How to Use Social Positioning to Persuade Affluent Prospects

By: Kenrick Cleveland

"Do not worry about holding high position; worry rather about playing your proper role." ~Confucius

In this exercise, you'll learn to explore your affluent prospect's mindsets through their values and beliefs.

We do this through the concept of 'social positioning'. In life, business, social settings, there are many social levels in which we relate to the world. We can be 'one up' in some settings, 'one down' in others, and on equal footing in others. These terms are very general, but once I get into more detail, you'll see what I'm getting at.

When I was nineteen, I decided I wanted to be the manager of a health club. And so I, with youthful zeal, made an appointment with the VP of the company. We sat down and he said, 'Okay, Kenrick. What can I do for you today?'

And I said, "No, it's really what I can do for you. I realize you're probably going to think I'm a smart aleck, but I don't really care because here's the deal: I'm your number one salesman in the company. I hold every record there is to hold. Now you're going to make me the manager."

He looked at me and said, "Yeah right."

To which I responded, "If you don't make me the manager, I'm going to go to your competitor, the one next door to your strongest club, and I will run your club into the ground."

"Are you serious?" he asked, incredulously.

I said, "I'm dead serious."

He said, "You can't do that."

To which I replied, "What's stopping me?"

"You're not good enough to do that," he said.

"Okay. Goodbye."

I got up and walked out and did just that. And then I recruited all the sales staff I had hired and trained and brought them with me. And then the company had a fit and tried to get me back.

Here's a perfect example of social positions.

Whoever has the most power in a situation is the person who is 'one up'. There's absolutely no judgment involved. One person is not better than the other.

This has to do with logical levels of thought as well. If I elicit criteria from you about selling your house and I get to the higher level value of, let's say, freedom. Freedom is not equal to "I want to sell my house". It's what you want to accomplish by having your house sold.

If you want to move someone off of a particular position, get a higher value of what they're talking about already and use that value to move them. That's the way you can move people from one thing to another. To do that you have to learn how to jump up and jump down effectively.

Are you approaching everyone as a sales person?

Are you coming at them from a lower level, as in, "I'd be so appreciative if you'd listen to a few minutes of what I have to say."

Stop it. That's crap!

The goal is that you want your affluent prospects to immediately understand your value. To do this, you've got to come in as equals and quickly, flawlessly, move to a higher level.

This doesn't mean you're going to come in like an arrogant fool. Maybe you have to go one down to begin with, but realize that these are positions in your head and you had better get good at traversing between them.

As you get better at maneuvering these social levels, you'll understand the value of flexibility and fluidity, and this will impact your persuasion skills immeasurably.

Niche Article Directory: http://www.thatsmyniche.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated