ATTENTION DECODED

Let's say you write movie scripts. You write them and then you sell them to producers. Think of your clients as the producers that are debating on buying your script and making it into their movie. Until they buy the script they do not know what their next movie will be about. In order to buy your script, it has to resonate with them. Connect with them and create urgency for wanting to be a part of bringing that script to life. In sales... Lead conversion is about creating urgency. It's not about selling. Selling comes later. Selling (the movie) is a byproduct of the urgency you create in your prospect. Urgency is not about persuasion. It is about painting a picture for a prospect to naturally conclude that they MUST act. The decision to act is an "output". Salespeople who focus on outputs will not sell as well as salespeople who focus their efforts on "inputs". Inputs are a person’s perception and ...

Wait a minute... Maybe it isn't falling. We all over react from time to time. No one can escape overacting all the time. Not you. Not me. Clearly not Chicken Little... Chicken Little assumed the worst case scenario as soon as something hit him in the head. We would like to think we have it a little more together than him. We  would like to think that we only emotionally jump to conclusions and overreact when something can realistically endanger the important things. The things that we care about the most. Like our family and our job security. It is human nature to react sometimes instead of taking a moment to think and respond. Or is it? What if overreacting were merely a bad habit? Just a learned response from a situation that has come and gone. Sure habits are a challenge to get out of... but maybe it would be a really good idea to accept the challenge. Instead of immediately responding to a harsh email, lets wait a few minutes. Instead...

Patience is not a common descriptive word for the observations you make during your morning commute.  However, you can learn a lot about why people are impatient by understanding road rage.   There is anger present when we observe acts of road rage. It exists at such an intense level, yet strangely, that degree of anger is something we observe most frequently from the vantage point of our vehicle while looking at the other cars around us. Crowds and crowded spaces have never brought on universal feelings of relaxation for humans as a species, but a crowd of cars with people in them just seems to amplify feelings of aggression. But why? Some Answers: An interesting cognitive process happens to people when they become angry in a car.   The car that we are driving becomes an extension of ourselves literally because we physically control how it moves similarly to how we are able to control how we move outside a vehicle. ...

Shortcuts will present themselves in life but be warned, some ethical sacrifices will have to be made. How much damage could one bad ethical choice cost though? It is hard to be sure what the cost would be sometimes isn't it? Especially when we have seen others  "get away with it". Does it matter how you "win" so long as you win? Does it matter if you cut a corner so long as you are pretty sure no one will get hurt? It can be tempting to break a rule or two when you "think" no one will suffer. It is up to you to answer those questions but just to clarify... Winning is not winning if you got there by cheating and someone almost always will get hurt. In business if you break your word you risk more than a reprimand... You are risking your brand and your career. Here is a statistic on how truth works: Tell 1000 truths and people will call you trustworthy. Tell one lie...and the other 999 truths you told will be up for debate. The content of your ...

Persuasion is not about telling, explaining, or proving your point... Persuasion is about asking.   Asking is a tactic for making your client feel unique, important, and understood by you. It is a dynamic for your service that should begin at the very beginning of the partnership. Asking is how you will discover what is most important to a prospect... Their URGENCY You should consider a prospects urgency the reason you are involved with them. After all, if there is no urgency or motivation then they do not need you. Later, when problems arise… Persuasion is when you ask your client if the problem is worth forsaking what is most important to them. If you do not know what motivates your clients you have no material to use for reminding them of their initial incentives. Always remember their initial incentives are why you became involved with them in the first place. When emotions run high your clients will not always have the capa...

The Realtor on the other side of the transaction has been incredibly difficult. You name it; they have challenged you with it. From the inspection report demands to surprising you with the “one more thing or we do not have a deal” threat… You have been taken through the mud by this person. You have tried to be reasonable. You have done everything you can to meet them halfway. And here you are, nearing the end of the transaction and they have thrown yet another curve-ball. If this has happened to you then you have at some point ask yourself:   “what is going to make this broker back off?!” Try this: Stop being predictable. These agents are banking on handling you the same way they have handled every other broker before you. They anticipate how you will negotiate/react... And after years of practice they have learned that staying in attack mode works. Every time you respond to th...

Consumers have high expectations. We know that consumers have high expectations because of the disappointment that can be detected in their negative reviews. Experiences that fall short of promised expectations are why customer satisfaction ratings consistently show up in product/service reviews. Almost every unsatisfied review you will encounter has the language of: "I thought this would be better" or "we expected a different experience" and “we are so disappointed”. If the products and services we are offered were required to include a disclosure of a possible negative experience then it would be harder for people to say they were misled and are now disappointed. If all service people were honest then they would all say: "it is possible that something goes wrong with your experience, we simply can not guarantee anything other than doing our best". But the reality-most services and products do not warn us of our potential disapp...