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An interview on voice training
with Jonathan Altfeld
Jonathan Altfeld este expert in folosirea
vocii si tehnici de interpretare a limbajului pentru influentarea
si convingerea celorlalti.
Pentru a surprinde esenta acestei tehnici, i-am solicitat lui
Jonathan sa raspunda concret la urmatoarele 3 intrebari:
AS (AS training & consulting)
How important is the voice of the person in the persuasion process?
JA (Jonathan Altfeld)
As an expert in vocal speaking skills, I have a strong bias in this
subject. I think voice skills are absolutely essential to effective
persuasion in any context.
I cannot recall a single person who had a terribly annoying voice,
who I ever let persuade me about anything. I couldn't wait to get
away.
By contrast, anyone whose voice had flowing, almost-hypnotic tonality
and rhythm... would easily get me to listen to them all day long.
It becomes a pleasure to be influenced by someone with a fabulous
voice.
I train those skills. My students regularly report to me that when
they start speaking, sometimes people's eyes glaze over, and smiles
emerge on their listeners faces, almost regardless of what they
begin talking about. It's a real pleasure to use a great voice to
influence people, both from the influencer's perspective, and from
that of an audience (of one, or more).
These skills include both a better-sounding instrument, and also,
certain kinds of vocal sound patterns, and persuasive language patterns
as well.
AS
What are some tips and tricks/ examples of what a master persuader
does?
JA
First and foremost, master persuaders listen to other people and
ask very particular kinds of questions. We listen, very precisely.
You may also listen. But we're probably listening for different
things than you do.
Secondly, master persuaders take action and adjust their communication
dramatically to suit the information they've gathered when they
listened to other people. Most other people, if they even listen
to other people, gather just enough information to decide whether
to blindly start a sales pitch. Master Persuaders will tune every
element of their sales pitch to each prospect.
AS
Tell us something about listening. We have a saying here: God gave
you two years and only one mouth so that you listen twice as much
as you speak. Is this true for any persuasion process? Is this a
good way to think about it?
JA
I could be challenging people's views here, but I think the above
presupposes that the listener is not using targeted listening skills
while listening. That he is listening... blindly to everything.
In other words, I think if we teach people to become better
active listeners, they don't have to listen... twice as much as
they speak.
It's critically important to listen to people as part of every persuasion
situation. I use what I learn from others to tune what I do and
what I say to people.
However, when I'm persuading, I know I speak more than I listen.
However I am willing and able to stop and listen to people at any
point in a persuasion process. So perhaps I'm doing something more
active with what I've heard when I was listening to others.
Another point. I ask very targeted questions, that sometimes, people
don't know how to answer. Sometimes their answers are clear and
they give me the information I'm looking for. Sometimes their answers
are irrelevant and confusing. In the latter case, I will stop them,
and ask my targeted questions, differently.
I will often ask a lot of questions to get very specific kinds of
information. Once I get that information, I'm speaking more than
listening, and only stopping to listen more thoroughly if I find
out later on that I didn't learn all I needed to learn, initially.
Here's an example. If someone tells me they're primarily interested
in my product because they "don't want to have to deal with
[x] anymore..."
then I'm not going to waste time talking about all the wonderful
things that can/will happen when they buy my product. Why? Because
I would have learned that my prospect is primarily motivated by
fear/avoidance, and I'd be wasting my breath talking about things
that could motivate them through pleasure/desire.
Instead, I'll talk about how not only will my product ensure they
don't have to deal with [x] anymore, but also,
if they don't buy my product, they wouldn't
get [all the things they'd get if they did buy my product]. In other
words, I'll use more "not" words in my language to utilize
their natural fear/avoidance filters/patterns. By contrast -- if
I used a lot of not words in persuading someone
motivated primarily by pleasure, they'd probably walk out the door
before buying from me.
The sad thing is most people will never learn what went wrong! And
there are hundreds of such examples of specific patterns/filters
to understand about how people filter/process their experience.
The above is an example of making communication choices at a process
level, rather than a content level. I can tune the above to any
sales/persuasion situation. The content/context (specific subject)
may change, but I can use the same process in any context.
The difference between me and most of the rest of the world is that
most people listen blindly, and I listen actively for certain kinds
of things. I teach a more effective process for
persuasion that is based on how each person understands the world
around them.
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