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At the weekend, Best selling author and trainer, Peter Thomson and shared a simple tool with me that could seriously increase our wealth.

Do your customers or clients see you as an authority in relation to the product, service or idea you are trying to persuade them to accept? Here are some simple ideas ton increase your AQ (Authority Quotient) and win more business.

Cast your mind back to many of the adverts you see on TV or in the press. You’ve probably noticed that many of them feature an “expert” endorsing the product or service. The reason for this is simple. We have been programmed since birth to accept the advice of “professionals” or “experts”.

So how can we utilise this principle to help us increase our sales and influence? Here are some thoughts to get you started.

• Find a niche for yourself and become known as the expert in that area by writing articles, E-books, posts on forums and blogs specifically about your niche. It’s much easier to become an expert in a small area. If you are a financial planner, perhaps you could focus on financial planning for entrepreneurs or working mums. If you are a personal fitness trainer, perhaps you could become an expert in training for marathons or in post accident recovery programmes.
• Establish your credibility up front in your website and written marketing materials using qualifications & testimonials, or by outlining why you became an expert in this field. You don’t have to know everything before you become an expert. Look at Mohamed Ali the boxer, he started telling everyone he was “The Greatest” long before he actually won the world championship.
• Offer relevant and useful free materials and reports to help establish your credibility and expertise.
• Collaborate with other, more well known experts and you’ll find that the authority and credibility rubs off on you.

I’m sure you can think of many more ways to establish yourself as an expert. Please post a comment here to help others learn.

Following on from my last post, I have produced a short video tutorial showing how you can use PowerPoint to produce effective handouts without comprimising your visuals. Check it out and let me know what you think.

The reason that most people give for putting too much text in their slides is that I print them out as handouts. In this post learn how to banish this problem once and for all.

The bad news is that Visual Aids are aids and handouts are handouts. The are separate entities that have completely different functions.

• Slides are there to support your verbal messages in a visual manner. (See my last post for the reason why words on a slide are not really “visuals”.)
• Handouts are there to remind those who heard the presentation of the key messages AND also to serve as an effective communication tool for readers who did not hear your presentation.

Take it from me. Trying to make your slides do both jobs is a recipe for disaster and the result is usually known as “death by PowerPoint.”

The good news is that there is an effective and simple solution already built into the PowerPoint software on your desktop and it is called Notes Page View!

You can find it under in the drop down menu under the “View” Option. Tip: If you don’t see this option at first, simply click on the double down chevrons at the bottom of the menu and further options including Notes Page View will appear.

Selecting this option produces a full page view with your visual slide inserted at the top and a lovely blank page beneath to insert all the relevant explanatory text you need. It even has headers and footers like a word document so you can include standard text, corporate logos and page numbers if required! When you choose to print this view from the Print menu you can, with a little effort produce an effective handout without spoiling your simple clear visuals - Now isn’t that clever! Go on , have a go and don’t be afraid t to post any comments on the blog or contact me at gmeikle@inter-activ.co.uk

Last week I gave you an example of how one marketeer used the “scarcity principle” to influence potential customers to take action.

Today we’ll be taking a look at another of Dr’ Robert Cialdini’s principles of influence - Social proof.

I was reminded of this recently during the lunch break from a course I was running. The delegates went off to choose a cafe from the many that were located close to the training room. When they came back, I asked them what had influenced their decision.

One of the commonest factors was whether the cafe was busy or not. People said that they tended to avoid empty restaurants as they assumed that they were not very good and instead headed for the establishments full of people on the assumption that the food was better there.

This is a simple but elegant example of the essence behind the principle of social proof. “If it’s good enough for other people, it’s good enough for me.”

So how can we utilise the principle to help us sell more successfully? Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Testimonials in our marketing materials, brochures and websites. If you don’t put any in there, people may look at you in the same way as the empty restaurants and pass on by! And now with web2.0 streaming video and podcasting, there is no excuse for not having compelling multimedia testimonials as well as written quotes.
• Case Studies - again as above these are a great way of demonstrating that your service was good enough for others.
• Client lists. Don’t hide your light under a bushel, publish a list of your top clients and see how this helps build your credibility and making attracting you clients much easier.

Audience Participation bit: - Why not send in your own examples and I’ll happily publish them in this blog. You can post a comment using the link on the blog or you can email me at gmeikle@inter-activ.co.uk.

Fear of public speaking is the number one reason why people avoid having to stand up and speak in public. The good news is that this is a natural reaction and that it can be conquered and that nervous energy turned into a resource.

I have posted elsewhere on this site about this topic but on reviewing my posts I realised that I had omitted a few tips that I still use myself and recommend to others. I am to correct this omission over the next few weeks so here’s the first installment.

Did you know that your mind and body really are part of one big system. It’s true and so we know that as well as our thoughts affecting our body, what we do with our body can powerfully effect our thoughts. Here is the first practical application of this principle which will really help you manage your nerves.

