http://www.mrpresenter.com/en-gbThu, 7 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMThttp://www.mrpresenter.com/blog/39/the+psychology+of+a+yes/The holy grail of selling is taking the prospective client on a journey with your communication, asking questions, understanding answers, providing solutions, negotiating then getting that all important ......YES! THE STUDENT STUDY Many years ago, a study was done at one of the major US universities. They took 100 students, the only selection criteria was that the students had a student loan. Each student was asked the following questions: "would you allow a 5% increase to be added to your student loan repayment?" And... "would you allow a 5 hour increase to your lecture program per week?" CONFIRMING In a group of that size, the law of averages coupled with human behaviour meant that a small number said, "Yes!" - 3 people to be precise. What happened next was the following: They split the remaining students into 3 groups. Group 1 were asked to go into a room for one hour. Once they we're in the room, they were subjected to listening to slow paced, rhythmic classical music for one hour. Group 2 were asked to go into a different room for one hour. Once they were in the room, they were subjected to listening to pop music for one hour. Group 3 were asked to Go into a different room for one hour. Once they were in the room, they were subjected to listening to rock music for one hour. TIME UP - WHAT HAPPENED NEXT... Once the time was up, each group was asked to leave the room and when leaving then building, each student was asked: "would you allow a 5% increase to be added to your student loan repayment?" And... "would you allow a 5 hour increase to your lecture program per week?" From Group 1, 26% of students responded with a "Yes" From Group 2, 32% of students responded with a "Yes" From Group 3, 41% of students responded with a "Yes" HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? In the classical music room, the rhythm of the music caused the students to engage with it and naturally, when people "get into the music" their heads start "bobbing along" or "nodding" to the music. In the pop music room, the slightly greater rhythm of the music caused more "head bobbing / nodding" to occur. In the rock music room, the even greater rhythm of the music caused EVEN GREATER "head bobbing / nodding" to occur. CONDITIONING Head bobbing / nodding is equivalent to a non verbal yes response What occurred, many years ago in that university was a conditioning experiment. The students had been in an environment which caused head nodding to occur over a duration of time. Due to the fact that the pattern of behaviour, nodding (you'll note that pop and rock music would cause more nodding an classical music, hence the % increase) had been so constant for the amount of time allocated to the experiment, that as soon as they were asked the questions, immediately after being in that environment, their non verbal responses were still tuned in to what was going on in the room and they continued the pattern of behaviour that had formed. In other words, they had been programmed to respond more favourably. RELEVANCE TO SALES I'm not suggesting you take music to your client meetings here. What I am suggesting is that a clever use of pacing statements and closed questions at certain points in your communication can create this phenomena, or at least, maximise the opportunity to attain a "Yes" response. Thu, 7 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMThttp://www.mrpresenter.com/blog/2/what+are+vak+predicates%3f/ Tue, 3 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://www.mrpresenter.com/blog/4/candidate+profiling/ As the recruitment sales sector becomes even more competitive, those who will be successful are the ones that ‘take time’ to really understand their clients and candidates. Speaking to you as a recruiter with over 10 years experience of selling consultancy services, it took me a while to figure it out, but when I did, what a difference it made. Matching candidates to job specs and companies is not enough! Depending on the vertical market you operate in, some markets provide an over subscription of candidates and others don’t. With competition for jobs high and clients aware that some agencies will drop their fees for the opportunity to do business, its mission critical that agents, consultants, recruiters are equipped with the latest tools to really make sure that when they get a shot at filling a role, they get a return on the effort they put in to sourcing for that role. Knowing a client and candidate ’strategies’ is THE road to placement success! As human beings, we run individual sets of strategies – how we are motivated, how we make decisions, what our work preference is, whether we primarily agree to disagree or disagree to agree and many others. In a recruitment sales context, knowing the questions to ask that get the responses which enable ’successful candidate and client management ’ throughout the sourcing process by identifying how to present the solution to that person is the difference that makes the difference between clients and candidates ’sticking or straying.’ Many recruiters ask the question, ‘What are you looking to achieve from your next role?’ as well as ‘What is important to you from your next position?’ and if you are reading this and don’t, then in my opinion you are flying by the proverbial seat of one’s pants. These questions elicit a persons ‘values’ – the triggers/hot buttons of a persons make up, the things that they need to move, their criteria. Taking this a step further, its possible to find out how a person is motivated (towards objectives or away from the consequences of non-achievement) by asking ‘why’ the thing they have stated as important is important to that person. Still with me?? Let’s put it this way – telling someone ‘what they will get’ from their next role, when their motivation strategy is ‘away from’ means that the communication offered is not in alignment with their personal make up. On the other hand, telling a person what they don’t want to have when their strategy focuses on attaining/achieving DOES NOT create the level of rapport a recruiter needs with candidate or client. In the same breath, focusing on the job tasks and ’specifics’ of a role to a ‘people orientated’ person means that candidates may deflect fantastic roles because you as a recruiter, failed to spot that this person is a ‘people person.’ You’ve got to ask these questions – if you don’t, others will! Taking time out to learn what questions to ask and what responses you get when you ask them to determine what ‘type’ a client or candidate is yields massive results. As the saying goes ‘People buy from People’ and it’s down to you to make sure you can profile a person to sell opportunities to those people – as they prefer to be sold to. Fortunately, that’s what we do at Mr Presenter so you can do this easily.Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT