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Table of Contents
Introduction1
Why you need to master persuasive communication........2
What influences people to act?..............................................................................................................3
The importance of non-verbal communication4
The Big Breakthrough in Neuroscience.......5
An introduction to NLP and Modeling...7
The Maaximum Method..9
7 steps to the close....13
The Importance of strategies14
The importance of logic in persuading someone.. ...15
A quick recap...16-17
The Maaximum Method in action. Real life cold calling script............18-22
Introduction
Since the dawn of civilization, the ability to persuade others on your vision
was the most important skill for attaining success, adoration, reverence,
power, respect, loyalty, prominence and love. Historical and iconic figures
like Jesus, Muhammad, Napoleon, Leonidas, Julius Cesar as well as the rich
and famous of today are examples of this.
That is right! Did you know that Bill Gates persuaded a company called MITS
to buy a program from him that he hadnt even developed yet, for their
mini-computer called the Altair 8080?
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Luckily when he did develop it in BASIC and tested it on their mini-
computer, it worked. Soon thereafter Microsoft was born.
Did you know that Steve Jobs persuaded John Sculley, initially President of
Pepsi Co to join Apple Inc.? In fact, that had a major, positive impact on the
development of the Apple brand and its worldwide success as we know it
today.
Why you need to master persuasive communication
In today's world you need to master persuasive communication if you
want to get the job of your dreams, the partner of your dreams, start and
maintain a successful business, influence your children, raise money for your
venture, dominate your niche, leave alone to become an iconic, wealthy or
famous person whose name gets etched in Wikipedia.
In fact I will take it one step further. The ability to sell yourself, your ideas
and ultimately your vision should be considered a fundamental life skill, just
like reading, writing and basic inter-personal communication. So now that
we have emphasized the importance of learning how to persuade others,
lets address how to do just that.
To persuade others to do what you want them to do, it is important to first
understand the "link" between thinking and acting.
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Before we address this, I must state that you should only persuade others to
do something if it will benefit them. You should never use this power to
manipulate someone into doing something that they shouldnt be doing or
something that isnt good for them. I say this because you will learn that the
universal triggers or drivers that influence us to act on a message are sub-
conscious and are activated by the way we use our body and voice, more so
than words and logic. What this means is that you can get someone to do
what you want them to do even if it doesnt add any value to them or
logically make any sense to them.
So lets answer the question-What influences people?
Ever since we as organisms came into existence, we have had to meet
certain basic needs. Initially these were very primitive, physical ones based
on the fight or flight nature of our brain. In fact, in its infancy, our
primitive brain known as the R complex or Reptile brain was only concerned
with survival and replication. A major aspect of this was moving away from
threats.
Later on, as our brain developed more complex structures, like the Limbic
brain which governs emotion and learned behaviour, and the Neocortex, the
logic and abstract thinking centre, we developed more complicated
emotional needs, wants and abilities.
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Non-verbal communication is the key to persuasive communication.
Those that know how to speak to our physical and emotional needs and
wants can get us to act, without a moment's hesitation. Those I have
described earlier did just that.
However, a message on its own doesnt have any implicit meaning other
than that which we give it through our body language or non-verbal
communication. This was noted as early as the 1800s by Charles Darwin. In
fact we have come to realize that 90% of the meaning of a message is the
sub-text or the underlying, non-verbal communication behind it, more so
than its face value.
What this means is that the universal drivers that exist within all of us that
influence us to act on a message we see or hear are pushed by specific non-
verbal idiosyncrasies or mannerism more so than by logic or by words. This
is the missing link which can be used to explain the persuasiveness of
Christ as well as Christopher Gardner.
As we developed a greater understanding of communication later on, we
realized this. However we took it for granted in life, love and in business. To
make matters worse, the fields of sales and marketing didn't emphasize this
either during the early days.
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Sales and marketing was initially based on a features based model and
was very script intensive and words dependent. This was based on the
fact that the frontal cortex or logical brain made up more than 80% of the
occupancy of the skull. Consequently, people thought that you would use
words or logic to persuade or influence someone.
The other 20% was occupied by the Reptilian brain or R-complex and the
Limbic brain. Hence, because of this small occupancy within the skull,
communicating to these two brains was over looked and so was the
importance of non-verbal communication.
Here comes the Breakthrough!
