Maximize Your Influence

Dave Negri’s Secret Price Weapon

 Using “pricing” as a marketing strategy is often overlooked by entrepreneurs.  It may be a little scary, butsometimes all you need is a higher price point to become more attractive to your target market.   The affluent tend to associate higher prices with higher value.

When someone is looking for the “best” - choosing the cheapest person is not the path he or she will take.  When you are QUALITY-focused, slogans like “highest quality AND lowest price” don’t fit together.  They are actually mutually exclusive.  Clients recognize this and are extremely suspicious if you try to pair quality and low prices in your marketing.

 “Price Shoppers” exist at all income levels. A higher-income price shopper will be just as difficult and draining to work for as a lower-income price shopper.  The only difference is the higher-income price shopper has more expensive minimum and maximum price points, so you can spare the time and energy to accommodate him or her.

 It is critical for your own sanity, to filter out bargain price shoppers by having prices preset at higher levels.  Higher prices indicate to prospects you are concerned about quality rather than quick sales.  Immediately this creates a level of trust. When prospects respond favorably to your rates, they are seeking quality products—not low prices.  

For more information about Dave and his work visit: Www.contractorssecretweapon.com


Amy Cuddy – Non Verbal Link

I have already spoken at length about the necessity of positive mental programming and the initial steps one must take to put this powerful tool into practice. Great persuaders gain control over their destiny by controlling and directing their thoughts. Considering that our actions are emotion-driven, and our emotions are thought-driven, we've got to get our thoughts on track. They determine everything! You can always remind yourself of this powerful reality by keeping in mind the acronym TEA:

Thoughts → Emotions → Actions

Take an honest look at your life right now. Where do you find yourself? That place is the sum total of your thoughts over the course of a lifetime. Where have your thoughts taken you thus far? Where will they take you tomorrow, next week, or next year? It is only natural that negative thoughts will creep into your mind from time to time. As soon as they sneak in, escort them right back out. Don't entertain them. They are destructive. Some people use a rubber band to snap their wrist every time a negative thought comes into their mind. The pain associated with this technique fixes their negative thinking very rapidly. If you don’t want to try the rubber band, you can send me a $2,000 check every time you have a negative thought. I am sure that would start to work for you real fast, because that is what it is probably costing you! Your thoughts are what programs your subconscious mind.

Your thoughts are what program your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is the center of all your emotions. When your subconscious accepts an idea, it begins to execute it. And then your subconscious uses your ideas, knowledge, energy, and wisdom to find the solution. Now, it might occur in an instant, or it might take days, weeks, or even longer. Nevertheless, your mind will continue working on a solution. You need to understand that as you program your mind, you must ask yourself, "Do I program negative suggestions in my mind?" If you are telling yourself that you can't do it, you are right. When that inner voice tells you that you can't do something, it is important that you replace the thought or turn down the volume or intensity of the negative voice. Then you can change it to "I can do it," "I'm going to win," and "there's plenty for everybody." Altering your inner voice's perception is going to make a difference, and that's the important thing. That's because your subconscious mind will always accept what you program it to think. The bottom line is that you are what you think about, and you have the power to choose what you think. No one can do it for you. Great persuaders work on this mental training every day, while average persuaders think they have heard it all before and are doing OK.

If we are going to squash our negative thinking, we must replace those thoughts with new, positive ones. As you practice mental programming, new and inspiring ideas will intuitively and instinctively arise on their own. But give yourself specific goals and targets to keep your thoughts centered on—this type of focus will nurture and augment your newfound inner strength. Sure your logical mind will fight you on these new thoughts, but eventually your new programming will win. I love what Napoleon Hill, author of the classic Think and Grow Rich, had to say about this:

Direct download: Podcast_197_-_TEFAMA_How_The_Brain_Works.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am CDT

Anthony Iannarino  -  Becoming The Trusted Advisor

 What Is Not Advice

 Your product is not advice. Nor is your service. Nor are the solutions that you happen to sell. The features, benefits, and advantages of what you sell are not advice either.

 Your management team isn’t advice, and as impressive as your board members may be, they aren’t advice. You know what else isn’t advice? All of your locations, and all of the logos of the big, recognizable, widely-admired companies you serve. As remarkable as your clients are, they are not advice.

Your differentiation strategy isn’t advice either. The things that make you different and make a difference for your clients may help you distinguish yourself in a crowded market, but they are not advice.

 If you are spending the precious little time you have with your dream clients talking about you, your product, your company, your clients, and what makes you different, you are not “advising.”

 What Is Advice

 What are all the forces weighing down on your dream client and causing them to produce results that are less than they should be? How should they be thinking about these forces, and what should they do about them?

 What are the risks of not responding to the systemic challenges that threaten your dream client’s business? What are their choices? What are the trade-offs? What are the risks of taking action now?

 What opportunities are available to your dream client now? Which provide them with the greatest advantages and which hAve the fastest return on invested time, money, and resources?

 How you engage with your dream client matters.

 Where you start the conversation is important because you are defining your relationship. If you begin the conversation with the things that you are comfortable talking about but that don’t create value, then you are not establishing that you have the potential to be their consigliere.

 If on the other hand, you start the conversation with strategically important issues, you demonstrate that you know something worth knowing, something that can benefit your dream client.

 Business acumen is the new sales acumen. What is at risk by starting the conversation too low is nothing less than your relevance.

To learn more about Anthony and his work please visit:  www.thesalesblog.com/newsletter

Direct download: Podcast_196_-_Anthony_Iannarino__-__Becoming_The_Trusted_Advisor.mp3
Category:sales -- posted at: 5:30am CDT

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