Conversations About Conversations

As a follow up to Episodes 148 and 150, Jakub and I finish our discussion of 23 interpersonal potholes to avoid.

For those of you playing along in the home game, #18 - #23 are:

1. Cursing
2. Being condescending
3. Using jargon and acronyms
4. Listening poorly
5. Jumping to conclusions
6. Being negative

As you know, it's the little things that separate the average performer from the champion. Avoiding common potholes can make all the difference.

If you knew where the potholes were before you drove on the road, wouldn't you want to avoid them?

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 152

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In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, I share my four-step process for generating successful outcomes when you're talking with someone who is emotional.

Listen to the episode to learn how I do it. I give a detailed example of how I talked my client "off the ledge" when his candidate lost the presidential election. (To be clear, he was not literally on a ledge. He was using the term figuratively.)

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Read Conversations: How to Manage Your Business Relationships One Conversation at a Time

http://bit.ly/ConversationsOnAmazon

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 151

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As a sequel to 10 Interpersonal Potholes to Avoid Driving Into (Episode #148), Jakub and I discuss 7 additional potholes that we unwittingly drive into that continually derail our effectiveness in our important conversations.

For those of you playing along in the home game, #11 - #17 are:

1. Speaking without thinking
2. Speculating
3. Gossiping
4. Complaining
5. Undermining yourself with statements like, "To be honest with you."
6. Overusing superlatives
7. Being afraid of silence which leads to filler words

As you know, it's the little things that separate the average performer from the champion. Avoiding common potholes can make all the difference.

If you knew where the potholes were before you drove on the road, would you want to avoid them?

…..

Conversations About Conversations – Episode 150

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Do you ever get derailed in a conversation because your prospect or client keeps interrupting you with questions?

If you do, this episode of Conversations About Conversations is for you. I share 5 ideas that are guaranteed to get you out of the weeds and back in control of your conversations.

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 149

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If you knew where the potholes were before you drove on the road, would you want to avoid them?

In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, Jakub and I discuss 10 common potholes we drive into that derail our effectiveness in conversations.

As you know, it's the little things that separate the average performer from the champion. Avoiding common potholes can make all the difference.

The 10 common potholes are:

1. Interrupting
2. Data dumping
3. Being long winded
4. Making it all about you
5. Rushing
6. Mismatching
7. Lack of context setting
8. Premature end
9. Hedging
10. Not hedging

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 148

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In this episode of conversations about conversations, I discuss the vocabulary and strategy to get prospects and clients to say yes and agree to take action.

How do you ask people to take an action?

Conventionally, people ask for action with simple closed-ended questions that sometimes seem to come out of nowhere, are awkward and put someone on alert and activate their defenses.

It doesn't have to be this way.

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READ Conversations: How to Manage Your Business Relationships One Conversation at a Time: http://bit.ly/ConversationsOnAmazon

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 147

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Do you have a process for closing your deals or are you winging it and leaving it to chance?

In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, Jakub and I talk about the proven and repeatable process from my book to get agreement for action and close more deals.

It's not tricky or manipulative. It's process-oriented, needs-based, collaborative and consultative.

There are three parts to the process:

1. Identify the client's objections with questions such as, "What, if anything, is stopping you from moving forward?" or "What are some of the reasons you might not come on board?" or "Where are you in your decision making process and what's missing in order to help you complete it?" (Open-ended questions will help identify objections more effectively than closed-ended ones.)
2. Remove the objections one at a time (Start with the easiest one first. I've learned from experience if you can't remove one of them, you won't remove any of them.)
3. Once removed, make an invitation, request, suggestion, proposal or recommendation (IRSPR)

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 146

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In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, in order to demonstrate the CLEAR conversations model, Jakub and I demonstrate/role play overcoming the objection: "I need more time."

If you face that objection frequently, this is a must listen. You'll hear here me slowly and methodically overcome indifference and resistance.

Unfortunately, there are no magic short cuts. This 19-minute episode is about 85% is role play. It might feel a little a slow-paced, but pretty close to the reality of the time you need to successfully overcome a buyer's resistance.

If you want to close deals reliably, then you can't steamroll someone into buying—especially if they're asking for more time. They will dig in. Even if they say they're going to make a decision in a week, they will remember that you're a pushy salesman and will probably not take your call.

Being consultative works. It's collaborative. It requires patience and persistence, but ultimately it leads to happier buyers and will make you feel better about your role in helping others.

Again, if you ever face the objection, "I need more time," this episode is a must listen for you.

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 145

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One of the best tools to help you become better and more effective in your important and most challenging conversations is role play.

LISTEN to the episode to hear four strategies and principles you can easily use to maximize the benefit you'll get from using role play. We can all use role play to prepare for (and learn from) important conversations. It's a fantastic teaching and coaching tool. I often wonder why don't we use it more.

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 144

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In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, Jakub and I discussed the strategy for creating interim agreement at each step within a conversation.

Agreement at each step is an important part of the process and leads to the ultimate agreement: an agreement that results in a sale, additional business or referrals. You cannot cause a breakthrough without gaining agreement for action.

LISTEN to the podcast to find out more about the strategy.

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Conversations About Conversations – Episode 143

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