PERREAULT Magazine APR | MAY 2015 | Page 62

How to avoid your own pitfalls

To avoid activating your own fear centers when you are the sales person, you must be proficient in 3 things:

1) Knowledge: you must know and understand what you are trying to sell. The more prepared you are the less likely someone will surprise you with a question or comment you won't know the answer to.

2) Confidence: this one goes in hand with number 1. The more knowledge you have, the more confident you will feel. You must show your client that you are confident without stepping the boundaries of being overconfident which can end their ability to like you.

3) Communication: you must be able to communicate effectively. I don't mean just talking to the client but also using effective communication tools such as visuals and positive emotional charged content. The more they understand you, the further away from fear they are and the closer to trust you they will be.

Communication can be

dissected into 5 elements:

1- Emotions:

the more positive emotions you can elicit, the closer that client will be to you. Emotions are stored in your memory centers together with the events that triggered those emotions. The more emotional events we experience in life, the more memories we form. Subconsciously our decisions are influenced by stored events and the emotions they elicited. Our brains love patterns. If we have a memory of an event that triggered a happy response, whenever we encounter a similar event our brain will subconsciously guide us to make a decision to that it can enjoy that happy feeling again.

2- Visual:

we are very visual creatures. We process visual Inputs much faster than anything else hence a visual image can elicit a quicker decision. You can use storytelling to paint a picture of a present memory in their minds which will most likely trigger the resurgence of a similar memory they had or even create a new pleasant one.

3- Contrast:

comparing and contrasting gives people a point of reference. It also allows people to compare with their own personal experiences. The more contrast you show the more obvious your point becomes.

4- Experiment:

you might not be able to use this element in every occasion, but for the most part you will. There is nothing better than hands on experience. If you are selling a product let the client try it, use it, and test it. When we touch things and feel them our brain immediately assumes it is ours. Why do you think car sales people let you test drive the cars?

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