Kevin AT KevinHogan DOT com

Maybe...

I was sick of selling my "10%".
It was 1984.

I was selling space advertising in magazines.

"It's a numbers game, Kevin."
Heard it all the time.
Hated it.

It was a mantra that constantly reminded me of how meaningless I was as a "salesperson."

Do it by the script, and it's a number game...The same pitch nine or ten times per day, all day, everyday. I hated it after the first month...just push "play".

Don't get me wrong, I certainly was a bit of a "math whiz".
I did get numbers. But I could never look at anyone as a "percentage".

Yet that's what it was coming to. "They say 'no' and you're just one away from making a sale today."

Sadly, it was true. And I didn't like it one bit. It meant I had to have 8-11 appointments per day to make a sale. It was always a long day. Rejection can and does wear thin on everyone.

Driving from business to business for half hour appointments in the hopes of selling an ad... Day after day for three years...wishing I didn't have to look at the guy sitting opposite of me as a number.

I said the same exact thing every time.

...and sure enough, my boss was right. Almost exactly 10% of the business owners would buy an ad. Some days that meant I made two or three sales but other days I could go on 10 appointments and sell nothing. The day might as well have not been on the calendar. Go home wiped out with nothing to show for it, except a very bad mood.

Then I began learning about Influence and Persuasion, and how the strategies and principles of persuasion applied to selling. I spent countless hours studying nonverbal communication, proxemics, social psychology, NLP, hypnosis, interpersonal communication, neuroscience, cognitive psych, evolutionary psychology, genetics, philosophy and advertising.

What's the difference between selling 10% and 16%?

Instead of selling 10% +/- of my prospects, I honed my skills to sell 14%, 15% and sometimes 16% of the people I had appointments with. Still a numbers game...but these numbers meant I made a lot more money.... I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but the difference between selling 10% and 16% was about $200 each week. In those days an extra $200 a week was huge.

What it meant was my income eventually went up by 60% in just under one year, or about $10,000 more. (That's about $25,000 in 2011 dollars.)

It would have gone up even more, but I had just gotten married and it was a good idea to be home during some waking hours and weekends.

Learning the basics over about 18 months made the difference.

But, learning wasn't cheap. I invested tens of thousands of dollars and sifted through a lot of meaningless junk to find the gems. And I did find the gems...and as the years would go on, I'd find even more gems.

As my career evolved and moved from ad sales to writing fundraising presentations for nonprofit groups and eventually becoming the director of a nonprofit drug prevention organization, I learned a lot more... What really motivates people...what causes people to give or not give. To buy or not buy. To say "yes" or "no".

As I learned more and more, there became a demand from businesses and other salespeople to tap all of this knowledge I was synthesizing. Soon a speaking career I had dreamed of was under way. Similar results. About 16%, maybe 17%.... of people I communicated with said, "yes" to Kevin Hogan. (And yes, being a math geek...I kept ridiculously detailed statistical records of my appointments.)

But $160 per day was only about $35,000 per year. Not a lot to support a family on... even in the late 80's.

But it sure beat living in poverty as I had 22 of the preceding 27 years.

Then, came the 90's. You should know that I was a stay-at-home Dad for two years or so, in the early 90's. You know, "Mr. Mom." (Yes, it would make a much better movie.) My wife and I both worked, as well. She was a stay-at-home Mom too, just the opposite hours that I was a Mom...and she was a much better Mom than I was....

It was ridiculous. I worked selling about 50+ hours per week. So did she. Then we parented the hours we weren't "working".

But now, the checks were no longer $100 per sale but more...a lot more...

I wrote a book that would one day be an international best seller in this period, "The Psychology of Persuasion." It took two years to write and wouldn't be published for four more...but in learning more about selling and marketing myself, I really started digging in.

I learned everything I could about influence and persuasion and how to apply the concepts and factors that influence my day to day businesses. (From this point on, I always had at least two businesses. One was writing and public speaking, the other was therapy...yes I was a therapist for a long time...private practice.)

And then the geometric rise began. It wasn't 14% or 16% any more. Of the people I'd meet with face to face, sales and agreements would go up to 19% and sometimes as much as 22% of people I'd talk to. I had begun to "get it."

Is 22% only a little more than twice as much as 10%???

These tiny selling percentages...going from 10% to 22% seem so small when you read them in print but with 2 - 50 times higher dollar sales being made, doubling the number of sales in life really meant that income was multiplying 6 and 7 times....and then later, even more.

The more I discovered about influence, the more research I personally did, the more research I culled from every scientific journal on the planet, the more applications I was able to make to sales and marketing and pretty soon about 1/3 of the people I was seeing for any reason...were saying "yes."

