Learning to use these three persuasive words will help you win more debates, control more meetings, close more deals, and elevate your selling skills beyond expectations.
Several years ago, I discovered three words that have proved to be the most persuasive in almost any conversation. They were highlighted in a chapter from a book called "27 Powers of Persuasion", by Chris St. Hilaire and Lynette Padwa. When I discovered these words, I began to use them in all of my meetings with clients as a way to control the conversation and to deal with unexpected situations that would sometimes develop. Specifically, when a client would start to dive deeper into the details of a topic that either I did not yet have much knowledge about or maybe I knew about it, but I was not prepared to change the direction of the meeting or conversation to cover that topic during that particular meeting.
The reason these three words have so much persuasion power is because they each represent an idea against which it is often difficult to argue. Unless the topic you are attempting to avoid discussing is a) highly critical to the outcomes your client wishes to achieve or b) your client is a total narcissist (or sociopath), then, generally, their conscious will not allow them to object or oppose these words.
Needless to say, these words changed everything for me by giving me the courage to stay in control of those situations and effectively keep my meetings on track towards the next steps I wanted.
Fair
to treat impartially and justly or to behave without favoritism or discrimination
The idea of being fair runs deep within our subconscious. Every since man has established a strong sense of civility and culture, we've all accepted this idea at an early age. For example, when we are kids, we are often told to "play fair". Later on, as we grow older, we are made aware of politics and democracy and equal opportunity. Okay, so not everything is fair in the world and, at times, politics do not seem very fair either nor do all opportunities seem equal. However, the idea of being fair or of "fairness" is a general concept in which most everyone agrees.
Therefore, in my meetings with clients when a question or objection or any other topic that I wished to avoid discussing until a later time (or place), I would often associate the need to avoid that topic with being fair. For example, if someone interrupted me to ask about, let's say "Topic A", I might say "To be fair, I would rather discuss Topic A during our next meeting because I am not prepared to talk about it at this time. Okay?" or I might say it this way, "In all due fairness, I think it's probably best to talk about Topic A during our next meeting where it would be more appropriate, okay?"
As you can see from these two examples, I used different phrases to convey this idea of fairness or being fair. In fact, here is a short list of some of the most common ways I would start my sentence with the word "fair" to establish persuasive leverage with regard to the topic I wished to avoid discussing during that specific meeting:
"To be fair, ...."
"In all due fairness,..."
"From a strict perspective of being fair here,..."
"In the spirit of being fair,..."
"In order to keep things fair,..."
"With fairness as a priority,..."
"Because I know you and I both want to keep things fair,..."
I am sure that you can think of additional phrases that incorporate the word "fair" or "fairness", but these are just a few to help you get started with using this powerfully persuasive word.
(BTW, if you have enroll in one of my online MavMind Method courses, you might recognize some of the other hypnotic phrases within these examples that I teach in more detail. Fact is, these three persuasive words can easily be combined with some of the other hypnotic selling techniques, which I talk about in my other courses, for added impact and more effective and desirable outcomes.
Accountable
required or expected to justify actions or decisions
Similar to the idea of being fair, being "accountable" is another globally-accepted idea against which most of us find difficult to disagree. That is because within any line of business, the responsible leader or team is expected to justify their actions or decisions to seek approval to proceed. They are also expected to anticipate the impact or consequences that action or decision might have on the business. We are all aware of this idea and, therefore, we can use this idea (and word) to our advantage to redirect the meeting towards the desired goal or outcome we want.
It works like this.
During a meeting with a potential client, there are often many assumptions made by both the vendor and the potential client regarding who is accountable for which "things". For example, the vendor is typically presenting or pitching their product to the prospect and the prospect is listening and deciding if that product is something they want or need. Another assumption might be that the prospect will be asking questions and the vendor will be answering questions. In other words, the prospect is holding the vendor accountable to explain their product, how it works, how much it costs, etc.
Now considering these typical assumptions, if you are the vendor, all you have to do is associate the action(s) you want to take or the action(s) you want your prospect to take (or not take) with the idea of being accountable, then it becomes way easier to manage and control.
Let's take the assumption that the vendor answers all of the questions asked by the prospect, as a test case. Let's pretend you (as the vendor) want to ask questions of the prospect as well.
You could say, "To make sure we are holding each other accountable, I will need you to allow me to ask you a lot of questions today, too. Okay?"
Or let's pretend that you don't want to answer questions about a specific topic, such as pricing, for example, then you could say, "For both of us to be totally accountable, I am going to need to defer any questions about pricing until a later meeting, okay?"
Now, notice how I am not actually justifying the reason why I need to defer answering questions about pricing, I am simply associating that action I want to take with the idea of you and I being accountable to each other.
Again, the only situation where these words or techniques might not work is when the action you want to take directly opposes the desired action or outcome that your prospect needs. In other words, what your prospect needs is so extremely critical (or personal) to them that they will become brave enough to publicly argue against these universally-accepted ideas of accountability or fairness to get what they really need, which is exactly what you want to know anyway, right? To know what's really important or critical to them?
Therefore, you win either way.
Choice
the act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities
If you've ever been in a situation where there were no available options, then you understand how it feels to be out of control or, perhaps, even trapped. No one likes this situation and we often avoid it, when possible. We all want to feel in control of any and all situations and, therefore, we naturally seek options from which to choose.
Therefore, in general, no one will argue with offering someone a choice.
Now there are different ways to use options to offer your prospect some choices in a very hypnotic ways and in some of my online MavMind courses, I teach those methods specifically.
However, here I am not referring to those hypnotic methods. Instead, I am referring to more general idea or concept of offering options or choices in order to persuade a prospect towards the desired outcome I want.
Similar to the first two most persuasive words above, you can associate the idea of having a "choice" with the action(s) you want to be able to exhibit during a meeting or call.
For example, let's pretend that I want to dig deeper into discovering what other vendors (i.e. competitors) my prospects might be considering beside my product. In other words, I want to have a "choice" to explore and understand how these other vendors are.
In that case, I might say, "To ensure we both have some choices here, I will need to ask you about some of the other vendors or products you might be considering, okay?" Another example might be, "Because choices are important for everyone, I will need to ask you about who I am competing with, if that is acceptable to you?"
Again, notice how I am not defining why I need these choices. I am simply associating the idea of me (or anyone) having a choice with the action I wish to take. That's it. I allow my prospect to make their own assumptions regarding why I need that choice and then I move on to seeking their agreement or approval to act the way I specified and that is enough. They will not argue or oppose it and will, instead, go along with providing me the choice and options I (and we all) deserve. Pretty cool, indeed!
In Summary...
To wrap it all up, I will leave you with this final example statement, where I use all three words in one sentence for maximum persuasive power.
"In all due fairness, I will need to hold us both accountable for the outcomes of today's meetings and, therefore, I will need to defer any pricing discussions until a later date because I do believe we both need some choices in this case. Do you agree?"
Now Go Forth and Be Persuasive
It's your turn now to go and practice using these three words during your meetings with prospects to be more persuasive and get the desired outcomes you want. Good luck!
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