Recent studies in neuroscience, behavioural and social psychology have
shown that, in fact the R complex or Reptilian brain first and then the Limbic
brain are the primary decision makers when it comes to acting on a message
we see or hear. It is not the logical brain.
What this means is that the link between thinking and doing or acting is
sub-conscious and non-verbal as opposed to something verbal and
logical.
The next question then is how do you persuade the Reptile and Limbic
brains?
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Here is how. You need to understand what motivates these two brains. First
the Reptile brain or R complex is concerned with one thing and one thing
only "self-preservation". One of the biggest aspects of this is to move away
from threats, as stated earlier.
What this means for you is that in order to persuade someone on your idea
or vision you must first demonstrate to the R complex that you are threat
proof and that your primary concern is for its self-preservation. If you do
this, then your message gets a green light and is then sent to the Limbic
brain for further processing.
The Limbic brains main concern is to move away from pain, towards
pleasure and is motivated by human connection, bonding and trust. What
this means is that instead of talking about the features of your product or
even the benefits of it, align it with the specific values of the person you
are trying to persuade.
In addition, you need to come across as trustworthy and caring.
Remember you are now talking to a part of the brain that is motivated by
these things. If you do then your message is approved by the Limbic centre
and link between thinking and acting is cut for the person you are trying
to persuade, for the most part. The logical mind simply backward
rationalizes their sub-consciously motivated decision.
The next question is how do you communicate these things?
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As stated earlier, it was later rediscovered or reinforced that you add
meaning to what you say or do using non-verbal communication, especially
your vocal projection, vocal tonality, facial expressions and posture more so
than with logic and verbal communication.
In the 1970's NLP was founded which really sealed the deal on this idea. You
may be asking yourself the following questions. What does NLP stand for?
What is it? NLP is an acronym for Neuro Linguistic Programming. It is
essentially the science of success, excellence and peak performance. It
breaks down peak performance into its microcosm components, thereby
giving you the ingredients for which it is made up from, so that you have a
way of modeling it and achieving the same results. The concept of
modeling is one of the main foundations of NLP.
For instance, if someone is doing something at a greater degree of
excellence than their peers or counterparts in sports, business, politics, in
their relationships, NLP really breaks down their results.
It looks at that persons inner game(beliefs, mental habits, attitude), the
linguistic patterns(both verbal and non-verbal) they use to communicate
with others and to themselves, other elements of their non-verbal
communication and finally specific actions that person is taking that sets
them apart from the rest of the herd.
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Using the NLP concept of modeling it becomes quite evident that there is
much more than meets the eye, behind achieving excellence in any
discipline, even communication, if you reverse engineer the process.
That is exactly what I did. I invested 20+ years of my life, gaining live in
field experience in persuading and influencing people, from a random cold
approach or pitch. I also modeled the top influencers, persuaders and
closers in life, love and in business, including my own best self and peak
performance until I reverse engineered "persuasion mastery down to its
basic components. What I discovered was that it is broken down into 3
parts, with each part having a different level of importance.
This live in field tried, tested and fail proof understanding of mine can be
explained using a model I developed known as The Maaximum Method.
You can see a visual representation of it, on the next page. Note that
importance should be equated with square area.
This means that the bottom two layers are the most important and mission
critical to becoming a master persuader, influencer, communicator and
closer.
However in addition to sporting the right attitude, mindset and non-verbal
communication, you also need intelligence, competence and a step by
step process you can follow to create and recreate your desired result.
My Maaximum Method calibrates for all of these things.
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Please note that in order for you to find it effective, you must take what you
have been taught and apply it, act on it each and every day. Remember
knowledge is not power. It is simply potential power. It becomes real
power when put in motion. Once again, I encourage you to take all of the
concepts you are learning and try to apply them in your daily lives, until you
master them and ultimately yourself.
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So, here are the 3 things you need to master, to become a master
communicator, influencer, persuader and ultimately closer according to
my Maaximum Method.
1. You need to have the right attitude, mindset and psychology.
2. You need to master both verbal and more importantlynon-verbal
communication.
3. You need a step by step strategy to create and recreate your
desired outcome. In this case, based on my 20 + years of live in field
experience and success as a master closer, I have mapped out
the persuasion process into 7 easy steps. This is the basis for my 7
step persuasion system. You master these three layers and you too
can and will become a master persuader, influencer and closer in
life, love and in business.
Lets break this down.
