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Casual Articles - Have You Successfully Anchored Your Sales Associations: You Could Be Losing Millions
I love the game of sales. In fact I am fascinated by people's traditional beliefs on sales and what it means to them. One of the most common areas of challenge that I come up against time and time again when working with business owners and business groups revolves around the basics of ‘getting business through the door' which is an absolutely critical area of any business. This is determined by the business owner's (and their respective teams) beliefs around the area of sales.So here's a question for you: What are the top three words that come to mind when I say ‘salesperson'? Yes, they've just popped right up there inside your head - just pause for a second right now...and write them down.Who thought ‘pushy', ‘arrogant', ‘dishonest' etc.? When I ask this question to groups of business owners, over 90% of the comments made are well...slightly on the negative side !It's no wonder then (if we have grown up with an internal belief system such as this) that many of us have a bit of an issue ‘selling' to others. In fact, we try not to be all th
Think of these symbols as you read the list and pay attention to the feelings, memories, attitudes, and experiences they trigger in your mind:
Crucifix -- Star of David
Statue of Liberty -- World Trade Center
American flag -- Swastika
Military uniform -- Olympics
Wedding dress -- Christmas tree
When you are trying to mold attitude as a persuader, it is useful to know how symbols shape the attitudes of your audience. Make careful study and research of the symbols you want to use before you employ them. If used well, they will influence your audience's feelings and behavior to your benefit. Marketing and advertising executives use symbols in a very sophisticated way to manipulate consumers. For example, did you know that the average child recognizes McDonald's' arches before he or she is even twenty months old? There are symbols of freedom, symbols of success, and symbols of poverty. Find and us
1. Do the moneymaking things first.For an entrepreneur, generating income is the most important job. Without income, your business will cease to exist.2. Develop a sales and marketing plan.What are you selling? Who is going to buy it? Where and how will you find them? Establish your sales goals, and then view your plan as your map to reach those goals.3. Follow your sales and marketing plan.While plans do sometimes change, one of the biggest challenges faced by entrepreneurs is how to be proactive rather than merely reactive. Having a plan in place and following it allows the entrepreneur to move the business forward.4. Do at least three things every day to promote your business.In the immediacy of day-to-day business life, it is easy to let sales and marketing activities fall by the wayside. Keeping on top of and servicing existing accounts seems to always take precedence over developing new accounts. But without new accounts, there are no future accounts! Keep your momentum by doing at least three s
An anchor can be produced either externally or internally. Anchors don't have to be conditioned over a period of several years to be established. They can be learned in a single event. The more powerful the experience, the stronger the anchor will be. Phobias are an excellent example: Most phobias are established after one single, intense experience. Here we'll talk about three different sets of anchors: smells, music, and symbols. There are other elements (sights and taste) that can be used as anchors, but these three anchors stimuli are the most powerful stimuli in evoking memories in our minds.
Our sense of smell is so powerful that it can quickly trigger associations with memories and emotions. Our olfactory system is a primitive sense that is wired directly to the center of our brain. By four to six weeks, infants can tell the difference between their own mother's scent and that of a stranger. Almost everyone has experienced situations in which a smell evoked a nostalgic (or not so nostalgic) memory. Think of the smells that take you back to your childhood. For some it is the smell of fresh baked bread, of freshly cut grass, or of the neighborhood swimming pool, etc. You can go back fifty years in a matter of seconds with the sense of smell.
Fragrances, aromas, and odors trigger memories, feelings, and attitudes in our minds. Smell can enhance or reinforce desired responses as well as positive and negative moods. There are multiple examples of this. Supermarkets with bakeries fill the air with the warm aroma of breads and coffee. Some children's stores send baby powder through the air ducts. When you walk through the mall, the food merchants will make sure you smell their cookies, cinnamon rolls, and Chinese food. Real estate agents are famous for having homeowners bake bread before they have interested buyers tour the house. Large amusement parks will pipe in certain scents at certain times of the day to trigger responses and get immediate reaction. The use of smell in these instances is an attempt to link the seller's products and services with a positive attitude, thereby inducing the shopper to buy. In the same way, you can link positive smells with your message to create a positive attitude in your prospects.
There have been numerous studies conducted on the bearing scent and fragrance have on association. A 1983 study conducted among undergraduate students found that female students wearing perfume were rated as more attractive by male students. Scents were even found to improve scores on job evaluations in a study published by the Journal of Applied Psychology. Of course, offensive odors can also be used (and actually have been used) to evoke a negative response. This tactic was once used while campaign committees were rating and appraising political slogans. Not surprisingly, ratings for the slogans went down.
We live in an especially symbolic world. Symbols bypass our thoughts and our logic and they affect our perceptions and behaviors. Take gold, for example. As one of the world's most precious metals, gold is very symbolic of wealth and success. Countless stories are told of the search for gold. But, if you stop and think about it, there are other precious metals that are harder to find and far more precious. Gold, however, just holds a certain symbolism; it denotes success and wealth.
Symbols can also help us understand and feel a message without actually having to undergo the experience. For example, a skull and crossbones on poison says it all--we don't have to ingest the poison to know of the fatal experience. The simple symbol of a red stop sign triggers an automatic response. For many, the sight of a police car on the highway will also trigger the automatic braking response.
Think of these symbols as you read the list and pay attention to the feelings, memories, attitudes, and experiences they trigger in your mind:
Crucifix -- Star of David
Statue of Liberty -- World Trade Center
American flag -- Swastika
Military uniform -- Olympics
Wedding dress -- Christmas tree
When you are trying to mold attitude as a persuader, it is useful to know how symbols shape the attitudes of your audience. Make careful study and research of the symbols you want to use before you employ them. If used well, they will influence your audience's feelings and behavior to your benefit. Marketing and advertising executives use symbols in a very sophisticated way to manipulate consumers. For example, did you know that the average child recognizes McDonald's' arches before he or she is even twenty months old? There are symbols of freedom, symbols of success, and symbols of poverty. Find and use
Do you have piles of business cards from other people? Maybe they are neatly arranged in a Rolodex, cardboard box or business card case or in small piles around your office, in your briefcase or in the pocket of the suit you wore to the last event. Hint: they aren't doing you any good there. But how do you take advantage of the gold that's in those piles?The key is to develop a system that makes sense to you and that you can mine for information when you need it. So dedicate an hour or so and collect all your cards from various sources. As you go through them, put them into piles. I'm suggesting some categories below, but you may also come up with some of your own.I-Don't-Know-Why-I-Have-This-Card Pile: When you look at a card and you have no idea why you have it and you can't remember the face behind the card, it's time to dump it in the recycle bin. If it is someone you are meant to work with, they will come back into your life.Referral Pile: These are people you have purchased goods or services from that you might recommend to othe
Our sense of smell is so powerful that it can quickly trigger associations with memories and emotions. Our olfactory system is a primitive sense that is wired directly to the center of our brain. By four to six weeks, infants can tell the difference between their own mother's scent and that of a stranger. Almost everyone has experienced situations in which a smell evoked a nostalgic (or not so nostalgic) memory. Think of the smells that take you back to your childhood. For some it is the smell of fresh baked bread, of freshly cut grass, or of the neighborhood swimming pool, etc. You can go back fifty years in a matter of seconds with the sense of smell.
Fragrances, aromas, and odors trigger memories, feelings, and attitudes in our minds. Smell can enhance or reinforce desired responses as well as positive and negative moods. There are multiple examples of this. Supermarkets with bakeries fill the air with the warm aroma of breads and coffee. Some children's stores send baby powder through the air ducts. When you walk through the mall, the food merchants will make sure you smell their cookies, cinnamon rolls, and Chinese food. Real estate agents are famous for having homeowners bake bread before they have interested buyers tour the house. Large amusement parks will pipe in certain scents at certain times of the day to trigger responses and get immediate reaction. The use of smell in these instances is an attempt to link the seller's products and services with a positive attitude, thereby inducing the shopper to buy. In the same way, you can link positive smells with your message to create a positive attitude in your prospects.
There have been numerous studies conducted on the bearing scent and fragrance have on association. A 1983 study conducted among undergraduate students found that female students wearing perfume were rated as more attractive by male students. Scents were even found to improve scores on job evaluations in a study published by the Journal of Applied Psychology. Of course, offensive odors can also be used (and actually have been used) to evoke a negative response. This tactic was once used while campaign committees were rating and appraising political slogans. Not surprisingly, ratings for the slogans went down.
We live in an especially symbolic world. Symbols bypass our thoughts and our logic and they affect our perceptions and behaviors. Take gold, for example. As one of the world's most precious metals, gold is very symbolic of wealth and success. Countless stories are told of the search for gold. But, if you stop and think about it, there are other precious metals that are harder to find and far more precious. Gold, however, just holds a certain symbolism; it denotes success and wealth.
Symbols can also help us understand and feel a message without actually having to undergo the experience. For example, a skull and crossbones on poison says it all--we don't have to ingest the poison to know of the fatal experience. The simple symbol of a red stop sign triggers an automatic response. For many, the sight of a police car on the highway will also trigger the automatic braking response.
