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!

Hey you know the litmus test to your passion?

Here is my opinion:

When you feel like “nails scratching on black board” painfully difficult to listen to a badly structured and delivered seminar and sales pitch.

I don’t even think I was grammatically correct there, but I am gonna leave that there. Coz that is how I felt.

I spent $20 listening to a really dull and uneventful seminar today. I know. That was a cheap one. What should I expect right?

Hey, I remembered that I held $37 FULL day seminars delivering kickass content that got 100% raving testimonials, and I even bought them stationary to write notes with!

Anyway, I am going to list down all the mistakes this presenter did so you do not torture your audience like him ever….

Fatal Mistakes That Will Make Your Audience Want to Kill You For Wasting Their Life Listening to You

1. Starting your talk 30mins late. Your listener might have taken great effort to reach on time.
2. Not telling your audience your request for participation and why you want it.
   • When you start demanding for it just because the energy in the room died… it is just painful to watch you suffer up there.
3. Not planning your segue from content to pitch
4. Giving a Q and A before your pitch. I mean really? Seriously, nothing worse than a Q and A to kill energy and get asked questions you may not have answers to…
5. Not stating the offer clearly! Actually come to think of it… I don’t think there was even an offer made. It was just “Here, look at the 15,000 points on my ppt slide. Decipher what it means yourself. Don’t bother about benefits, coz I dunno what they are myself…”
6. Allowing admin announcements right after your close in YOUR seminar. I mean seriously, this baffles me. I can understand if you are speaking in another person’s event and you follow their rules, but this is YOURS!
7. Not answering questions because you want them to sign up for your course. Hey, if they can learn everything in the 10 min Q and A, you don’t really have a course. On the other hand, if you don’t have the answer, say so. We are speakers, not sages. We don’t have to have the answer to everything.

But I do appreciate the plug he gave to me in the seminar when I gave a response. He is a nice man. But really gets on my nerves when he speaks…. I don’t know how to tell him to take some coaching without …. I dunno man… ok rant over.

I don’t want to leave you on this note.

I have written some post that I feel would be useful for him, and you too, if you are into speaking for business.

Here is a checklist to help you plan your next presentation for profits.

Here is a mini report on what you MUST do to make money from speaking.

Till the next post, talk to you soon.

Perry

P.S. Hey, let’s work to stop the torture to ears everywhere. Please comment and share this post!

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

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?