To become a master influencer, persuader and closer you need to first
foster a certain psychology or belief system. Here are some beliefs of a
master persuader.
1. My vision is like Gold to others.
2. I have something the world wants and needs.
3. I can help people realize their vision more so than anyone else.
4. I am a success.
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5. There is no such thing as rejection, only lessons to be learned from
which I can only get better and closer to my goal.
6. He or She wants what I have.
7. I will achieve my desired outcome.
8. It is my duty to persuade someone on an idea that is good for them.
You can immediately see and feel the contrast here to the psychology or
belief system of most people in the world who are ordinary communicators,
if that. They are afraid of failure and rejection, they believe that
persuasion is the same thing as coercion or manipulation or something
bad, they always run internal dialogues consisting of sentiments like He or
she wont want what I have, What am I doing here?, This is out of my
league, I am just an ordinary person. No wonder they DO NOT achieve
results, leave alone greatness in this life or the next.
Remember, success is a state of mind first and foremost from which real
life results mirror or match. Not the other way around.
The next thing you have to master is non-verbal communication. Remember
what I stated earlier. We make people feel what we are saying (safety,
empathy, trust, subject matter expertise, care, authority, credibility) not by
logical reasoning or by words, but by the manner in which we use our body
and more importantly our voice. In otherwords, these are the real
instruments that push those deep psychological drivers that exist within
all of us which influence us to act on a message we see or hear.
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First, we need to convey that we are threat proof and care about the self-
preservation of the person we are trying to persuade using both non-verbal
and verbal patterns. Why? Exactly! Because we need to win over the
Reptile brain or R Complex, which is motivated by these things!
So, stand at a distance, keep your body angle and proximity gap wide
initially. Next, your vocal tonality has to immediately convey that you are
threat proof and trustworthy. In terms of verbal communication, use that
persons name or you a lot.
For instance, What is important to you? What do you like about that? What
do you wish was different about that John?
You then need to engage the Limbic system using vocal tonality shifts,
certain non-verbal mannerisms and specific verbal patterns. You do this by
first aligning yourself, your idea, your vision with that persons core
values(emotional states), demonstrate care, social proof, trustworthiness
and likeability.
Remember this is what motivates the Limbic brain. Now assuming you have
mastered your inner game and non-verbal and verbal game, is that enough?
No.
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Although, your success in persuading someone depends, primarily on your
inner game and non-verbal game, especially on how you use your voice,
there is still one more thing you need to make you a Maaximum closer.
You also need to say and do the right things, in the right order so that you
can create and recreate your desired, end result, all of the time. As
mentioned earlier, I have mapped out the process of persuading
anyone, into 7 easy steps that you can employ to achieve your
desired result, repeatedly. These steps make up the constitution of my 7
step persuasion system. Now that is what you call social intelligence.
Here is a visual of my 7 step persuasion system.
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If you want to learn it in detail and have it tailored to your personality and
customized for your niche, market, situation (life, love or business), in
addition to the other parts of my Maaximum Method, then message me for
a FREE consultation. Are we finished? Almost.
Even though the psychological drivers or triggers that influence us are
universal, we all ultimately have different buying strategies.
No two people have the same action thresholds or unlocking thresholds
that ultimately get them to over-ride their own objections or concerns, pull
the trigger and act.
In fact, what influences people changes with time and space. In todays
world and based on many empirical studies chronicled in Robert Cialdinis
best seller, titled Influence, people today are motivated by scarcity, social
proof, authority and likability. In other words, one person may need to like
you to be persuaded to ultimately act on your message whereas another
may need to see that you are socially proofed by 1000s of others, before he
or she pulls the trigger and acts. I will add to the list of important factors in
persuading people, logic and reason. I say this because I know many people
who buy strictly on facts and figures.
What this means for you is that instead of having to individually determine
what is the ultimate unlocking threshold number that will unlock
someones lock and get them to act on your message, demonstrate all of
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these things so that you hit everyone on the button. My Maaximum
Method also calibrates for different strategies and does include this as
part of its implicit design and instructional outline.
The importance of making a solid, logical case to the frontal cortex
As stated many times over, we need to make a tight case to the Reptile
brain and Limbic system first to influence someone.
However to really solidify a "close", I believe you should also make a tight
logical case to the logical brain. In fact, this is incredibly important when you
are dealing with a lot of competition, if your brand is not a household,
globally renowned product/service or if what you are selling requires a big
investment of money, time or space.