Think of these symbols as you read the list and pay attention to the feelings, memories, attitudes, and experiences they trigger in your mind:
Crucifix -- Star of David
Statue of Liberty -- World Trade Center
American flag -- Swastika
Military uniform -- Olympics
Wedding dress -- Christmas tree
When you are trying to mold attitude as a persuader, it is useful to know how symbols shape the attitudes of your audience. Make careful study and research of the symbols you want to use before you employ them. If used well, they will influence your audience's feelings and behavior to your benefit. Marketing and advertising executives use symbols in a very sophisticated way to manipulate consumers. For example, did you know that the average child recognizes McDonald's' arches before he or she is even twenty months old? There are symbols of freedom, symbols of success, and symbols of poverty. Find and us
Less than 20% of companies implementing any form of Lean related improvement programme manage to achieve worthwhile results. Effectively, 80% or more of companies fail to complete the Lean Marathon!My experiences of working with a wide range of manufacturing and service sectors companies who have suffered problems with their improvement programmes has led me to the realisation that to be truly successful at implementing any form of improvement programme (including Lean) and achieve sustainable results in the medium to long-term, an organisation must display three key attributes:1: Effective Skills: This is concerned with ensuring the organisation has sufficient understanding of the techniques and processes to be implemented. Companies with high levels of skill usually have access to one or more well trained facilitators who will lead the change process and will also carry out the training for the rest of the staff so that they have a basic understanding of the tools and techniques to be applied. Companies with high levels of skill have the
There have been numerous studies conducted on the bearing scent and fragrance have on association. A 1983 study conducted among undergraduate students found that female students wearing perfume were rated as more attractive by male students. Scents were even found to improve scores on job evaluations in a study published by the Journal of Applied Psychology. Of course, offensive odors can also be used (and actually have been used) to evoke a negative response. This tactic was once used while campaign committees were rating and appraising political slogans. Not surprisingly, ratings for the slogans went down.
We live in an especially symbolic world. Symbols bypass our thoughts and our logic and they affect our perceptions and behaviors. Take gold, for example. As one of the world's most precious metals, gold is very symbolic of wealth and success. Countless stories are told of the search for gold. But, if you stop and think about it, there are other precious metals that are harder to find and far more precious. Gold, however, just holds a certain symbolism; it denotes success and wealth.
Symbols can also help us understand and feel a message without actually having to undergo the experience. For example, a skull and crossbones on poison says it all--we don't have to ingest the poison to know of the fatal experience. The simple symbol of a red stop sign triggers an automatic response. For many, the sight of a police car on the highway will also trigger the automatic braking response.
Think of these symbols as you read the list and pay attention to the feelings, memories, attitudes, and experiences they trigger in your mind:
Crucifix -- Star of David
Statue of Liberty -- World Trade Center
American flag -- Swastika
Military uniform -- Olympics
Wedding dress -- Christmas tree
When you are trying to mold attitude as a persuader, it is useful to know how symbols shape the attitudes of your audience. Make careful study and research of the symbols you want to use before you employ them. If used well, they will influence your audience's feelings and behavior to your benefit. Marketing and advertising executives use symbols in a very sophisticated way to manipulate consumers. For example, did you know that the average child recognizes McDonald's' arches before he or she is even twenty months old? There are symbols of freedom, symbols of success, and symbols of poverty. Find and us
SORRY…WERE YOU SAYING SOMETHING?Many spokespeople approach media interviews the same way they would a major speech. They think at length about what they want to say, jot down a few notes, and try to memorize a few key points.But they rarely practice how they’re going to deliver their messages. It’s often a fatal mistake.Here’s a shocking truth: how you say something during a broadcast interview is more important than what you say.Research has borne this out for decades. UCLA Professor Albert Mehrabian’s landmark study in the 1960s examined how people derive meaning from communications. The release of the findings, still taught in virtually every university’s Communications 101 class, is still regarded as a watershed moment in communications. Dr. Mehrabian found that:7 percent of meaning is derived from word choice. 38 percent of meaning is taken from verbal cues, such as volume, pitch and pace. 55 percent of meaning results from non-verbal cues, including body language, eye contact, gestures, and appearance.NOBODY’S L
We live in an especially symbolic world. Symbols bypass our thoughts and our logic and they affect our perceptions and behaviors. Take gold, for example. As one of the world's most precious metals, gold is very symbolic of wealth and success. Countless stories are told of the search for gold. But, if you stop and think about it, there are other precious metals that are harder to find and far more precious. Gold, however, just holds a certain symbolism; it denotes success and wealth.
Symbols can also help us understand and feel a message without actually having to undergo the experience. For example, a skull and crossbones on poison says it all--we don't have to ingest the poison to know of the fatal experience. The simple symbol of a red stop sign triggers an automatic response. For many, the sight of a police car on the highway will also trigger the automatic braking response.
Think of these symbols as you read the list and pay attention to the feelings, memories, attitudes, and experiences they trigger in your mind:
Crucifix -- Star of David
Statue of Liberty -- World Trade Center
American flag -- Swastika
Military uniform -- Olympics
Wedding dress -- Christmas tree
When you are trying to mold attitude as a persuader, it is useful to know how symbols shape the attitudes of your audience. Make careful study and research of the symbols you want to use before you employ them. If used well, they will influence your audience's feelings and behavior to your benefit. Marketing and advertising executives use symbols in a very sophisticated way to manipulate consumers. For example, did you know that the average child recognizes McDonald's' arches before he or she is even twenty months old? There are symbols of freedom, symbols of success, and symbols of poverty. Find and us
I'm an alumni of Boston University Graduate School of Management, so I receive the Alumni magazine Bostonia. To be honest, that doesn't mean I read it faithfully at all. But this issue was different. George Labovitz, a professor in organizational behavior at the school wrote an article recently on his research into the application of alignment to achieve extraordinary results in organizations.He caught me with the first sentence: "More than thirty years of research has shown that aligned and integrated organizations outperform their nearest competitors in every major financial measure."He admitted not many organizations do it, but those that utilize it well also realize a significant competitive advantage!By definition: alignment is the optimal state in which strategy, people, customers, and key processes work in concert to propel growth and profits. When business leaders implement this kind of alignment, the whole organization enjoys greater customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, greater returns for investors. To do this, they de-em
Think of these symbols as you read the list and pay attention to the feelings, memories, attitudes, and experiences they trigger in your mind:
Crucifix -- Star of David
Statue of Liberty -- World Trade Center
American flag -- Swastika
Military uniform -- Olympics
Wedding dress -- Christmas tree
When you are trying to mold attitude as a persuader, it is useful to know how symbols shape the attitudes of your audience. Make careful study and research of the symbols you want to use before you employ them. If used well, they will influence your audience's feelings and behavior to your benefit. Marketing and advertising executives use symbols in a very sophisticated way to manipulate consumers. For example, did you know that the average child recognizes McDonald's' arches before he or she is even twenty months old? There are symbols of freedom, symbols of success, and symbols of poverty. Find and use the symbols you need to create the proper association with your prospect.
Music is much like smells in that our brains link music with attitudes and experiences from our past. Music is closely tied to our emotions. Think of the theme music from Rocky and then think of Jaws; the two movie themes evoke different emotions, don't they? Local gyms pipe upbeat music outside to get passersby to associate it with high energy and good times inside. In one case, a local convenience store had problems with teenagers loitering outside. The store wanted the teenagers business, but didn't want the drugs and fights that seemed to go with it. They decided to play a Frank Sinatra song outside the store and soon found that the teenagers voluntarily stopped loitering. You may still remember that particular song played during the dance with your high school flame. Music has a powerful pull on us and triggers instant memories.
Because music is so powerful, persuaders need to carefully select the music they're going to use. Advertisers often use a popular song or a catchy jingle. Notice the next time you watch television how many songs you recognize from all the commercials--you will be surprised. Every time the ad is played, the tune reinforces the product's appeal. Music is universal because it has the power to evoke the emotions shared by all of humanity. We know music can soothe the savage beast by creating instant energy and excitement.
Application Questions
What anchors are you going to use with your audience or prospect? Will these anchors invoke the right experience with your prospects and customers?
What smells, scents, and fragrances can you use to trigger the right anchors and emotions during your persuasive presentation?
What music or sounds can you use to trigger the right anchors and emotions during your persuasive presentation?
Conclusion
Persuasion is the missing puzzle piece that will crack the code to dramatically increase your income, improve your relationships, and help you get what you want, when you want, and win friends for life. Ask yourself how much money and income you have lost because of your inability to persuade and influence. Think about it. Sure you’ve seen some success, but think of the times you couldn’t get it done. Has there ever been a time when you did not get your point across? Were you unable to convince someone to do something? Have you reached your full potential? Are you able to motivate yourself and others to achieve more and accomplish their goals? What about your relationships? Imagine being able to overcome objections before they happen, know what your prospect is thinking and feeling, feel more confident in your ability to persuade.
Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available!
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