Our brains can be programmed and re-programmed. As a persuader you can use programming to eliminate resistance and set forth the course of action.

Pacing and Leading

Pacing involves establishing rapport and making persuasive communication easier, while leading involves steering your prospects towards your point of view. Pacing and leading enable you to direct people's thoughts so they tend to move in your direction.

When you pace, you validate your prospects either verbally or nonverbally; that is, your prospects perceive you to be in agreement with them. Consequently, they feel comfortable with both you and the situation. Pacing entails using statements everyone accepts as true (i.e., they cannot be argued with). By eliminating disagreement, resistance and defensiveness are low, placing you in a good position to begin leading. While everyone is in agreement, you gradually and incrementally introduce your stance's key points. This is how leading is different from pacing: You are not setting forth statements that are unequivocally true as in pacing. Rather, when leading, you are setting forth what you want your prospect to accept. The key difference between the two concepts is that one sets the stage for the other to work effectively.

Presuppositions

Using expectations, we can create immediate reactions to stimuli so that the prospects don't even have to think-they just perform the requested action. Discounts, closeouts, going out of business sales and coupons are used to draw traffic to stores. Consumers receiving such offers assume they will receive a reduced purchase price by presenting the coupon or by going to a "going out of business sale" and act accordingly, whether or not they really will receive a better price. One company made an error in printing their coupon so that the misprinted coupon offered no savings whatsoever to its recipients. However, despite its lack of savings, the coupon produced just as much customer response as did the error-free coupon. Presupposition uses words and language to indicate the assumption that your offer has already been accepted. It is a technique that your prospect may or may not process, but it is still effective either way. Consider the following examples:

Spoken

• "When do you want your furniture delivered?"

• "Should I call you Tuesday or Wednesday?"

• "Your first class will start next Monday."

• You want the furniture.

• You want to receive the phone call.

• You're signing up for the class.

It's amazing how often people will go along with your proposal, even if it's quite far from what they were originally thinking. They often don't even stop to think about responding to you because their subconscious has already processed the deal as being finished.

Another way to use presupposition is to put it in writing. People always think that if something is in writing then it must be true. We often go along with something we see without questioning it, just because it's what the directions say to do. For example, a particular Candid Camera stunt involved a stop sign placed on a sidewalk, even though there was no reason to stop there. The sign was in an odd place and there was no danger of oncoming traffic, but everyone obediently stopped and waited at the sign just because it said to do so. In another spoof, a sign reading "Delaware Closed" actually made people start asking how long Delaware was going to be closed for!

Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. Beware of the common mistakes presenters and persuaders commit that cause them to lose the deal. Get your free report 10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands and explode your income today.