How To Convert More Prospects By Understanding Their Uniqueness

How can you influence your prospects if you don’t understand them?

While a lot of online marketing and sales training courses focus on identifying your prospects pain and offering a solution, they seldom dig into the heart of what it takes to truly influence people. Understanding people starts with gaining insight into their perception of the world, not how you think they perceive it. Most marketers mistake their own unconscious assumptions about a prospect to mean they understand the prospects needs.Yet the truth is, the moment we assume we know what someone’s needs are, we are already wrong.

As a Marketer your role is to understand your prospects, not the other way around

The majority of marketers have this completely back to front. They are so busy trying to convince their prospect to understand their point of view, that they completely miss understanding their prospect! They blindly continue on with their sales pitch as though the person they are talking to views reality in the same way that they do. Trying to pitch someone without any knowledge or insight into the unique perception they have of the world, is ignorance on fire! Evolved marketers on the other hand don’t assume anything about their prospects. They practice awareness, have complete control over the automatic chatter the mind tries to throw up and they focus on understanding and building rapport and not the sale.

Everyone wants to be heard but nobody wants to listen

People are so distracted these days they honestly have no idea what it means to listen. They can’t tell the difference between listening and waiting to speak. They’re already formulating answers before the other party finishes and in the process miss vital cues that can help them build trust and rapport. Your prospects have as finely tuned BS radars as you do and so unless they trust you, they are going to answer your questions in a guarded way. Yet if you are one of the rare breed who have the ability to listen with a quiet mind, void of judgements and assumptions, you will be able to build the foundations of trust with ease.

The rapport building process starts with showing genuine interest, asking questions and remaining completely present and aware while they answer. As you listen, tune into any language or other cues that reveal their personality tendencies and be ready to adapt. This is so powerful yet only a fraction of marketers are aware enough to pick up on their prospects language and personality tendencies. Subconsciously we like people who show similar traits to ours. So when you begin to mimic someones language, posture, personality traits etc, it instantly strengthens your rapport with them. E.g. If they tend to speak slowly and you naturally speak fast, slow your voice down. If you notice they favor certain expressions, use them in your sentances. Once you’ve established their personality strengths or weaknesses, begin adapting your conversation. If your potential client or business partner is the Air elemental, try and keep the conversation light and fun. On the other hand if they are the Fire elemental, be more direct and don’t waste time with unneccesary details or you’ll lose them. As your rapport builds, the conversation will become more open and less guarded. And from this place you’ll gain a deeper understanding of what they really need and what will motivate them to want to full fill those needs. But remember that none of this will be possible unless you are truly listening!

Understanding what motivates your prospects

It always amazes me that people automatically think their prospects are motivated by the same thing they are. This is crazy! Whilst we might have the same basic needs for food, shelter, love etc, what motivates one person to the next is vastly different. Other than lacking essential influence and rapport building skills, this is the second biggest reason marketers fail to convert anyone. They are completely unaware of the fact that they are projecting their own needs and desires onto their prospects. Believe it or not, money is not the primary motivator for everyone. When employees in Australia were asked to rate the order of importance of a pay rise, it was rated below more holidays and more days off. Does that mean that no one in Australia is motivated by more money? Of course not as that was just one sample of the workforce. The important take away here is realising that your prospects are not necessarily motivated by the same things as you are. And if you assume you know what motivates them without taking the time to build rapport and understand them, you have almost zero chance of turning them into a customer or a client.

Just to give you a perfect example, during a call I made to a couple this week, I was able to find out that the wife has literally zero interest in money but is sincerely interested in helping people with their health. The husband on the other hand told me in no uncertain terms that unlike his wife, he is definitely interested in making more money and is currently saving to take his wife on a trip to England. Can you imagine if on my next follow up call the wife happened to answer the phone and I immediately started talking about how much money she could make? Or the husband answered and I started talking about the finite details of how my product could help people when I’ve also managed to find out he doesn’t like details? As insane as this sounds, most marketers have no clue and blindly operate from a one size fits all mentality. And even worse, that one size, happens to be their own assumptions.

If you can genuinely help, follow up with your solution

Once you’ve spent time developing the connection, understanding the needs your prospect has and listened for cues on how to speak in the language of their personality trait, they are going to be far more open to hearing about how you can help them. And if you sincerely believe you have a solution to help them to get from where they are, to where they said they want to be, then it’s your duty to offer it. Just remember that if your prospect isn’t ready to receive your solution the first time you offer it, your ability to continually follow up and strengthen the rapport is what’s ultimately leads to success. People talk about follow up but the fact is that most don’t do it. And when you don’t, guess what message your sending to your prospect… I don’t really care about you, I’m not confident that my solution can help you and I’m not really solid in my beliefs.

Have you ever been pitched by someone who never took the time to understand where you’re at? If you’ve ever been approached by any one hit wonders, how did you feel abou them afterwards? I’d love to hear your stories (the good, the bad & the ugly) in the comments below.

Michaelé

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