In the following video, you will learn the "Magic Words" that get people to listen to your ideas and take action.
Video by Productivity Game
Key Takeaways
"Changing a couple of words can make all the difference in the results you get from your conversations."
The right words can have a profound impact on our behavior. Just consider your name — When someone says your name they can immediately get your attention.
Author Phil Jones has discovered a set of words that reliably capture attention of prospects and customers and influence them to buy his products — which have ranged from sports merchandise to sales training programs.
You and I can use Phil’s magic words of influence at work to get our co-workers and customers to buy into ideas and buy what we’re selling. These magic words don’t work all the time, but they work most of the time, with most people.
Part 1. Attention (OK I'm listening...)
To capture someone’s attention try one of the following two questions:
1. What do you know about…?
Several years ago I worked in an office managing engineering projects and one day I tried to convince my boss to get the office to use new project management software tool called Trello. It’s a simple Kanban board program, but my boss wasn’t receptive to the idea.
Now after reading “Exactly What to Say” here’s how I would have started my pitch — what do you know about Trello?
The question would have put my boss’s mind to work, searching for Trello knowledge. Upon realizing he didn’t know much about Trello, he naturally be curious to know more.
At that point I’d had the opportunity to introduce a few unexpected benefits of using Trello. I could show on my computer screen and show him a few features that would make it easy for a team to collaborate and complete projects.
When you ask the magic words: what you know about? It’s like you’re inviting someone to play a trivia game.
- The recipient of your question can’t help but stop what they’re thinking about and start thinking about the topic you’ve just asked them about.
- If they know something will they’ll be eager to see if they were right, and if they don’t know anything they’ll want to know something.
2. How open-minded are you…?
I could have asked my boss how open-minded are you to a new way of managing projects?
Few people want to be known as being closed-minded, so to save face, my boss would have likely paused and listened to what I had to say — Even if he was opposed to a new way of managing projects.
- When you ask someone how open minded are you, you give the person you’re asking the chance to look good just by hearing you out.
Now if I were selling this book “Exactly What to Say” to a business owner I would start by using both sets of attention-grabbing magic words.
- What do you know about the magic words of persuasion?
- How open minded are you to learning a set of words that could dramatically increase your sales?
Part 2. Interest (Ok maybe...)
Now that you got your prospects attention you need to transition them from thanks, but I’m not interested, to maybe.
Author Phil Jones says moving somebody from no to a yes is nearly impossible. Before you can move someone to a full agreement, your first action is to move them to position of maybe.
The person will never move from no to maybe, unless they can see themselves using your product or implementing your idea. Therefore the next set of magic words are: just imagine.
- I could have told my boss just imagine if you could take a glance at a project board and know how the project was going.
- Or just imagine having the flexibility to view an updated project board from anywhere on your phone while on the subway or on your iPad at home — that’s possible with Trello.
Just imagine is the adult equivalent to once upon a time.
When you hear the words “just imagine” the subconscious brain kicks a switch and opens up the image viewer and it cannot help but picture the very scenario you’re creating.
- A few examples from the book are just imagine how things will be in six months time once you have implemented this or just imagine the look in your kids face when they see you achieve this.
Getting someone to imagine the positive difference your idea or product can make is a sure way to increase interest, but why stop at getting them to visualize the future? Get them to feel it too with the following set of magic words: how would you feel if…?
- I could have asked my boss, how would you feel if you could quickly update, prioritize and assign project tasks?
- These magic words would have got my boss to mentally time travel to a better future and get a feel for the difference that a new management software can make.
"People make decisions based on what feels right first. If we can make it feel right, the rest is easy."
- If I were trying to get a business owner interested in this book “Exactly What to Say” I would ask how would you feel if more people were interested in your product and just imagine if you could get new customers by using a few magic words.
Part 3. Decision (Ok, i'll do it...)
Now that you’ve grabbed someone’s attention and increased their interest in your product or idea you need to push them to make a final decision. If you don’t, they’ll simply put it off.
"To me the primary job description of all sales professionals is to be decision catalyst in the lives of their customers and prospects. A sales job can be more simply described as a professional mind maker upper."
If you want to become a professional mind maker upper, use the following set of magic words: the way I see it you have three options.
The key is to follow up this phrase.
- The first option being the troublesome status quo.
- The second option being a laborious alternative
- The third option being the option you want them to pick
If you frame the last option as the path of least resistance, it will become the obvious choice.
- To aid my boss’s decision to go with a new project management software program, I should have said: the way I see it we have three options:
- First we could keep using our old project management software and continue to waste several hours updating projects and getting accurate status updates.
- Second we could spend several hours trying to find another project management software solution.
- Third we could give Trello a try.
Since the first two options seem painful the third option is the easy choice
"The rhythm of three makes for easy listening for the other person and by leaving your preferred choice until the end, you easily build the value of that option and load the choices so your preferred outcome stands out as a clear favorite."
- If I were trying to sell this book to a business owner I’d help clarify their options and get them to take action by saying—the way I see it you have three options:
- first keep using the skills you have and hope your sales improve, second spend thousands of dollars attending sales workshops, the third pick up this short book for $11.99 and substantially improve your sales skills and increase your revenue.
"The right words at the right time can make all the difference."