7 Powerful Frames to Paint Your Selling Picture

Kevin Hogan

In our continuing study of what determines why people buy and why they decide to do the things they do, we have learned that all is not logical and rational in the real world. This article will give you 7 brand new key insights and frames in which to paint your selling pictures.

I guarantee no one has ever shared this information with you!

1. The Best of Times...The Worst of Times:
Are you Selling Security or Adventure? It only makes all the difference in the world...
When times are relatively good, on average, we are biologically programmed to venture out and increase risk and adventure in our lives. When times are bad, on average, we are likely to be much more conservative.

When participating in the sales process it is very useful to know whether your client (and the economy in general) is going through good times or bad. If she is going through good times you can appeal to her desire to experiment, her need to expand her horizons and explore. If she is going through bad times, you need show how your products will allow her to meet her conservative needs. The emotional appeal of your product is very important in determining whether you will make the sale or not. People will justify their purchase logically, but first need to fit the product into their emotional filters.

KEY. Appeal to your customer's need to take risks and participate in adventure in good times. When experiencing bad times, appeal to your clients needs of security and safety.

Does the economy allow you to appeal to their sense of adventure?

Should they be taking the plunge or being conservative?

2. Your Appeal Should be to the Many, not Just the One
Our genes do not simply generate the tendency for us to survive and care for the self, but they virtually command and carry out a powerful compulsion to care for our children and the larger groups that we are part of. In fact, almost all of our genetic make-ups are so designed that we will help the larger groups we are part of survive before they will save themselves. (You witnessed this in all too vivid a fashion on 9/11/01.)

Not only is that an altruistic act, it is part of most people's genetic programming. The compulsion to care for others in our group is very powerful. Almost all people are pre-programmed to act in the best interests of the following:

• Themselves
• The Family
• The Group
• Society
• God

What kind of group might your customer belong to?

What about family?

The big mistake that salespeople make is that they only appeal to the customer's best interest when they should be appealing to the customer's interest in how your product will help his family, his employees, his civic groups and church organization, society as a whole and even God. There is an old Mc Donald's commercial that illustrates how to appeal to the greater genetic needs. The theme song, "You deserve a break today, so get up and get away, to Mc Donalds..." plays in the background. The image is that of a man who has had a long day at work and the theme initially plays to his deserving a break. The genetic motivator however is not self-satisfaction. The motivator is when you see Dad and Mom and the kids all driving off to Mc Donald's together.

KEY. What a person may not be able to justify for himself can often be justified if it becomes obvious that it benefits our family, or society, or the group with which we belong.

3. Who Your Customer Wants to Be Like
In all species, including humankind, the masses are compelled to be like the leader of the group(s). Your appeal to your customer therefore, should in part be one of installing the desire to be like the leaders in his or her field. This could mean being a better parent, a better employee, a better supervisor. Your job is to show how your products and services help your customer be more like the leader(s) of the group(s) he is most intimately linked to. In general, we imitate our leader's behavior. As a sales person, we therefore want to show how using our products will make the customer more like the leaders.

4. Positive Attitude? Here's the Truth for Salespeople
Research completed last year reveals that projecting a positive attitude is not nearly as helpful to the self when contrasted with the impact that it has on others. When your customer sees your positive attitude it gives them optimism and encouragement that you are a good person to be with and buy from. "Generating" a "positive attitude" is very important to sales success, because it improves the relationship you have with others. Not feeling positive? Be the actor playing the role. Stay focused, eyes on the target and reap the rewards!

Let's be honest though: Generating a positive attitude for one day because you are down and out due to the taxman, a fight with the kids or a spat with the in laws is one thing. Generating a positive attitude because you are not able to truly be happy with what your life work is, is quite another.

You can only work off your reserves for so long before you need to do what is right for YOU and YOUR LIFE. Don't sell something or be involved in a company that doesn't get your juices flowing for any longer than is absolutely necessary. Find work that you would do for free! That's usually the work you ultimately get paid the most for.

5. How the Enemy Makes A Sale for You
When it seems that there is no competitive edge to your product or service, you can utilize a genetic predisposition that was alluded to in the topic above. You can assist in creating an enemy to bind people together. The Internal Revenue Service is an enemy that has been able to bind the thoughts of the public together. This has been done by our elected officials so we will vote for them. The enemy can be "good" or "evil." Appearances of good and evil are in the eyes of the beholder, of course. Mc Donald's doesn't like Burger King. Microsoft doesn't like Netscape.

KEY. Create or identify an enemy that needs to be fought and then define how you, or, your product or service will help in the fight against the common enemy. An enemy can be a person, a group, a nation, or a non-living thing, like drugs, cigarettes, associations, churches, newspapers, etc.

How do you utilize this principle of genetics in your favor? President Clinton, in the wake of the Paula Jones/Monica Lewinsky hearings was able to take focus off of himself by finding a common enemy of almost all Americans, Saddam Hussein. The strategy of "talking war" was brilliant as it bound the nation as it did seven years earlier in the Bush administration. The real threat of biological weapons in the hands of Iraq was enough to take Clinton/Lewinsky off of the front page of the newspaper and put Hussein, UN Inspectors and talk of war on the front pages. This created a new perspective in the public's thinking about the significance of the Jones/Lewinsky scandals.

Creating or identifying a common enemy is an excellent tool for building rapport and increasing compliance. If you can assist your customer to become frustrated with the status quo, his likely future, the success of his competitors, he is more likely to act in a positive manner on your request for his compliance.