This is so that when your prospect does backward rationalize their sub-
consciously triggered decision, they logically know it was the best choice
rather than experience buyers remorse or cognitive dissonance.
Also, recall that some people need a lot of logic before they are moved to
pull the trigger and act on your message. This is why you also need to make
a solid logical case for your idea or vision.
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Are you with me so far? Great!
A quick recap then.
1. First, telegraph subject matter expertise, that you are threat safe and
make your message very self-preservation centric to your subject.
Remember your message first gets processed by the Reptilian brain or R
complex. You telegraph this with the way you use your body and voice,
more so than with logic or words.
2. Align yourself, your idea, your brand and your vision with your prospects
core values. Show them how it will take them away from their idea of pain
and move them towards their ideal states of pleasure. Furthermore,
demonstrate trustworthiness, credibility, likeability and care. Remember
this is what the Limbic system is persuaded by.
Also, remember that each of these things represent the unlocking number
for different peoples locks, based on their different buying strategies. This
way you unlock everyones combo lock and get them to pull the trigger.
Got it? Good!
Once again, you telegraph this using both words but more so using non-
verbal communication.
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3. Make a tight logical case for your vision. Remember the reasons I stated
earlier as to why you need to do this, in addition to sub-communicating
certain things at a deep, sub-conscious level.
4. You need to maintain rapport throughout the interaction, except at a few
key points. This is required in order for you to be able to persuade someone.
Once again, you do this primarily using your body and voice.
5. Do not go for the close or ask for the sale, until your subject has told you
why your idea, product, vision is the best thing for them emotionally and
logically. Once again, this is important to prevent buyers remorse since they
will see that they made the case for it also. In addition it will raise your
value, trust factor and credibility since you made it a bit hard for them to
buy your idea or vision. This is in contrast to what most ordinary people do
which is to desperately seek for the sale, which is a complete turn off. Never
do that!
6. You need to close from the minute you open your mouth, not after a
certain point in time as traditional, and erroneous sales models would
suggest. In other words, you need to be object oriented from the get go.
The Maaximum Method is inherently, Object Oriented.
So now that I have given you a full recap of how to close like a pro based
on my Maaximum Method, I want you to witness a real life cold calling
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script I developed. It employs my Maaximum Method and has landed me
30 + clients from a cold call, right from the first call.
Lets break this script down.
My Script for closing C level contacts(CIO, CEO, COO, CTO)from a cold call,
on my headhunting services.
1. Hi is John, the VP of Software development there? I would say this with
dominant, confident vocal projection and a vocal tonality that conveys
subject matter expertise but also friendliness and trustworthiness. I would
also use a vocal tone that conveys certainty and power when saying the
VP of Software development. This conveys that I regard Johns position
as important and shows the utmost respect for someone at his level.
Lastly, notice how I let the receptionist know that I am aware of his
position in the company. With all of these things combined, this raises my
trust factor and value through the roof. Consequently, John will most likely
take my phone call.
2. Hi John, this is Omar from ABC Inc, in Toronto. How are you today?
I would say this with the tonality of certainty, authority but also with the
tonality of trustworthiness, credibility and friendliness. Remember you
need to convey that you are threat proof to the Reptile brain first. You
do this by coming across as a subject matter expert, trustworthy and
friendly via your vocal tonality. Not as a pitch reader or monotonous.
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3. Very quickly. A close associate of ours, who knows Bobby Rogers, the
Sr VP of Operations told me that you are looking for a great Ruby on rails
developer, is that correct John? I am using the name of someone that is
close to John. It also further enhances my trustworthiness because I know
him as well. I am also now qualifying this prospect to see if he wants or
needs what I have to offer. Notice how my message is focused on the self-
preservation of my subject? In otherwords, notice how it is all about him,
his needs and wants? Good. This is very important. I would also use a
certainty and authoritative tone when saying Sr VP, a friendly tone when
saying Bobby Rogers. There are sub-conscious reasons why you do this.
4. Well I am glad I called. I know you probably get scores of calls from
staffing firms, agencies, recruiters, isnt that so? However I can assure you
that they are not like me. Pause. I would say this using the tonality of
certainty, subject matter expertise but also empathy and friendliness.
I want him to feel that I understand his pains.
