Influence is something that we often forget about as Entrepreneurs. We always have 100′s of projects going on and millions of things flying through our subconscious and conscious mind (at least that’s how I feel)
However, influence is something that we often take for granted and don’t actually think about as we usually focus on creating great content .
With the Internet as a “tool in our Entrepreneurial Utility Belt” we are able to get our information out to almost an infinite amount of people to help them. However, for me, whenever I focus on creating content I usually try to just share what I’ve learned and hopefully this will help benefit someone or another in building their business, either saving them time or money…better yet, both!
Social Networking also allows for us to really have more influence than we ever thought possible. On Facebook, if you post something on someone’s wall, it shows up to ALL of their friend’s network. With tagging on Facebook, it allows for everyone in your network to see the message along with everyone on other peoples networks. (Huge Potential for proper marketing) The same is true on Twitter when you post to Twitter and someone Re-Tweet’s your information, it allows you to tap into another person’s network and often leads to more followers for you and can often turn a cold market into a relationship! The internet allows for information to spread like wild-fire and allows for massive followings to be developed relatively quickly.
This is why you want to constantly be putting out value
in everything you do because if someone comes across your page and sees how much value you are sharing, it helps influence their decision on whether or not you are someone that they would like to work with/buy from in the future. The same is true if you put out bad content, people know and people will NOT do business with you if you put out bad content for FREE, what is your content that they pay for going to be? You guessed it, just as bad!
You may be familiar with Archimedes of Greece, who said “Give me a place to stand, and I can move the world.” after learning about leverage. Guess what? You have that place to stand and it is your reputation!
Pushing vs Pulling in sales, What’s the difference?!?!
Great question! I had no idea either… shame on me for not knowing something…oh well, I know nothing
In sales, pushing is telling people what you want. Think of yourself as a used car salesman, or me. Here’s what I’d say to someone looking at a car…. “Oh yes, Jim, this is the finest car on the lot. It’s perfect for you, I can totally see you driving off the lot in it within the hour!” <– Can you tell i’m not good at this?
Okay, so what is pulling then?
Pulling in sales is finding out what the person who is shopping actually wants. Getting down to the root of their desires for the product or service and helping them find it. Back to me as the car salesman. “Well Jim, tell me what type of car you are looking for today.” “a Toyota Corolla, okay do you have a year in mind or a certain color you are looking for? What are you looking to have with this car? A sunroof? Oh, well we have a large selection of Corolla’s with sun roofs that we can have you test drive to see if any of them are something that you could see yourself in.”
I think I could be a salesperson if I did it that way… the reason for that is because I was pulling Jim towards the car that he ultimately wanted. All that I was doing was being a resource to him and helping him find what he was already looking for. I don’t know about you, but to me this seems like a lot better way to do business with people. It makes the customer HAPPY about getting what they wanted and more likely to still remain a friend of yours, if someone pushed me into buying a car I would most likely resent them for it…
What makes a great salesperson?
A secret that great salespeople know is to build great networks and they do this by focusing their actions on looking out for the other person’s interests and serving their needs. These people give credit away. If you ever played sports and had a good coach, you probably recognized this trait that the coach had. For me, it was a soccer coach I had who gave credit where it was deserved and he instilled this into me. If I scored a goal, I’d always look to the person who set me up with a great assist and be appreciative for their help in taking the team to victory!
To become a great salesperson and increase your influence, start thinking of the other person’s interests first. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!
Your personal Sphere of Influence
Each individual person has a sphere of influence that has an average of 250 people. These people come from all different backgrounds and lifestyles as is depicted by the image below:
Every human being that you come into contact with has a Sphere of Influence that consists of on average, 250 people. What does this mean to you?
This means that if you can influence the life of 1 person, you can influence their personal sphere of influence meaning an extra 250 people. With the internet, you can leverage this and end up impacting thousands of people in a relatively short amount of time.. This is one of the reasons that I use the Internet to help share what I learn, because of the impact it can have because of it’s viral nature.
It’s the people that are in the other persons sphere of influence who are most likely to become our customers and clients. So, a tip here is to just be genuine to everyone, provide as much value as you can and be yourself!
It’s odd, but the thing is…YOU don’t find your greatest customers, THEY find you through the influence that you have. Are you creating positive impressions and positive influence or are your influences negative?
I hope that this has helped you out and has helped you understand the Law of Influence.
If you have any other questions, be sure to pick up a copy of “Go-Givers Sell More” by clicking the amazon link there.