Excerpts from a recent interview with Molly Sutherland, CEO of Sutherland Associates and Influence Partner in Lexington, Ky.
Why did you decide to become a Licensee of this program (Secrets of Influence ™)?
This program has helped me personally and professionally as a business consultant.I also met many clients who needed to improve sales and grow their business and have not been given strong tools.
They have learned the broader ideas. They know and use the processes of traditional consultative selling: processes like opening , bonding and rapport, prospecting, qualifying and closing. Using the Influence skills takes this process to a new level of refinement.
This unique theory of Elaina Zuker’s “Secrets of Influence™” is based on six distinctive styles of thinking and decision-making. I can begin to identify a prospect’s style, by the words they use and other observable behaviors.
For example, if someone keeps telling me about the data and/or ratios or the relationship between X and Y, this begins my learning process of collecting valuable cues. It gives me insight that this person may use information and logic as his/her dominant decision-making style, which triggers me to adapt my style to help them make decisions more clearly.
This is dynamic ammunition for me – it is going fast. It’s giving me an insider view to their way of thinking. This tool helps me focus not so much on what is being said but also to focus on how certain things are being said. It helps me understand how my prospects are processing their thoughts.
What else have you learned?
Although there are six distinctive styles of influence in this model, “Secrets of Influence ™” no one person is a “pure” type, each person will typically have one dominant style and it is my job to discover that style.
What if your current closing ratio is one out of five prospects? What would happen to your business if you could close three out of five prospects? What would that look like?
The content of this program reveals the incredible wealth of insights and clues found when we pay attention to the unspoken word ; it transmits an incredible depth and amount of information. When I use these new skills, I now have an enhanced “radar
system” which allows me to see and hear the unspoken message. Now I am able to follow my client or prospect in their pace and their direction. This strengthens the communications in the interpersonal bond.
So, you may be asking yourself what differentiates this technique from the other typical sales bonding- rapport processes?
Because of the unique and user-friendly model, using the influence tools has been like putting the traditional bonding and rapport process on steroids.
An example that I can tell you – I was making a pitch to a landscape architectural firm .They are creative and visual people. At our first meeting, I listened to both owners and focused on the kinds of words, body language, and other non-verbal cues being used.
I know they’re going to make decisions based on their comfort level with me. Since they’re very visual I know they use metaphors and stories and talk about the future.
In this case I will share stories. I literally drew pictures on a napkin of the process, what it looks like and what they would be experiencing. During the process, I made sure to touch base with them to make sure we were connecting emotionally.
How, specifically, did you touch base?
I deliberately paraphrased what they had shared with me so far, using their language and specific words. Here, I was actively looking for their acknowledgement that we were on the “same page”. Having this confirmed, we could now continue the process and ultimately, close the sale.
Do you have any other examples of this working successfully?
Another example in the healthcare industry, when working with the chief human resources officer to whom I was referred to help with compensation design. I first used the active listening tools I just described, and then I introduced the techniques of mirroring gestures and body language while following the content.
This made a remarkable difference in our relationship and upon closing the deal, he shook my hand and said “this is the best meeting that I’ve ever had”!
