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Gain Effective Influence with 3 Significant Insights

Posted 7 years ago

A recent study found that people are more likely to have their opinions changed by an emotional response, than they are by facts. But how do we communicate for effective influence with others if emotions – not facts – play the deciding factor? This week, Gregg Baron explains that it’s possible for strong influencers to actually shift the emotions in others, thereby guiding their behavior. Here’s how…

Gain Effective Influence with 3 Significant Insights

by Gregg Baron, CMC

We see influence as the single most important interpersonal skill you can have in business. It’s the difference in effective selling, customer experience management, leadership and teaming. Influence skills are comprised of several critical sub skills including strategic listening, the use of questions, empathy, rapport building, framing and positioning. Below are three significant insights that will give your influence skills a boost.

FIRST: The insight that is often overlooked is that human beings are driven by one of two core possibilities in any given context. What drives human beings is either a) the desire to move toward payoffs, pleasure, or benefits, or b) the need to move away from pain, fear, loss, embarrassment, or risk. If you dig deep enough you will see this is the core of every decision human beings make.

SECOND: “No one ever changes their mind or behavior when they continue to SEE things the same way.” All shifts in decisions and behavior are preceded by a shift in perception. Your opportunity to influence positively is to facilitate that shift in perception.

THIRD: Shifts in perception can trigger a shift in how people feel. How people feel is a powerful force in influencing decisions and behavior. Consider the shift from certainty to uncertainty; anxiety to confidence; No trust to trust; feeling ignored to feeling acknowledged; not particularly respected to respected; being taken for granted to feeling valued and appreciated. “Your greatest source of power is your ability to influence the way people feel and ultimately what they believe.” These insights are fundamental to effective influence.

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effective influenceA complimentary gift for our Platinum Rules for Success readers courtesy of this week’s writer, Gregg Baron! To read more about other high impact influence skills and insights, get a complimentary copy of Gregg Baron’s Art of Influence Simplified. To receive your complimentary copy please go HERE “The buying experience has evolved dramatically. Unfortunately, sales practices haven’t always kept up. The Art of Influence Simplified shows sales professionals how to close that gap by meeting customers and prospects where they are and flexing to what’s important to them. It’s simple, straight forward and the prescription for being much more effective in the current environment.” –Dr. Tony Alessandra, Author and Founder/CVO of Assessments 24×7


effective influenceGregg Baron, CMC is the president of Success Sciences, Inc. headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Success Sciences is a research based performance improvement firm that focuses on developing a team’s ability to earn and retain more successful customer relationships. They do that by significantly enhancing their competence, confidence and consistency in managing the prospect and customer experience.