Make and old a little saliva in your mouth. - The brain associates a dry mouth with nerves and anxiety so if you deliberately make a little saliva and hold it in the bottom of your mouth it will send signals to the brain which will cause you to feel more relaxed! Try it out for yourself - it really works.

NB: I once saw a documentary on the BBC about a doctor called Manuel Escudero who was able to operate on people without anaesthetic. All he did was get his patient to produce saliva!

Today I’d like to pass on three simple tips for improving your own assertive communication through choosing and using your language more appropriately.

1. Don’t over apologise or over justify.
2. Minimise the use of hesitant language.
3. Know when to shut up.

Tip one: Don’t over explain or over apologise.
Here I would like to concentrate on the language you use when you are standing up for yourself. Perhaps you want to turn down a request from a friend or a colleague because you have something else planned.

The unassertive person might say something like;

“Uh..well, I’d really sorry. I’d love to be able to help you with that but, uhm.. it’s a bit difficult for me right now because….well I said I’d finish the report on X by Friday and .. well it would be a bit..I mean, I don’t think I could really do your bit too unless I worked really late if that would help..and …Oh alright then, I’ll do it!”

Contrast this wordy, apologetic and rambling effort with that of a person who has learned to be a bit more assertive;

“Thanks for asking me, I’m flattered but I really can’t help you at this time. I’ve already got more than I can handle to get done by Friday”.

The key difference is clarity directness and brevity.

Tip 2: Avoidance of hesitant language.
Words like possibly, maybe, hopefully, sort of, and kind of suggest that you are unsure or uncertain of your position which in turn undermines your position assertiveness.
Replace them with worlds like definitely, can, will, must and your assertiveness will increase and people will take you more seriously.

Tip 3: Know When to Shut Up.
Less is more in assertive communication. As we have already seen in tip one, assertive people speak clearly, directly and succinctly. They also have learned to be comfortable with silence. After they have stated their position they shut up and wait for the other party to respond. Learning to use pauses in this way helps you gain control in communication situations, both face to face and over the phone. Gaining control helps you to feel better about yourself and so builds a virtuous circle.

Why do so many business presenters continue to fill their slides with words rather than images? We all complain when we are bombarded by such slides, read monotonously by the presenter yet we often repeat the mistake ourselves - Doh!

Well I think one of the reasons is that many people were taught that if tour audience see your message as well as hear it then recall improves.

The problem is that “seeing words” is not the same as “seeing pictures”. When we read words on a screen we tend to say them silently to ourselves as we read them meaning that we are processing the words using the auditory centres of the brain rather than the visual centres. Hence, sine we are listening to the speaker at the same time as “listening” to his or her slides, the result is cognitive dissonance as we hear and read at different speeds. Imagine the effect of listening to a recording of a speech through headphones, where the speed of the recording coming in to your right ear was slower than the speed of the words in your left ear! Isn’t that guaranteed to fry to brain!

So the solution is simple. Replace most of the words in your slides with images that convey the same meaning as what you are saying but in a complimentary way.

Let me know how you get on or show me some examples of how you have implemented this idea for real - I’ll publish the best examples on this blog.

A couple of days ago I listened to a telephone Seminar by UK marketing and wealth expert Chris Cardell. Now Chris’s workshops are always good value not only for the content he shares but also for the way in which he uses them to sell his products and services.

Chris is a master at building a relationship with his prospective clients and creating in them a burning desire for his products. I have been a customer of his Ultimate Marketing series of seminars but I had not signed up for the next stage, his “Wealth Mastermind Group”. Out of the blue, or so it seemed I got an invitation to a free tele-seminar. As a listener this seminar had to clear purposes. One was to share some really useful tips about the way successful entrepreneurs think. The second was to create a hunger in the audience for his aforementioned Mastermind Group.

Chris uses several techniques to create this hunger, but the one I wanted to draw to your attention today was the scarcity principle. It is a powerful way to leverage people who are interested in your product or service, but not yet fully committed, to take action.

Chris did this in several steps.

1. He told us that that membership is by application only and that he only opens up applications for a limited period of time. (Suggesting that not everybody can join - so this is a limited addition club and by implication those who do are special)
2. He explained that due to the room capacity for the bi-annual one day face to face workshops which were only part of the programme, there were only 25 places available at this time (i.e. opportunities to join this group are scarce.))
3. He reminded us that there were over a hundred people on the call , listening to this membership offer. (So potentially there were more than four people chasing every single place available - implication, if you really want a place on this exclusive group, you are going to have to act fast!)

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that, if you had been convinced that membership could offer real value to you, but that “you wanted to think it over” before committing, the above steps might well convince you to Act Now!

This is an excellent example of the scarcity principle in action. It can be seen in lots of other examples, limited time offers, limited edition car models, “sale must end tomorrow” signs etc, etc.

How could you employ this principle to create urgency with your clients. Feel free to comment or post a question and I’ll do my best to respond.