This blog was inspired by a blog by sales specialist Anthony Iannarino called “Win More by Serving Your Buyers Where They Are”.  In my experience, not enough of us consider the need to “sell” our advice when we are influencing or advising inside our organisation.

The person or group you are influencing or advising will generally be in one of three phases.

Problem Compelled – They recognise the problem and they are compelled to do something about it.

Problem Uncompelled – They recognise the problem, however, they are by no means compelled to do something about it.

Unrecognised Uncompelled – The do not recognise they have the problem and they are certainly not compelled to do anything about it.

As Iannarino says when your audience is at:

• Problem Compelled you need to HELP them.
• Problem Uncompelled you need to INSPIRE them.
• Unrecognised Uncompelled you need to TEACH them.

As you probably know, Helping, Inspiring and Teaching all require a different approach.  Being a persuasive advisor means you need to be a bit of a chameleon and most certainly multiskilled.

In HELP mode you need to be a FACILITATOR and you need to mentor them along the path.

In INSPIRE mode you need to be a LEADER and provide a vision to get them moving along the path.

In TEACH mode you need to be a TRAINER and you need to show them that the path exists and how to find it.

Being persuasive is a craft that you can learn to master.