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Softening up Your Prospects 

There's something I'm curious about. . .

Just so that I am understanding you completely. . .

Fantastic. That makes total sense. And so that I'm really getting where you're coming from . . .

What do all these things have in common? Well, they are icing on the cake of our persuasion abilities, in essence. We have learned to elicit criteria and create a deep rapport with our prospects and clients. Now, by adding these phrases to our conversation, we are polishing the silver, so to speak, making the conversation elegant and creative giving more expression to our persuasion abilities.

The basic structure of gaining rapport and eliciting your clients' specific criteria is 'What's important about X? What's important about Y? And ultimately, what's important about Z?' The softening statements are what you add around the edges.

Once you're comfortable with the process then adding these softeners soothes and encourages your prospects and clients further adding to your persuasion powers.

'So, I'm just curious, tell me, what's important to you about finding a new advisor?'

'Well,' says our prospect, 'I'm just not feeling comfortable with my current advisor and I'm looking for a change.'

'Absolutely. Fantastic. That makes really good sense. And just so I'm completely understanding you, what's important about feeling comfortable with your current person?'

'Well, I just really want to feel secure in knowing that I'm taken care of and that my best interests are being looked after, and I'm just not finding that to be the case right now.'

'I completely understand. And so I'm perfectly clear, ultimately, when you find this safe and secure feeling of being taken care of, what will that mean to you?'

'It will mean I don't have to worry about my family or our financial future.'

When we use softening statements, we're putting our prospects at ease. We are showing we truly understand and are acting in full accord with their needs and desires.

Like playing a musical instrument, persuasion can either be taken directly off the page as written, but its power is best utilized when we get the basics down and then do a little improvisation. Obviously, without the basics, we get a lot of nonsense, but when we combine a solid foundation with these flourishes, it can be a beautiful symphony.

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Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies. This and other unique content persuasion articles are available with free reprint rights.

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