By: Denise Corcoran

Denise Corcoran, a business and leadership coach and CEO of The Empowered Business (tm), has 31 years experience as a business coach, consultant, and former corporate executive.

Subscribe to her monthly ezine, The Empowered Business(tm), at http://www.empoweredbusiness.com/Newsletter_signup.html

Would you like to learn the secrets of the most influential, powerful people of all time? Attract more sales and negotiate more win/win outcomes? Become a masterful communicator and a magnet for endless referrals?

Despite what most books and seminars teach, successful selling is not a set of strategies, techniques or tactics to get the prospect to buy.

Rather it is a state of mind – yours and your customer's – and set of behaviors that creates compelling win/win outcomes for everyone.

This special state of mind – that few books or seminars address – requires you to know how to:

• Change your state (and therefore your results) in any selling situation ... with volition;

• Get "inside" your prospect's head and gain instant credibility, rapport and trust;

• Communicate directly to your prospect's deepest, most significant desires;

• Ask the right questions that will uncover what prospects REALLY value and want.
  Regardless of title or job, every person is in the business of selling, whether it be products, services, projects, ideas or negotiations.

These same top 7 principles apply for achieving your Magnetic Edge and becoming an irresistible sales communicator with integrity, influence and power.

ACHIEVING "INNER" SALES EXCELLENCE

1. The Power of Emotional State Mastery

The biggest difference between a marginal vs. top achiever is their state of mind. Marginal performers let outside circumstances dictate their state; top performers know how to take charge of their emotional state ... with volition. State mastery is critical in sales, leadership, customer service and every other aspect of business.

• What drives your state (and therefore your results) right now -- you or the world around you?

• What state are you conveying to your prospects now -- fear, insecurity, aggression? Or confidence, enthusiasm, service-oriented?

• How do you need to change your physiology and/or thinking to adopt a high performance state?

2. The Power of Personal Congruence & Integrity

Personal congruence is not a technique; rather the place "from which you come." It's that place where you have such deep rapport with yourself, that what you say comes powerfully from within and attracts others, even before a word is spoken. True authentic power comes from personal congruency. It's magnetic and you know when you are with someone who comes from that place.

• What incongruent "parts" of yourself get in your way of owning your true personal power?

• What are you saying or doing in marketing activities that is out of integrity with yourself and the values that are important to you?

3. The Power of Competence

Signing up a client or customer is not the end of the selling process, rather the beginning. Truly serving clients requires that we "deliver the goods" and create real value. The more competence you have, the more value you can deliver.

• In what ways can you increase your competence to deliver more value to your clients or customers?

• What hidden skills, capabilities or core competencies can you capitalize on for additional value and revenues?

ACHIEVING "OUTER" SALES EXCELLENCE

4. The Power of Instant Rapport & Trust

In NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), there is a saying, "Anything is possible in the presence of rapport; nothing is possible without it."

Rapport is not about getting people to like you. Rather it is the ability to "step inside their shoes" and see the world through their eyes. When you see the world through your prospect's eyes, you build trust. Then, and only then, will a prospect buy from you.

• If you were to "see the word through your prospect's eyes," how would you interact with them differently?

• Do you know what it will take for your prospects and clients to trust you?

• How do you know when you trust someone to buy from them? How can you use that information to build trust with your prospect?

5. The Power of Values & Motivation Criteria

People buy emotionally, not logically. The secret is knowing how to uncover a prospect's deepest desires, buying motivations and emotional criteria, and using that information to best serve them.

• Do you know how to consistently uncover your prospect's deepest buying motivations?

• What is it costing you in lost sales not to?

• How might your product or services help them realize their deepest desires, overcome their greatest fears or fix their greatest pain?

6. The Power of Imagination & Story-Telling

Magnetic marketing is about leading the prospect's imagination to a place where they are inspired to use your services. Anita Roddick, CEO, The Body Shop, has grown her company to a multi-billion dollar level, as she puts it, "not by marketing, but by telling stories." Bill Caskey – CEO, Caskey Achievement Strategies -- suggests reducing your stories, examples and value to pictures. To do so, sinks your value in at the deepest levels of your prospect's mind. Use the power of pictures and story-telling to help your prospect imagine how their lives or businesses will be different from your products or services.

• To what extent are you using the power of imagination to inspire your prospects to use your services?

• What stories about your company or product/services can you tell that will ignite sales?

• What pictures, graphs or other visuals powerfully convey your value?

7. The Power of Synergistic Communications & Creating Win-Win Outcomes

Synergistic communications takes the sales process beyond building relationships to building partnership. The goal is to create a "we" space – where differences are valued and used as stepping stones to create true win-win outcomes.

• How can embracing the differences between you and your prospect win more clients and sales?

• What new ways must you communicate with prospects to shift from getting the sale to building partnership and win/win outcomes?

You don't need another closing technique. What you need are the right tools, mindset and principles to develop the magnetic edge ... to explode sales, win negotiations and create impact with persuasion, influence and power.