How much easier would selling be if you could really see things through your customer’s eyes? Here’s how the pros do exactly that. It’s a process called Value Profiling and like many effective techniques, it is not complicated (most salespeople just don’t know it or don’t do it).

SKILL TARGET: Find out what your prospect wants, and emphasize those features and benefits which meet their criteria.

It sounds simple, but the steps in the process are critical:

PRIORITY ONE: Develop in advance the questions you intend to ask.

PRIORITY TWO: Include the following:

1. A Consent Statement: Launch right in to “20 Questions” and you risk putting your prospect on the defensive. Instead, preface your probe with a permission or consent statement: “In order to develop a proposal that best meets the your needs, I’d like to ask a few questions. It’s time well spent, because then I can zero right in on things that are most important to you. Is that okay?”

2. A General Question: “What criteria do you consider most important when purchasing something like this?”

3. The Value Profile: “Which is more important, price or total value?” “Is service a critical issue?” “Do you prefer standard widgets, or custom order?” “How relevant is delivery time?”

TRY THIS: List at least five specific “value” questions you can ask on your next sales call.

Armed with this information, you can develop a highly effective presentation that says to your prospect, “Here’s what you said you wanted.” Then give your customer back their glasses.

Whatever your location in the world, to succeed, to grow and prosper everyone needs persuasion skills. Whether in sales, management, or leadership of an entrepreneurial business, persuasion is the key to success. The Chinese have a legacy of generating great wisdom – They now have The 7 Triggers to Yes to add to that wisdom.

Scientists now believe the reciprocity trigger was embedded in our brain to insure the growth of our species.  Only by reciprocal sharing of food, lodging and protection could our species survive.

Does the reciprocity trigger still work?  Fast forward to today.  In 2008  AIG gave  the soon to be announced chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd, $103,100 dollars.  Dodd’s reciprocity?  Quite simple.  He removed a senate amendment to the stimulus bill that would have capped bonuses of AIG execs at $100,000.  After denying on CNN that he was the culprit, he was fond out, admitted the deletion and told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash  “looking back, I apologize.”  He then blamed  the Administration for his action.  Hey!  Guess What?  The second largest gift from AIG , $101,332 went to Obama!

So some $200,000 in gifts turned into $165 million in bonuses  of our tax money to AIG executives – a return of 825% on their gift money!  Not a bad ROI.

Of course, the public outrage killed that golden goose, but this is a very simple example of how powerful the reciprocity trigger is.

Apply the reciprocity trigger wisely, honestly, and achieve huge profit, growth and success .