This weeks
Article....
The HIDDEN
Communications
Factor..
Its 3 in the
afternoon, a fairly tough day for you and your
next appointment shows up. A salesperson with a
service you have been considering using enters
your office. You note the strong smile and good
posture of the well dressed representative.
They engage you in a pleasant way, ask good
questions that get you thinking and ask for the
order.
You see the
service as being a good candidate and fit for
you, yet for some reason you feel uncomfortable
with saying yes to this salesperson. The
service is fine, the pricing is reasonable, yet
NO is your answer.
A few days
later you decide to go with a different service
vendor that is a bit higher in cost. As you
analyze your choices you find yourself feeling
more comfortable with this company’s
salesperson over the others you have met.
Is this
decision about price? About quality? About
value?
The studies
show, most likely not! It is about the hidden
language of communications!
Over and over
again studies show our decisions are influenced
by more than just the words spoken. The reason
is our brains can only hold and process so
much. So instead of trying to sort all this, we
unconsciously make choices based on
perceptions. Here are just a few of the other
factors found to influence our decisions:
1. The 10 Laws
of Persuasion cover many of the perceptions we
may have that influence our choices, here are a
few....
Power: How
is each party perceived by the other in
terms of power. If one perceives to have
more or less power than the other it
can affect the outcome of the conversation.
Being aware of this perception allows one
party to utilize tools to compensate for
this perception.
Expectations: Is
extremely powerful and meeting or not
meeting expectations can have a dramatic
effect on the other parties’ choices.
Perceived power is part of
this.
Friends:
What each party knows or thinks they know
about the other also effects choice. The
more familiar one is with another in some
form can move the choice in a different
direction. This can be as small an item as
having seen a face or heard a name before.
Association: How others
view you, your company and the people you
associate with will have a dramatic effect
on choice. Right or wrong, the perception
of who you associate with will have an
effect on others choices.
2. Proxemics:
The study and use of space is a huge influencer
on choices that most know little about. This is
a huge study so just a few points for your
consideration...
Position:
How you position yourself to the other
person can have a huge effect on how they
perceive you! Sit in the wrong chair and
they tend to not like you. Sit in a
different place and they are more likely to
like you! Experiments have demonstrated
this some 90% of the time!
Space: The
use of distance can change a yes to no or
no to yes. In experiments we again see a
significant change in body dynamics when
distance is changed. If one is not aware of
these changes, NO can come very quickly!
Right or
Left: The brain perceives us differently
depending upon which eye is used to view
you. Most right handed people view us
positively out the right eye and more
negatively out the left eye. Left handed
people are 50/50 on this. This is true of
one on one in an office or presenting to
large groups.
Name:
Believe it or not, people have a perception
about you just because of your name! One of
the talk shows even had an experiment on
what people thought about others based just
on their name. The results were very eye
opening and very prejudiced!
This article is
not meant to answer all the questions you may
have. There are books and books and more books
on the study of influence. The purpose is to
get you thinking and be aware that persuasion
is far more than just the words you use! Much
of it is just being discovered and investigated
in last few years.
Attached to
this week’s article are several other items on
this topic.
Check out
Derren Browns video, do
you really observe everything going on
around you?
Dr. Kevin
Hogan has a new book just on this topic.
His release has lots of additional bonus
material available to you.
www.kevinhogan.com/promo
If your in
our local area, the Leadership
Strategies program gives you
skills and insights into this area.
The main issue
is to be aware that more than just the words we
use influence others. Many times they are the
least important!
Till next week,
keep the eyes and ears open, the mouth closed!
Harlan Goerger,
Co-author, The Selling Gap
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