Don't Speak

Don't speak and listen. This is what you need to do if you want to influence people.

If you are introducing something new and revolutionary, you will have to persuade people why they should choose you. If you start talking about how awesome your brand is and pour all the facts and figures, people won't buy into it.

Instead of talking all the time, pause and listen. Listening to people helps them share their current thinking and open their mind to new thinking. If you deeply listen to what they are saying, they will listen to themselves and most times this will help you change their mind.

Think about a time when someone had truly listened to you, taking in everything you were talking about, and remember how you started slowly lowering your defences and being open to new ideas.

Next time you are with your clients or customers let them speak and listen. Once they have shared what is on their minds, it's your turn to build a real connection and speak to them.

Posted by Helen Amygdalaki // Lelou 

Listen Closely

Shhhh. You hear that? It's all the people talking about you and what you're interested in. We are living at a great time, it has never been easier to listen to what people are saying about you, your company, your brand, your services and products. It has also become very easy to listen to what people have to say about your industry and what you're interested in.

This comes with a drawback, the channels are available and are free so there is a lot of noise. When the channel is free, open and almost anonymous it's easy to vent and talk poorly about others.

What you have to do is listen closely and develop the right filters so that only valuable information comes to you. Having that information will help you understand what people need, what they like, what their problems are and what are the underlying causes. This will help you gain insight into their lives and come up with solutions to help them.

If you have something that can help them, know how they communicate and what "language" they speak, then it is very easy to promote your products to them. Just learn to listen closely and carefully, and pay attention to the valuable information filtering out everything else.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis