In his book, Instant Influence, by Michael Pantalon, he goes over the framework that gets people to take action because they want to.
People change because of their own reasons. We’re not here to hard-close anyone.
So let’s see how we can influence people elegantly.
Try this.
During a client consult, we’ve all done the, “One a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means ‘not ready at all’ and 10 means ‘totally ready’, how ready are you to make that change?
The next step of course is to help you and the other persona gauge their motivation.
Pantalon suggests we don’t attach too much importance to the numbers. A low number doesn’t mean that they’re not likely to take action, nor does a high number mean that they are likely to take action. What’s important isn’t the number but the process of thinking about why they might want to do something.
So what do we do?
We ask, “Why didn’t you pick a lower number?”
Boom.
This pattern interrupt will stop them dead in their tracks and get them thinking why they didn’t pick a lower number.
Now even is someone picks a relatively high number, like 8, this technique will still take them off-guard. It will just reinforce to them that they believe they are truly at a higher level of readiness, but get them to re-think once again.
For the person who picked a low number, and they you ask “Why didn’t you pick a lower number?”, this pattern interrupt really gets the wheels turning in their heads.
It’s at this point you get them to find their “why” or their real reasons as to their readiness level.
Explore the conversation and get down to the root of their thinking. When you do this instead of hitting them with “closes” to their objections, you’ll build influence easier, faster, and smoother.
There is a 6-step framework to all of this so if you want to delve deeper, I highly suggest you read Instant Influence.
Try and practice this technique at your next fitness consult and let me know how it goes!