at key parts of your presentation. This is something I learnt as a teacher in charge of “can’t sit still” classes. If you want to hook the attention of listeners, be unpredictable. Your values stay consistent (or your audience won’t trust you), but your behavior swings like a pendulum.

If it works for ADHD-like students, it’ll definitely work for your adult listeners.

When do you use each model?

1. Humble Monk – asking for permission, asking for compliance, earning the right story
2. Enthusiastic child – teaching content, facilitating Q and A
3. Inspiring Warrior – story telling, teaching content, presenting offer
4. Caring Bastard – presenting offer

Now let’s get to the common pitfalls of presenting that kills sales faster than bygone on roaches…

1. Did not gain control of audience commitment to participation
2. No passion for topic
3. Poor energy in your speaking (A lot of amateurs says this makes them more sincere as speakers… that’s a load of crap)
4. Did not get buy in from audience before launching into teaching content
5. Did not prepare audience that offer is coming, too abrupt, no segue
6. Did not build tension during offer presentation
7. Did not research on what problems audience wants solved – offer does not entice them
8. Offer is not clear. A confused mind always says no. Recall a time when you gave up thinking when you were offered 101 choices of the same type of product? Easier to walk away wasn’t it?
9. No close in the the presentation. End up talking non stop preventing people from taking up the offer.

Well my dear reader…

This is it.

I’ve laid out pretty much a summary of everything I teach paying clients and personally do to make sales, generate leads and referrals from presentations that sell.

Please leave me a comment, feedback, or any questions I can help you with.

P.S. Actually, I am getting sleepy typing this at 1:20am… Got lazy. Just wanna close this off. I promise I will elaborate further in my future posts… stay tuned!