Ego kicks in anytime someone challenges your abilities, especially your abilities to do your business, your immediate and instinctive reaction is to prove them wrong! When employing this tactic, be careful to avoid damaging the ego. VERY IMPORTANT: When you cause damage instead of producing a challenge, you will create an air of indifference from your prospect.
Another challenge to someone's ego is commonly used by sports coaches in a team environment. When during football practice a player is not putting in 100 percent, is late for meetings, or keeps making the same mistake, the coach has a perfect ego-based solution. He brings the team together and explains exactly what has happened with that particular player. He then has the whole team, except for the guilty player, run laps. This punishment is a challenge to the ego of this football player. Such a situation only has to happen once to be persuasive for each member of the team.
There are many challenging messages geared towards our egos. Think of a multilevel marketing meeting, where managers say they are looking for "go-getters" and "people who can take action." Or what about a teacher who tells the student, "I'd like you to do these advanced assignments"? I have seen sales representatives make a subtle attack on the prospect's ego when they were not getting the sale. They simply say, "I guess you don't have the authority to make that decision." You should see the egos take action!
Giving people credit for something they know nothing about is another example. When you give them credit for knowing something they know nothing about they generally will be quiet and let believe tat they are as smart as said they were. The catch here is they then will try to live up to the undeserved credit you gave them, just so they can lead you to believe they are really smart. You've probably heard phrases like, "You probably know..." or "You will soon realize..." These types of statements are a direct challenge to our egos.
In persuasion, we are faced with the difficult task of building the egos of our listeners while placing our own egos on hold. In order to effectively persuade, you have to let go of your ego and focus on your objective. You don't have time to mend a bruised ego. Check your ego in at the door and remember your overriding purpose. Focus on persuasion, not on yourself. - 31955
Another challenge to someone's ego is commonly used by sports coaches in a team environment. When during football practice a player is not putting in 100 percent, is late for meetings, or keeps making the same mistake, the coach has a perfect ego-based solution. He brings the team together and explains exactly what has happened with that particular player. He then has the whole team, except for the guilty player, run laps. This punishment is a challenge to the ego of this football player. Such a situation only has to happen once to be persuasive for each member of the team.
There are many challenging messages geared towards our egos. Think of a multilevel marketing meeting, where managers say they are looking for "go-getters" and "people who can take action." Or what about a teacher who tells the student, "I'd like you to do these advanced assignments"? I have seen sales representatives make a subtle attack on the prospect's ego when they were not getting the sale. They simply say, "I guess you don't have the authority to make that decision." You should see the egos take action!
Giving people credit for something they know nothing about is another example. When you give them credit for knowing something they know nothing about they generally will be quiet and let believe tat they are as smart as said they were. The catch here is they then will try to live up to the undeserved credit you gave them, just so they can lead you to believe they are really smart. You've probably heard phrases like, "You probably know..." or "You will soon realize..." These types of statements are a direct challenge to our egos.
In persuasion, we are faced with the difficult task of building the egos of our listeners while placing our own egos on hold. In order to effectively persuade, you have to let go of your ego and focus on your objective. You don't have time to mend a bruised ego. Check your ego in at the door and remember your overriding purpose. Focus on persuasion, not on yourself. - 31955
About the Author:
Want to find out more about persuasion skills, then visit Kurt Mortensen's site. Take Kurt's FREE Persuasion IQ test and see where your strengths lie and where you need improvement.
