We’ve Reached an Impasse
Using Effective Persuasion to Increase your Sales Twofold

As is often the case, the difference between the proficient business owner and those who struggle, is mindset. They, like you, understand the fundamentals of communication, but  they also know how to use those strategies to see into their clients’ needs and nudge them towards seeing the product or service as the solution to their problem. 

You stand weakened in the center of an expansive desert, with nothing but undulating golden waves of sand before you, you hobble through the arid terrain, finding great struggle in moving foot in front  foot as your coarse eyes, barely able to open, scan the horizon for hope. The weight of your own feet have become impossibly heavy, sinking deeply into the sand and resisting every further movement in your burning aching muscles. But then you see it. The glimmer of hope, a flash of cerulean. You summon every last push of energy that remains and command your feet to fly faster, grains of sand fleeing from your rapid approach. The speckle of hope grows as you watch the blue spread ever larger in your vision. Muscles ache loudly. You feel the wind work aggressively against you, scraping against your burnt skin. But you can make it. You have hope, you can survive.

Upon entering the oasis, you know what you need above all else. The taste of water will never be so sweet as when your very survival depends on it. 

In business, your water, what keeps you alive and thriving, is sales. Without sales you are aimlessly wandering a harsh inhospitable environment while vulture’s patiently circle overhead. In order to find your oasis, sales, a great product is required, but a great product alone will not leave shelves. Without you there to inform and guide those that need it, your client’s too will hopelessly be left to wander in a desert of their own. 

In the business world we often expect a fantastical sort of customer, one that knows directly what they want, when they want it, and what a great deal they are getting when they finally find your product. However, in many situations we feel like the forsaken soul, stumbling into that oasis, having reached a point of desperation in  search of hydration in a sparse landscape.

The Last Step Towards the Oasis, Using Communication to Master Persuasion

You are a proficient communicator, you speak with potential clients every day, you listen to their needs and find ways to meet those needs. Your product is one that would be invaluable in helping your customers, something that once they buy- they will find themselves wondering how they even got by before they had discovered it.  But despite having worked on your product and communication to such a degree, no one seems to be finalizing their sales. How can you move forward here? How can you get your clients to see your product as that cerulean oasis that it is and find that final motivation to push them forward?

Persuasion can be given a negative connotation inside of the world of marketing. Persuasion having the negative insinuation of manipulation, forcing your opinion or will onto others. However in most contexts persuasion is simply the final step to learn within communication. Communication in business is about: 

• listening to the customer

• letting them know that their troubles are heard

• and  finally, informing them of how your product will alleviate their problems.

Persuasion is all of these steps, with the addition of creating the intended response in your audience. 

The true core of persuasion is identifying with your customers’ and seeing their point of view. Not simply listening to their stated wants, which can often be dream scenarios and  unrealistic, but to see beyond their words alone to identify what they actually need. To lead them to the oasis that you are offering, and to have them see it as such. 

Will you be saving them time, money, stress? 

What will that time, that money, or that peace of mind be able to do for them? 

While your product may not be the dream scenario the customer is imagining, you can elucidate and build for them a better world once they have decided on a purchase, and put it into contrast for them so that they can truly see what their life could be.

With a true understanding of the wants and needs of your customer at your side, you will  be able to cater the language, data, and tone to them directly. Does this client need to see comparison graphs and direct hard data in order to be convinced of your product’s efficacy? Have the data ready and be ready to answer these facts-based questions! Or does this customer make decisions based on their gut feelings? Curate some heart-felt testimonials from your satisfied clients! Hear your customer’s concerns, and be ready to answer them in the way most suited to the client at hand- not simply the ideal one that you were hoping for. 

Sales Techniques to Help you Hear ‘Yes’ More Often

The only way that you truly fail, is to stop trying at all. Frank Herbert’s Dune was rejected by publishers 23 times before finding an immensely successful home at Chilton Books, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series was rejected 14 times, and Catch 22 was even rejected (a somewhat humorous) 22 times! One no, is not, and should not be allowed to be, an overall failure.

Often the final ingredient of a successful sale, like navigating your path through the desert, is an ever-present persistence. This means not only knowing when to convince a customer one more time of how their life will alter with your product, but this also means to always continue to push forward, find more customers- try your pitch again even if you are feeling understandably downtrodden. 

Are you tired of pushing your product forward, and getting nowhere? Try the cat’s favorite sales technique, indifference. A small amount of strategic indifference, or appearinging uninterested or unsympathetic with your potential client, has the ability to create a sense of urgency or drive to learn more about your product. You know what? I have plenty of reader’s interested- I’m not even sure I need to be telling you about indifference. This article practically has already sold itself…

Okay, I get it. You are listening to your clients true needs, you’ve changed your tone to pitch directly to what appeals to them, you’ve been persistent, you’ve employed strategic indifference- and it seems like they’re interested but, they still haven’t taken the final step to buy! This is the perfect time to use another tool in your persuasion arsenal, urgency. Try to get them to commit while they are on the phone, in your presence or having just seen your advertisement. This is at the heart of every successful sale. Give them a reason to stop delaying, and act now!

A customer is most likely to commit to a sale directly after considering it or hearing about it. This is why it is of the utmost importance to create sales or reasons that a client has to purchase from you at the moment. If you allow the client to simply walk away and consider, your chance of seeing them again diminishes drastically. So give that client a true reason to buy and- buy now.

In this article you have learned:

• To see persuasion as the final hurdle to complete in communication

• How to look beyond your customers stated needs, and into reality

• How to cater a pitch directly to your client

• How to employ persuasion techniques, in order to urge customers to finalize their sale.

• How to use urgency, persistence and indifference to encourage the client to act 

An obstacle, when laying in front of you, appears insurmountable at two distinct points. Firstly, before you have even begun your journey towards tackling this behemoth laying before you. And secondly, when the lion’s share of this work has been taken care of, and yet you have suddenly realized that you have spent all of your energy, motivation, and grit accomplishing this task but somehow, more still lies ahead of you. Having completed the gargantuan task of learning, altering and perfecting your own style of communication, you were yourself stuck on the final hurdle, having to summon that final push of energy. With the tools that you have read about here, learn to no longer dread that final push of energy. With your efforts you will be able to lead both your clients, and yourself, into the oasis.

Armed with the ability to not only listen to your customer’s wants and needs, but to also see beyond what is stated into the reality of what they truly need from you. Ready to speak directly to the clients that you have, but pitching to them and to their needs, not some idealized vision of who you would like as clients. Knowledgeable about how to create a sense of urgency in your clients, and encourage them to take the final step towards finalizing their purchase by  practicing patience, persistence and indifference in the sales process. You are ready, you have all of the tools required to keep your business alive, and lead it to thrive.

Cynthia Doucette