Multiple Intelligences and Sales & Marketing–Moving Prospects From Where They Are To Where You Want Them To Be!

The old approaches to sales and marketing are dead. They haven’t been working for a number of years. And yet you’d never guess this by looking at the sales and marketing department of the majority of companies in our world today.

One night, while we were all sleeping, customers changed. For the most part they stopping listening to and paying attention to advertising.
•They started putting their phone numbers on national “don’t call” lists.
• They got filters on their computers to prevent unwanted messages from getting through to them.
• They started complaining about spam to their internet service providers.
• They got “pop up blockers” to prevent internet ads from interrupting their online experience.
They reached a point of information overload and they decided to do something about it. Block and ignore information they didn’t want to receive.

My father, who is 87 years old, lives in Colorado Springs. He lives in a great retirement community. When I visit him often in the evening we’ll spend some time watching TV. When ads come on during a program or between programs he mutes the sound on the TV. We talk, or if I’m not there, he simply sits there until the ad is over and the program returns, then he unmutes the TV.

When I’m at home watching TV I wait till ads to go and get a snack, brush my teeth, or do something in my home office. I know I usually have 3-5 minutes before the program returns. I tune out the ads. Companies are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for these ads slots, but lots and lots of people never fully experience them.

When I get my mail each day from the US post office, I usually throw away about half of the mail I get without even opening it. I have learned to recognize marketing and sales communications from companies I’ve not asked to hear from, so they end up in the circular file next to my desk.

The sales and marketing game has changed, whether you're in a home-based business or a more traditional business setting. And this is precisely because consumers are no longer paying attention to our messages.

Seth Godin, best-selling author of a number of books on the the new sales and marketing paradigm, calls this “marketing attention deficit”. Consumers today have found, and are finding ever new ways, to block those messages they don’t want to receive or have not requested to receive.

So assuming this is right, what do we do? I believe we've got to take a whole new look at our sales and marketing messages and make sure they're are attractive to potential business partners and customers. My advice is start with "personal branding". Dont' start by promoting your business opportunity or trying to sell your products. Start by promoting YOU!

You first job is to get prospective business partners and customers to trust you enough to allow you send them messages you're fairly sure they'll pay attention to. Start marketing YOU before you even think about marketing your product or service or trying to make a sale. Once you've got this new approach figured out, the rest of this special report will help you create messages that have a stong likelihood of getting through prospects' "filtering screens"!

A Different Kind of Sales & Marketing

In what follow you will learn a Sales and Marketing System that is based on the ground-breaking research on multiple intelligences – The 8 Kinds of Smart. A multiple intelligence approach to sales provides you with a new system for “playing ball”, so to speak, in this new sales “playing field”. The article presents a revolutionary system which will help you connect to and relate to your potential customers is a totally new way.

The 8 Kinds of Smart asks us to look at ourselves and other people through a very different set of eyeglasses. The concern is to learn HOW people learn, HOW they process information, and HOW they understand and perceive things. The chart below shows eight ways we do this!


So what are some of the benefits of a multiple intelligence approach to sales and marketing?
• When you can figure out out “where a potential customer or client is coming from” and how they process information, you can better focus your sales and marketing messages to speak directly to them.

• Multiple intelligences give you many ways to more deeply and authentically connect with your potential customers, thus increasing the likelihood of a long-term relationship with them.

• When you know how to use a “multi-modal” approach to sales and marketing you have many more options for helping a customer understand how your products or services genuinely meet their unique needs.

• Your communication skills get turbocharged because you have a wide variety of strategies and tools for molding your sales and marketing message to a potential customer based on their dominant intelligences.

• When you can pick up clues to a potential customer’s “intelligence profile” (which intelligences are stronger and more important to them) you can instantly adjust your sales and marketing presentation to them so you’re reaching them at deeper levels.How do we identify the intelligences in our customers. Customers will say and do things that help you understand where they’re coming from intellectually, if we know what to watch for and listen for. Here are a couple of examples for three of the intelligences.

ImageSmart customers think in pictures. In order to fully understand something, they need to see a picture of it or, if there’s no actual image to look at, they’ll often create one in their mind’s eye through some kind of visualization or the use of mental imagery.

WATCH for. . .
• Desire to touch the product you’re selling
• Closing their eyes to remember something
• Drawing a diagram to communicate with you

LISTEN for . . .
• “I see what you mean!”
• “I can’t get an image of what you’re saying.”
• “Can you show me a picture of how it works?”
Some ImageSmart Sales & Marketing Strategies

• Make a flow chart to show how a product works; e-mail or fax it if you’re selling over the phone.
• Help the customer visualize how to use your product in his or her life.
• Mind map the information as you’re talking; if on the phone ask the customer to create a mind map as you talk.BodySmart customers process information primarily by doing, touch, and movement. They want to know how anything they purchase will work in the real world where a product or service actually will be used.

WATCH for. . .
• Desire to try out your product for them self
• Use their body to express them self (gestures, facial expressions, etc.)
• Want you to demonstrate the benefits and features your product

LISTEN for . . .
• “I have a feel for it, but I can’t express it in words.”
• “That comment really makes my heart beat faster.”
• “Let me try it for myself.”
Some BodySmart Sales & Marketing Strategies

• Perform a physical demonstration of your product or send them a video clip so the customer can experience it.
• Offer your customer a “hands on” opportunity to try out your product or service for them self.
• Show a video of ordinary people using and benefiting from using your product or service.PeopleSmart people often do their best thinking out loud with other people. Collaboration gets their learning juices flowing. Their ability to relate to and understand others makes for strong groups that support all members.

WATCH for. . .
• Empathy with others’ feelings and life situation
• Impressed with other peoples’ opinions about your product
• Mentioning other groups or teams they’re part of who might benefit from
the product you’re selling

LISTEN for . . .
• “Let me repeat what I just heard you say. Tell me if I got it.”
• “I need to talk with my significant other, team mates, close friends, etc.”
• “I wish so-and-so was part of this conversation. They’d really find this interesting.”

Some PeopleSmart Sales & Marketing Strategies

• Use endorsements of your product from respected experts in your industry or from well-known people in society.
• If appropriate, do a conference call where you have a small group in on the presentation.
• Make extensive use of testimonials where other people are telling how the product helped them.Once you have discerned your customer’s needs and their dominate intelligence, the process for using the Sales Strategies is quite easy. You simply take your normal sales presentation and you present it using strategies from the intelligence you have discerned is your customer’s dominant intelligence.

You CAN discover where your customers are and move them where you want them to be!