Now this wasn't all influence and persuasion techniques. Some of this increase was attributable to speaking reputation, higher dollars per sale, and word of mouth. But the numbers were up...way up.

Then as the late 90's rolled in, about 45% of everyone I met face to face, said "yes." In the early 2000's it became over 50%.

Now that all sounds something right next to impossible....and yet internalizing the skills of influence and persuasion made all the difference in the world.

It was THE difference.

Applying influence and persuasion techniques and strategies in selling and every area of my life... changed my life.

And there was an OCEAN of material about influence that was only being skimmed by the gurus of the day. I subscribed to every journal. I read everything. I applied and tested everything. MOST of the stuff didn't work in the real world. BUT when it did, sales would grow at unreasonably large rates. Revenues continued to increase and increase exponentially.

Can You Really Sell Almost Everyone You Talk To?

A Boot Camp participant asked me, "I sell insurance. What percentage of people do you think I could realistically sell?" I almost blurted out 80%, but that would simply SOUND too ridiculous. Instead I asked, "Are you currently selling 10% of the people you see?"

"Yes, about that, why?"

(No one ever knows anymore...math geeks must do computer work nowadays!)

"Would you like to double it...or more?"

She gave one of those suspicious looks, and had the person not known me and my reputation.... my sense was she was going to walk away.

Very few people can wrap their mind around doubling their income in a year. It's just about impossible to make that picture in your mind.

The fact is "doubling income" is relatively easy when you can apply influence and persuasion to the sales process.

All it means is you are going to sell 15% of your prospects at a VERY slightly larger sale price. Period.

And I wasn't being all that "genuine" because this person was capable of selling half the people she was seeing...half or more. But you can't tell people that. They won't and don't believe it because of their past experience. So I simply say what their mind can absorb. They'll watch what happens on their own.

The answer turned out to be almost 100% in office appointments closed. (Yeah, just shy of 100%.) Less in the field. Her sales skyrocketed. That was over a 9 month period, between Boot Camp and the end of the year when I heard back.

And that is not a unique story. If it were, I wouldn't be writing this. It was the norm. (Not that most people who went through our 4 day boot camp closed 100% because they would NOT, but that sales and marketing brought in revenue increases that were so big it would sound ridiculous to tell you.)

One quiet guy at the back row of Influence: Boot Camp three years ago was from Anthony Robbins and Associates. I was flattered. They were taking us seriously. He went on to become Tony's number one salesman.

For real.

One woman came up after the first day of Boot Camp and said, "You aren't teaching any NLP. I thought..."

And I cut her off. I don't teach NLP. Nothing like it. Plenty of people teach NLP. I told her there was nothing like NLP coming for the rest of Boot Camp....would she like to stay?

She looked a bit shocked and said something like, "Well...yeah...I guess."

It was pretty much a non-decision. She did a great job that day and was really getting "it". She stayed and toward Thanksgiving last year reported what I considered a significant increase in her real estate sales. She said she'd be back next year. That's the other thing I wanted to hear...

And Influence: Boot Camp is something I look forward to. Yes, it is gratifying to go to a big company and show them how to make millions of dollars. (And please all of you CEO's and meeting planners take note of that fact!) BUT, there is something very special and unique about salespeople and entrepreneurs. People who are professionals. People who run their own thing. It's 100% up to themselves as to whether they win or lose. They can get rich or go broke and it has nothing to do with a product line that a company has given them to sell.

It's all about your skill. My skill. Getting better. Better. Best. Being the Best.

And it's all in utilizing influence and persuasion in Selling and Marketing.

I alluded to the dense nature of literature that can lead a person to put together working models of persuasion for selling. Part of my fun is taking all of that complex stuff and making it easy. So, I put together what I think is the best program to get the job done. The lengthy testimonials all speak for themselves.

Here's what it all boils down to. Should YOU be at Influence: Boot Camp?

If you want to learn specific ways to sell most of the people you meet with, whether an entrepreneur or CEO of 3M, then you should come. If you need to hear "yes", come.

One of the best parts of Influence: Boot Camp this year is that unlike other years, unless there's a guest speaker up, I'm up front the whole day.

And I'm going to show you how to make a LOT more sales by seeing fewer people with NO extra work and in fact will reduce the total time it takes you to communicate your message so much it will probably scare you.

And...we have fun. Maybe I can have you for dinner with a small group or invite you to my suite at the end of the night for drinks. But one thing is for sure, when you leave Las Vegas, you will have sat down and talked with me unless YOU made it impossible to do so.

