How to Get Anyone to Do Anything Fast Instant Influence

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Influence and persuasion are the keys to unlocking Fort Knox. Steve Jobs built Apple from nothing to a 350 Billion powerhouse with his two main powers, influence and persuasion. I have read several books on the subject of influencers I was really skeptical when I read the cover of Michael’s book. I am glad I read the book because there are some very relevant facts that you can take away from it and use today.

Why is this important to me? I like to ask this question because if I cannot answer it then there is no point asking you to waste your time reading this article or watching the video. I am very curious about the art of influencer discovery.

1. Power of “Why” – Why has to be one of the most important questions on earth. Understanding why things happen & why people do things is critical in any type of influence and leadership. Think about it, would you follow anybody that does not ask questions and understand the Why behind the cause? Leadership is influence and having a “compelling why” is critical.

2. Discovery – One critical distinction about Instant Influence is that it does not SELL people on action. You cannot convince people of anything, true influence is their discovery of it. That is a big difference and the only way to get people to discover something is through questioning.

Instant influence consists of ten chapters of information designed to help you understand the power of questioning and discovery. For the sake of time, I will cover a few key points.

 Step question process- This process works by NOT telling people to change but asking them why they MIGHT change. Here are the six questions:
1. Why might you change?
2. How ready are you to change on a scale from 1 to 10?
3. Why didn’t you pick a lower number?
4. Imagine you have changed what would the positive outcomes be?
5. Why are those outcomes important to you?
6. What’s the next step if any?

2. Autonomy – The 6 questions above are very important and need to be asked in such a way that the person does not feel intimidated. Remember that this is all about self-discovery and they need to feel autonomous and not scolded. If you take a parental questioning point of view then they will resist. In selling, this is known as negative or take away selling. It is by far the most powerful technique in the selling game. Here is a low level psychology lesson – people have three components to their personality which is PAC – Parent-Adult-Child. You want to make sure you ask these questions in an adult format and not as a parent talking to a child. This is a very simplified example so forgive my fourth grade explanation but it does make the point.

3. Impact – People do things to eliminate pain and gain pleasure. These 6 questions are designed to bring about the impact so the person discovers that it is time to change. I was trained in sales and these questions are almost the exact same questions that I was taught to ask prospects to help them uncover their pain (problems). Remember that people are incentive driven and only do things to gain pleasure and avoid pain.

Instant Influence is very relevant because the questions and examples work. Michael spends a lot of time in the book going through key examples and dissecting the way to deliver and ask the questions. I recommend you read the book because those examples are powerful but too lengthy for the summary.

I hope you have found this short summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit. Habits form in as little as 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is the power of WHY. Why is a critical question and if the answer is powerful enough then people will change. Utilizing the power of WHY is the key to true influence.

 

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