Knowing When To Keep Your Mouth Shut

By: Kenrick Cleveland

This is crazy. . . It's a few weeks old, but very interesting in terms of when to talk and when not to talk.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII

This is a YouTube clip of a Miss Teen America contestant from South Carolina. She's answering the question, "Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?"

Seeing it written out word for word is almost scarier:

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps. And I believe that our education, like, such as in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere, like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children."

Maybe she got left behind, if you know what I mean.

Keep this clip in mind in relation to persuasion under the heading of 'when talking too much loses the sale'.

We're not all on stage in front of thousands or hundreds of people and so, in all fairness, don't understand the pressure the girl was under. On the other hand, there are fifty states (I think, I'll have to send Laura an e-mail to verify this) and I don't see video clips all over the internet and television of the other forty-nine contestants blathering on nonsensically.

Ms. Upton was trying to persuade a handful of judges. When we persuade, we need to keep in mind that our objective is not to fill the air with lots and lots of words. Our objective is to aim our message at exactly what our clients or prospects desire.

Of course, regardless of how pleasing this contestant's physical form was, whether or not she was attractive enough to win is not the point. She came in third and that truly indicates this was not an intelligence contest. She's not hard on the eyes, just hard on the ears.

If you take anything of persuasion from Ms. Upton's answer, it should be this:

Less is often better. If you have no idea what you're talking about, best keep your mouth shut.

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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.

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