I've spent a lot of money seeing people and never even getting a hello. That always bugged me. You will say more than "hello" to me. I want to know you and be important in pulling a few strings for you in your career.

In fact everything about Influence: Boot Camp is about what I want in a training. Lots of content. Lots of applications. Lots of certainty. Lots of new material. Meeting the people who can turn keys for you in life.

One Boot Camp, I invited the inventor of Microsoft Word, my friend Richard Brodie to stop by at his convenience and say hello. (He was in the World Series of Poker Tournament.) Well he did more than that. He stayed and answered questions and met people. That's the kind of thing that makes Influence: Boot Camp unique. How'd you like to pick that brain for a half hour? If you were at Boot Camp, you did....

You come to Influence: Boot Camp and it's like getting the greatest gift you can imagine. You always leaving thinking, WOW!

The other thing I do in a training is make sure that EVERYTHING is usable and applicable when you get home. I make sure that EVERY person leaves with at least one specific key that will make them in great excess of $10,000.

You'll be part of a BusinessStorm for Success

Each day I show you how to BusinessStorm for Influential Success. That means I show you a process where you will have a HUGE idea that is EASY to implement the day you get home. It will make you a lot of money. All you have to do is turn the key. (And you do have to turn the key to open the door.) EVERYONE who asks, gets this gift....and...I teach you HOW to BusinessStorm so you will be able to develop powerhouse ideas that often bring in as much money in a day as you made last year.

You might want to read that again.

In just 4 days at Influence: Boot Camp, I can show almost anyone how to drive their sales up to numbers previously thought out of reach.

I will do the same for you.

The agenda for the 4 days is full. It's now finalized with the exception of a few pieces of pretty cool sales research being worked on right now.

This is the perfect experience for you *and* your partner or employees because you can debrief over dinner what we did in Boot Camp. You can begin implementation into sales, marketing and management immediately.

Influence: Boot Camp has NO stupid exercises where you get up and rub your neighbor's shoulders, picture things in your mind with your eyes closed or shout mantras to the gods. (I don't think I could ever handle that again....)

Influence: Boot Camp is all about profit and it is about having a great experience. It's run EXACTLY how I wanted every training that I've ever been to...to run. High content in a relaxed atmosphere where you can meet all the right people. The standard is high. And from 9:00-5:00 (or maybe plan for longer this year!) we are all business.

Influence: Boot Camp - Las Vegas in March!

The latest in persuasion.

The best in skyrocketing sales with NOW influence.

Boot Camp shows you how to bring in revenue fast.

The ultimate opportunity for anyone wanting to bring in more revenue, close a much higher percentage of sales, and put you in charge of any situation you find yourself in.

And nothing...is more exciting than Influence: Boot Camp...Las Vegas Style.

The beautiful Luxor Hotel is home to Influence: Boot Camp 2012. The most enticing venue ever!

To Whet Your Appetite...for 2012:

1. Advanced Decoding Body Language in Selling - What the other person sees and feels while communicating with you. At Influence Boot Camp, you will receive detail on how to present and decode body language. Learn how to interpret a woman's body language, from context to context...and then...know how to respond. Women, learn how to interpret a man's body language.
2. Building The Perception of Authority...for Greater Sales - Influencing with authority is one thing. Anyone can do that. Influencing without authority is quite another. Influencing those who don't have to listen to you...don't have to pay attention to you...don't have to respect you...or even consider your opinion...that's what you're going to find out about here. Exciting, innovative and once again you are first to get this!
3. Understanding and Using The Context...Secret Techniques you've never taught before for promoting and selling your products and services..... Just how does the space around you influence each person in the setting? The context? When in an unfavorable setting, like the lunch room of a Pepsi plant, how do you quickly make minor changes to manipulate the setting and create a favorable outcome? More incredible? What if you can't change the location or setting in any way? You're going to discover how to create the perception of a different setting. This amazing material is new and has not appeared anywhere prior to this Boot Camp! Bonus: You're going to find out just what locations and settings are most likely to cause the other person to say, "yes" for virtually every context.
4. Priming for Increased Revenue - What's a popular soft drink? Exactly, Pepsi. You were primed in the "environment" section of this promotional piece. Almost 94% of people will respond Pepsi. That prime is priceless in all communication and I'm going to show you how to covertly prime outcomes in any context or setting. This incredible information has NEVER been released by anyone, anywhere. Knowing what priming is, is one thing, making it profitable and effective is far more important than simple knowledge.

