“Boogie Woogie” Your Way To More Sales!
January 19th, 2010 by Jim Fortin

When I was the national speaker for The Learning Annex’s Speaker’s Academy I used to tell audiences, "People love to be entertained. People will pay for entertainment before education. That’s what we call here at The Learning Annex, "edu-tainment."

When it comes to persuasion and influence, people also love to be entertained. This is one of the reasons kids love cartoons so much. Cartoons engage the right side of the brain, the unconscious mind, the side of the brain that decides to buy – or not.

In the 1950’s, Liberace was the highest paid entertainer in the world. He once said, "I don’t put on concerts, I put on shows." He put on "an experience." Watch the video below and see how he puts on a show and even brings people into it. He didn’t just play for them, he did his show WITH them!

The question for you is, WHAT can you do to create an experience for your customers and clients? What can you do to make your time together entertaining, pleasant, fun and "an experience."

What Are You Giving People to Persuade and Influence Them?
September 1st, 2009 by Jim Fortin

Remember, when it comes to persuasion and influence, people make decisions about you and your product based upon what you "give them."

I was recently in FEDEX office, and this is what one of their banners "gave me."

Notice in the picture it says, "Contrary to public opinion, a banner year in business will not be hard to come by."

What could they have done differently to plant a better suggestion? How about this, "Contrary to public opinion, a banner year in business can be easy to come by."

As you can see, single words can make all the difference in how someone receives a suggestion.

"Use your words carefully, because the words you use today will influence your clients today and twenty years from now."  ~Milton Erickson

George Washington Wasn’t “Green” – A Lesson In Persuasion And Influence
August 11th, 2009 by Jim Fortin

Last month I was at the Amon Carter museum, and I was looking at an artist’s rendition of “Washington Chops Down The Cherry Tree.”

It was a really cool picture, lots of vivid colors, a good visual metaphor of the story and I remember thinking, “Wow, that artist painted A LOT of cherries on that tree and they’re all so perfectly round – I wonder how long it took him to paint this?”

I enjoyed it for a bit longer and moved on.

As I was standing and looking at the next picture, a woman with two very young girls (appearing to be between the ages of 6 -8) started looking at the Washington picture and one of the girls said, “Wait, he can’t do that. He’s killing oxygen. Trees produce oxygen, and when you cut them down, you kill the environment. What could he have been thinking?”

I kid you not, that came right out of the mouth of a seven year old girl! She and I saw the exact same picture and we “saw” wildly different things.

OK, a lesson in persuasion and influence. Every sales person knows this, and most continue to miss just how subtle and fundamental this is.

The lesson is this: We all see the world differently, and relevant to buying and selling, people buy only from their model of reality, not yours.

Just yesterday, a recent student (a seasoned sales pro) said, “Yes, I know that we’re all trained to get into the minds of prospects and customers but many of us get so wrapped up in our own products and services, we forget just how subtle and important it is to sell to their model of reality, not from ours.”

To sell more and Move People®. Next time you’re with a client, ask yourself, “Given everything I know about my prospect and client, and everything they know about me. If I were they, what would I have to see, do or hear to be convinced to buy?” Now, feed your answer back to them, you just might be surprised at how much more you sell.

The Motivational Speakers Have It Wrong
August 4th, 2009 by Jim Fortin

As you probably know, I have two signature programs, Zero Effort Selling (Unconscious Persuasion and Influence) and Mind Awakening (Human Effectiveness). I’ll rotate my blog postings between these two cutting-edge programs.

I want you to really consider what it means to be successful and having a positive attitude. And, I want you to now realize that almost all the motivational speakers and peak performance experts have it backwards. As you know, they all talk about the importance of a positive mental attitude and being positive.

Where almost all of them miss the boat is that they start at the wrong end of the Human Equation. You DO NOT need to become more positive to be happy in life.

What must happen is that you must become less negative. Think about this. You already know how to be positive…you were born positive. Ever seen a “negative” baby? Nope, because you were born “positive,” and you are inherently a positive being who has learned negativity through culturalization.

To be happy, forget your focus on being happy – as all the motivational speakers have led you to believe.

Have the courage to look into the mirror – for real. Identify the negativity in you that your carry – greed, jealousy, anger, self-pity, selfishness, judgment, etc. Look at all the stuff you have locked away – commit to eliminating it.

Until you do, you can be “positive” all day long and you’ll still have these negative ankle weights pulling you down.

Remove that head garbage, and you’ll automatically become more positive by becoming less negative. Remember, you were born positive and it’s your natural state, it’s not something you have to try to be, you already are.

Your success is not about adding things in life, it’s about taking negative things away within yourself. The more you take away, the lighter you’ll become.

Persuasion Tip – Until you ______ ?
July 12th, 2009 by Jim Fortin

Most people never realize how important single words are until they learn what you’ll find in this video.

Persuasion Tip: You’re going to…
July 5th, 2009 by Jim Fortin

You’re going to love this video on how to create “expectation” in others.

Is Unconscious Persuasion and Influence Ethical?
July 3rd, 2009 by Jim Fortin

Being the first official blog post on the new site, what a better place to start than the beginning.

When people initially learn of unconscious persuasion and influence, one of the very first things I hear is this. Well, it’s first prefaced with something like, “Now, I don’t mean to judge you or assume anything (pause)………but, how ethical is it to influence someone and they don’t even know that it’s happening?”

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that I’d never have to teach the program, I’d be rich just from talking about it!

OK, here’s my answer to the question that many ask, and you yourself might have been wondering this same thing until now.

Madison Avenue has influenced you for many years – unknown to you. And, you’ve influenced people many times below their level of conscious awareness and they’ve done the same to you. If you’ve ever gotten a hair cut or bought a new out fit to impress someone, without telling them that you did so, they you attempted to influence them outside their level of conscious awareness.

Influence and persuasion are a way of life, the question here is to what degree are people aware that they are being influenced?

But, let’s get to the deeper question that some people wonder about, “How ethical are covert persuasion and influence techniques?”

It’s simple. There are no unethical techniques, only unethical users. That’s it! Techniques in and of themselves are just nouns and verbs and so forth. It’s all about the user and their intent, not the techniques themselves.

Use unconscious persuasion and influence to move people to quicker outcomes to save time and money for both parties. Anything hinging on manipulation of the other for personal gain will come back those who do it!

Use NeuroPersuasion® to Move People® to win-win outcomes.

Persuasion Tip: The Magic Of Wonder
June 28th, 2009 by Jim Fortin

Persuasion Tip: What kind of person are you?
June 21st, 2009 by Jim Fortin

If you’re the kind of person who wants to make more sales, then you’re going to want to watch this video.

Shama.Tv Interview – What is NeuroPersuasion?
June 18th, 2009 by Jim Fortin

Check out this 5 min Interview with Shama.Tv. Learn about NeuroPersuasion and get 3 quick tips to put into action now!