I am not here to waste your time as I know its precious, as is mine is. A
quick note about me. I am a pin point headhunting specialist with an
unparalleled track record on finding walk on water candidates for some
of the top firms in the IT vertical. I will give you my linkedin profile and any
client references you need. One of my specialties is back end web
architecture among several other areas.
Once again, I am pacing his reality and empathizing with him regarding
people wasting his time. This instantly creates rapport. I am also showing
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him that I am not a sleazy, nickel-and-dime recruiter who is only
motivated by dollars but a walk on water technology consultant who is
threat proof, trustworthy and credible and ultimately can get him walk
on water candidates. I convey this using both factual info and non-verbal
communication. I am really working his R complex or Reptile brain to
ensure it okays my message. It always does.
I just placed one with Uken Games who made them a dominant force in
the social gaming space and the Founder, Chris Ye very happy and rich. So 2
quick questions John, if I may. Are you open to working with me and does
your procurement directive permit the use of external sources like me to
gather candidates from, especially if they are Rockstars? I am solidifying
my credibility and trustworthiness by relaying a real world example of me
lending my golden touch to an organization and the stellar results that
came out of it.
I am also now slowly starting to communicate to the Limbic system by
showing John my track record and that by dealing with me, I will be able to
find him a similar resource who will make his firm successful. This is one of
the ultimate pleasure points for most CEOs or business owners.
Remember, the Limbic brain is motivated by care, trust, credibility and
social proof, in addition to moving away from pain and towards pleasure.
5. Good, well I have 2 candidates right now that are nothing short of
stellar. They are exactly what you are looking for. They have A , B and C. I
know those are part of your wish list. I can see you smiling and saying to
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yourself I must deal with this guy. Now they obviously are being
prospected by other firms but I have a good relationship with them. I told
them to not make any move for 1 week. If I send you the resume and you
are as I know you will be, blown away, when can you interview them
Thurs or Friday?. There are a lot of logistics at play here, So without
getting too complex, here is what I am doing. I am using his wish list to
make a strong emotional case for my candidate. His wish list will consist of
qualities he both needs and wants in the ideal candidate that will help him
move away from certain states he regards as painful and towards ones he
regards as pleasurable in life and in business. I am speaking to his Limbic
system fully now. I am also conveying subject matter expertise,
confidence, authority but care, empathy, trustworthiness and likeability
through my non-verbal communication because one of these will be his
specific unlocking number.
Lastly, the A, B and C represent the factual reasons why my resources
Rock. I want to also make a solid logical case also to his frontal cortex,
because of the reasons I outlined earlier. Once again, I will shift and in out
of certain vocal tonalities based on what words I am pronouncing to really
give them their intended meaning. This is important.
6. Well talk about terms once you are blown away by the resumes and
interviews and want to proceed. Trust me it is nothing I know you cant
handle or havent dealt with before. However, here is a summary of how we
can work together. If you hire any of my candidates, you get to try them out
for 30 days, after which I will invoice you to the tune of 12% and give you a
90 guarantee. I normally charge 15% but I love helping SMBs and start-ups
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grow. This is because I know that when your business explodes because of
the resources I put on board, you will give me all of your assignments. Once
again, the candidates I have can do D, E, F. This is exactly what you are
looking for yes? Also, I am assuming that your internal HR function or efforts
havent been able to short list anyone yet, correct? Once again, there is a
lot I am doing here, logistically, however in short form here is what it is. I
am making a final, solid emotional and logical case to John about
employing my services and those I represent. In addition I am getting him
to make a case for using me as well by getting him to see that his internal
HR efforts having been panning out. Lastly, I am showing him how easy
and seamless it is to work with me.
7. So what day is good for you to meet with them, Thur or Fri? Terrific. Ill
send over my TOS in the next few minutes. Once again, here are my terms
Real simple. All I need is for you to date/time/signature stamp it and then
Ill start sending over the profiles. Sound good? After he completely loves
me, trusts me and loves what I can do for him, Ill ask for the sale and close
him. So there you go! A real life example of the Maaximum Method in
action. Hope you enjoyed the book and found it to be both informational
and engaging.
If you want to see The Maaximum Method in action, live in a social venue
or want to learn it yourself so that you can become a master persuader,
influence and closer in life, love and in business, then contact me for a
FREE consultation and to find out about upcoming seminars I am holding
and to book a 1 on 1 coaching session with me. You can reach me at
416.316.1921 or visit me online at www.themaaximummethod.com.
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