• Proven methods of making influence drive up your sales.
• Identity...How the price *you* say becomes the right price for THAT PERSON.
• Choice. Causing the "right choice".
• Overcoming Resistance
• Making Attraction Work Now!
• Influencing those who reject you or have rejected you.
• Pricing that works. The answer everyone wants to know for any product or service.
• Real Hypnotic Language, Covert Hypnosis, Linkages, Phrasing
• Building Loyalty
• Captivating Copy: Learning How to WRITE copy...for maximum profit.
• Getting onto Their Landscape and Inside of Them
• Credibility
• Central and Peripheral Persuasion
• Advanced Techniques of Covert Identity Story Telling
• Revenge, Justice and Punishment

Four Days to Evolve Into Master Persuader!

Entrepreneur? Salesperson? Professional Person? Therapist? Trainer? Manager?

Influence: Boot Camp is going to teach you the most advanced techniques of influence and persuasion. You are going to learn to utilize the techniques and strategies of gaining compliance to change the perception and behavior of others in a completely unconscious way.

Let's quickly highlight a few things that you are going to learn:

• 11 NEW specific non-verbal communication techniques for opening and closing.
• The latest in how genes influence people's behavior and what to do about it!
• The words that change people's minds verbally and in print MOST...and WHEN NOT TO USE THEM.
• How to utilize distraction and confusion when necessary.
• How suggestion can change visual recall and increase sales.
• Not one but TWO complete models for gaining compliance FAST!
• Make minor adjustments in your physical appearance to turn "No", to "Yes!"
• How to tell a story so that the story delivers the message you want sent!

You already know my book, The Psychology of Persuasion, is the number two best selling book about persuasion of ALL TIME. (Be patient...the other guy had a 13 year head start...) Now I'm taking you on a fun and exciting four-day event that will give you absolute certainty and confidence in every situation you meet up with.

The material in this boot camp is fresh, exciting, effective and NEW! If you've been in the training room with me, you haven't heard this material. This is the first time almost all of it has ever been offered to you!

Influence: Boot Camp is $2,997 at the door. Pre-Register today, right now, and your tuition is a grand total of $1777. Take advantage of this one time only Pre- Registration discount, you won't see it again!

There are no comps, passes or further discounted admissions.

I don't like hype. I'm intentionally toning this promotional piece down because I am so excited about this event! I want to remind you of a couple of things, then move directly to what makes the Influence: Boot Camp "live" event special and how it can benefit you.

• You are going to walk out of there with a sense of personal mastery.
• You or your salespeople will always know what to do next.
• You will be able to hear "yes" almost any time you choose to.
• You will build your business, increase your sales, learn to motivate yourself and others and gain compliance in virtually every situation in life.

You could be the head of marketing at 3M or an entrepreneur. You might want to dramatically increase your sales. Here: You want to get them to say. This is YOUR 4 days!

No hyperbole: 20-30% is most likely...and maybe a lot more as we've experienced with some financial sales products and real estate people in the past....or simply get most everyone you meet to say "yes" to you. No matter who you are or what your motivation for participating in this event, I guarantee, you will be thrilled with everything you get.

When you read the next "Learn List" below, realize that no one aside from me has ever taught this information to you. You've probably seen similar lists from people who teach old school persuasion or influence. Forget it. This is 2011. This is new. This is thoroughly researched and no one has it for you except for me.

Here is just a little more of what you are going to learn:

• How to utilize metaphor to link into people's brains and change their mind maps.
• Alpha, Omega and Delta Strategies in influence.
• Applications for anticipated regret that reduce resistance and reactance.
• What the balance between pain and reward needs to be in every situation.
• How to reach the part of them that makes decisions, but doesn't talk, ever.
• How to weigh their conscious vs. unconscious responses to gain compliance.
• How to know exactly when to ASK for the answer you need.
• Discovering the Dominant Value
• Use Strategic Framing NON-NLP style.
• Master the First 30 Seconds
• Utilize their Brain's Perception and Projection to Change their Mind!

Special Bonus : Your investment in Boot Camp is 100% protected. This event will be videotaped and the videos will not be sold to the public for less than $1997 in 2012.

And yes, each day we will have one special guest presenter.

Each speaker will take your questions in their specialty areas about influencing in sales, marketing, one-to-many influence, and growing a business as big as you want it with a tried and tested model.

To register for Influence: Boot Camp, you simply fill out the short application and include your payment information.
Pre-Registration Tuition is $1777. Today.

No comps will be given to this event. None.

Notice: All participants will sign a one year non-disclosure form that prohibits anyone from training any individual or group with this information outside of your own company. This information is for your personal use ONLY.

To register: Influence Las Vegas Registration
Or call: 612-616-0732

Reserve Your Spot Today