How to Use Social Positioning to Persuade Affluent Prospects

"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.

The idea of social position has a lot to do with how you view yourself in a particular context. Are you 'one up' at work, 'equal' at home, and maybe 'one down' when dealing with police officers? These are broad generalizations which I'm using just to give you the idea.

As a nineteen year old, I was working in a health club, and I decided I wanted to be the manager. So I went to see the VP of the company I was working for, and he said to me, 'What can I do for you today, Kenrick?'

To which I responded, "It's not what you can do for me, it's what I'm going to do for you. As your top salesman, I hold every company record in sales and you're going to make me the manager of this club."

"Yeah, right," he said.

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."

"You can't do that."

"There's nothing stopping me."

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

I said, "Okay. Goodbye."

I walked out and did exactly what I said I was going to do. I recruited all of the staff, the staff I had hired and trained, and took them with me. This is about the time the old club had a fit and tried to hire 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 is also present in logical levels of though. If I'm eliciting your criteria about what it means to sell your house and get to the highest level of 'freedom', for you, freedom equals having your house sold.

You have to get comfortable moving from one level to another. When you are, you'll easily be able to move someone from one position to another by using their highest values and criteria to maneuver them.

How do you approach your prospects? As a 'sales person'?

Are you working from a lower level and supplicating yourself, saying, "I'm so lucky that you're even listening to me. Thank you so much for just a few minutes of your time"?

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 isn't about being an arrogant jerk. It's about learning to maneuver these levels as the situation dictates. Realize that these positions are completely in your head and they are entirely about your intention in the interaction.

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.

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to sell to affluent clients using persuasion strategies. He runs unique public and private seminars and offers home study courses, audio/visual learning tools, and coaching programs in persuasion techniques. Find more free articles at www.MAXpersuasion.com/blog. Be sure to sign up for his free report entitled "Yes! Persuasion."