The concept of using anger, disgust, fear, hatred and negative emotions in effective selling and marketing is as old as monetary exchange. For years we have seen commercials about how disgusting roaches are to have in the house. We spend billions on security systems every year in America, but only once the customer has experienced through future pacing or in actual case history of his security being violated. People will purchase products to relieve pain, reduce anxiety, be less depressed...and these products go far beyond medications! Some people buy magazines, books, CD's, computer games, internet services, cars, houses, groceries, all to reduce negative emotions.

6. The Have's and The Have Not's...Have or have not got Control
"Money doesn't bring you happiness."
"People care too much about money."
"Money isn't important."
"I don't need things."
"I don't like being around all those control freaks."
"All I need to be happy is..."

When you are selling, you pace the client's actions and beliefs, but, also realize that he is only human and therefore programmed like most other humans. Your customer will often state something that he really doesn't believe, because, he wishes that what he was saying was true.

What are the facts about control, having, and happiness? How do these biological truths relate to your selling your products and services?

KEY. Control: The more you have, the healthier you are. Control is what keeps you focused and aware. People who experience a great deal of control in their lives tend to be healthier. When people feel in control or they feel your product or service will put them in control they are likely to buy from you now.

If your customer is to succeed in life and move up the ladder of success and survival, he needs problems, the ability to solve them and the victories that come from defeating his problems. Control is analogous to personal power. Personal power is the ability to take action and achieve. The ability to meet life's challenges head on and win is not only useful in raising self esteem and self efficacy but also the general health of your client!

If your product or service will give your customer more control in his life and she realizes it, then she will buy your product. PERIOD. Without control people become hopeless. When people become hopeless you are once again able to help your customer. If your product or service can generate hope, you give new life to your customer...literally. If your customer sincerely believes that your product or service can help him, then you can literally help him change his life.

KEY. We need a significant amount of control for happiness. If you can paint a clear picture of how you can help the other person regain control in some area of his life or business, he will buy anything from you.

7. Selling Testosterone
Men who are rich in testosterone often find themselves in great trouble or achieving great success. Testosterone inspires confidence and aggression. Most entrepreneurial types tend to be high in testosterone and tend to be confident of their ability to achieve in business and life. Knowing this allows you to pull a useful mind string. Appealing to the core urges of a man in some manner is useful in awakening his confidence and "go for it" attitudes.

KEY. Help your client re-experience past victories in any aspect of life and you will probably succeed in creating a "testosterone rush." Linking your product to this rush, will enhance the probability of compliance.

Testosterone is tied to "winning" in men. An excellent manner of instilling a testosterone rush into men is to have them recount a story of a time when they overcame the odds and "won." This normally creates a testosterone surge in men and builds confidence. By successfully linking this internal state to your product or service you almost assure yourself of making a sale.

BONUS:
8. See You at the Top
One of my all time favorite self development books is See You at the Top by Zig Ziglar. When Zig wrote this book he had little if any idea that the book would go on to sell 1.5 million copies. Zig could have predicted such an outcome had he known the genetic draw of humans to gravitate toward leaders in a group. Not only do we want to be like the leader in a group, we want to be liked by the leader in a group.

The higher up the ladder a person climbs, the more "friends" a person has. Now, it should be noted that these friends may be "fair weather friends," but clearly those who wish to consider themselves friends of the leaders in groups are far greater than those who dwell near the bottom of the societal ladders. Therefore you have an opportunity to appeal to an individual's pre-programmed desire to first be at the top of the ladder and second, to be friends of the person at the top of the (or "a") ladder.

You may have the opportunity to share with your customer that if he moves up the ladder in his group that his health will improve. Recent research shows that those who are higher up the "ladder" have less hypertension. Health benefits are going to be a good justification for any action in the 21st century and this is one that is truly worth noting when it ties in with your products and services.

KEY. People want to either be at the top, be seen with the people on top or be given hope that they may be able to make it to the top. Your product or service should somehow be able to help your client up the ladder.

"Wow! The Science of Influence is the best information I have ever come across. I went to church with my mother this morning and instead of focusing on the sermon, I was thinking of ways the minister could be more effective in his PRESENTATION. By just taking the flock into the future, and appealing to the group mentality he might have gotten one yes, he did not get any. The fear of not being in the flock for eternity may have swayed a few heads, as well. The applications are endless. Lookout, because once I have absorbed this information thoroughly, there are no limits on my ability to influence. This information is so powerful, a license should be required to use it. Amazing. Thanks." Steve Hutcherson, St. Charles, MO

1. Universal Principles of Influence in Business and Relationships
2. The Omega Strategy
3. Mastering Omega Strategies
4. Framing Techniques and Strategies
5. The Keys That Unlock the Doors to Their Mind
6. The Laws of Influence: Applications
7. Mastering the Laws of Influence
8. The Guarded Secrets- Confusion, Amendment, The Dominant Value and Strategic Framing
9. Mastering the First 30 Seconds / Making Incredible First Impressions
10. Proven Strategies and Techniques that Get to Yes!
11. Metaphors and Emotions that Successfully Change Behavior
12. Utilizing the Brain's Perception and Projection to Change People

Science of Influence Master's Home Study Course (12 CDs)
with Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.

This program is the culmination of years of selling synthesized with the last five years of academic research into compliance gaining, persuasion and influence. You won't find a program like this, designed for you, anywhere else.