Check out my previous post where I've included an illustration of what an emotional commitment is about and how it is reached. Today I want to point out what I believe should be the ultimate objective in EVERY sales call.

Our main goal is not to trigger an interest only, neither to only tie the customer's needs to the product or service - our goal is not even to connect with subjective needs. We can do more and we should do more than that. We need to reach the point of emotion that exceeds the mere fulfillment of a personal need, but also a personal emotional desire. We need to reach the feelings of others - to touch values - the emotional level. This is what triggers energy. Let me illustrate with an experience - this time not directly sales related, but which explains what I mean:

Some time ago management was discussing opening a new office in another continent - other side of the globe - far away. I challenged one of my colleagues to be responsible for opening this office and region. It involved a major change and a lot of work - no easy commitment. As we discussed some of the details of how we should proceed passion became the essence of the discussion. Once I felt we were on the same wavelength I took the conversation to the next level by seeking to establish a connection between personal objectives and the job at hand. Not really hard to do (you know the drill). When everything was pretty much in place, I began digging for emotions: "How do you feel about leaving your colleagues and be on your own like this..?" (A potential concern I sensed was there.) The dialog dramatically changed. The questions themselves were not magical, but the previous build up of the conversation made them powerful. We now began sharing personal stuff - heart aches, feelings, frustrations and over time new ideas. A few tears were shed on both sides and our commitment to actually do this and succeed tripled, and then some.

This is emotional commitment. In short: Every effort made in sales should aim to move closer to an emotional commitment. Mostly it takes time, but it's the most powerful kind of dialog. It doesn't need to involve crying, but everyone knows when feelings and the emotional level is reached. THIS is when we release maximum energy in both parties - you and me.

The ability to shed a tear in behalf of someone else is growing rare these days, but probably among the key characteristics of true greatness. The degree to which we maintain or increase our sensitivity is a deciding factor to real influence.

Every so often all of us encounter people who appear arrogant and somehow insensitive. Without exception we also find they have limited positive energy. Positive energy can only grow if we grow in our ability to feel for others. Please consider the illustration below. Influence comes with energy, but energy is irrevocably linked to the degree of sensitivity. If we're unable to sense the feelings of others, we'll never reach higher than the first level of energy. Unfortunately we find a lot of professionals able to excite others, but it very seldom goes beyond that point. Why? Because they are consumed with self.

If we want to reach other people we need to exert strength and attention beyond our own world of concern. In other words, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of others. The popular term for it is empathy, but empathy is limited by the word itself. In the diagram we can see how empathy ("others") is but half way. If we want to reach energation and really strong commitment in others we need to move beyond empathy and become one with the shared reality around us - "external perception". This is when we tune in to outside impressions that allows us to become emotionally involved and mutually affected.

What do we do if the other person has feelings and has gone through hardships beyond what we ourselves have experienced? Is it possible to understand and empathize, when this is the case? The answer is "YES". If we do what is required to reach higher energy levels, we'll also be able to understand pain we didn't suffer ourselves. It's true! and it makes life richer to live. However, most of us are unwilling to do so because it causes us to share the distress of others. It hurts.

So what does this have to do with selling? Everything! Most sales people make their sales on the first level (see diagram). They'll get commitments and sign contracts based on passionate behavior, but the sale doesn't mean anything to them more than getting their paycheck and bonus. Just take one minute - think through all the contracts you signed with clients. Which ones do you remember? Which of them leaves you with positive feelings? If there are any, it will be those where you engaged yourself on the personal side and received reciprocally - the same feelings were exchanged. You built a relationship. You reached stronger commitments and harnessed greater value.

When we consider the balance between energy and sensitivity a lot of questions are answered and the sale becomes easier and more enjoyable. We practice SBP = SPP ;-)

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Last Saturday I spoke to a large gathering of people in the financial sector. The place was packed. I was impressed by how they returned my vibes. The room was truly filled with some unspoken energy. It was visible in the eyes of each one. Everyone could sense it. Don't you love it when a crowd carries you through a keynote session like that?

By the end I had people asking me about specific cases in which they would like to apply the 3 Energies (3E). They experienced what I call a Born Buying Desire (BBD). It happens when our inside passion is triggered - when mind and heart begins to run in sync - when energy and sensitivity are both increasing and in balance. These are the first fruits of passion and are critical elements for any public speaker to be aware of. However, the BBD is but the first step and only the beginning.

To me it's always disappointing to see how most speakers are satisfied with just the Born Buying Desire (BBD). When they're in front of their listeners and get some kind of enthusiastic response, they feel they've achieved their objective. How long do you think that feeling lasts inside them? Do you want me to tell you?

The Born Buying Desire is not the object nor the end. Why? BBD has no lasting effect unless an individual commitment is tied to it. In my experience the BBD pretty much follows normal retention rates, i.e. it depends on how much you've encouraged participation. This means that a good keynote is both forgotten and has lost its emotions within an hour, regardless of how much energy was exchanged. What's left is not enough to inspire action, unless a commitment is made while the mind and feeling is still there.

Here's what we need: No public speaker should ever leave their listeners without challenging each individual participant to some kind of specific action related to the subject. Ideally, we should establish Subjective Linkage (SL) and Emotional Commitment (EC), but unfortunately few know how to do so. Why is that? Because most speakers are not responsible for the follow up and results of what they started.

No sale nor change in behavior occurs without follow up on the BBD level. Next time you're in charge of a keynote session, always ask beforehand how it will be followed up, to make sure you indeed will influence your students, not merely generate a temporary desire.

I rest my case ;-)

I just did another training session with a bunch of great sales people in Voss yesterday. One focus during this session was customer commitment, often referred to as 'the advance'. Complex sales typically have longer sales cycles, and what mostly suffers is how the client is not challenged to help advance the sale from visit to visit. If only the sales person is committed, then no real progression is made and a lot of time is wasted. Eventually the case is lost.

Here's a summary on how we help someone commit - be it a client, a colleague, friend or family member:

1. Never EVER enter a call without deciding beforehand what you want the person to do (both a maximum and an alternative minimum commitment).
   • Make sure the challenge is something that requires specific action.
   • Adjust your planned commitment if the conversation indicates you should.
2. Always focus the initial effort on nurturing a Born Buying Desire (BBD) through passion.
   • Are you convinced yourself?
   • Is your message important to the other person? Why? How do you know?
3. When positive vibes have become the main carrier of information exchange seek to establish Subjective Linkage (SL) through connection
   • Can you get the other person one-on-one, then do so!
4. Involve the other person in problem solving through the optimal dialog. Go for the Emotional Commitment (EC) when feelings are mutual.
   • Help the other person commit to a deadline.
5. Do not leave until you have received a firm commitment. If he or she will not commit, find out why?

The model in one of my previous blog posts illustrates how these steps are linked to our level of energy and sensitivity.

In short, here's a summary: Decide on a commitment, trigger a desire, connect and find out the agenda, make it emotional and end with a challenge. When we do it this way, we're affected positively ourselves also and both parties are happy. It becomes an uplifting experience that inspires action.

You want to convince someone and get a commitment? Here's where it starts:

Now that I've covered 2 out of 3 results (or fruits) coming from energation, I have people asking me about the third one, too. In fact, since we began with the end in mind, here's the first one - the Born Buying Desire (BBD). See also the visual illustration found in the previous blog post.

BBD is just what it says, "the born buying desire that results from passion (not just faked artificial enthusiasm) and all that it includes". Since examples are always so much easier to appreciate than a bunch of abstract explanations, here's another personal story - this time about one of the times I seriously failed:

I was once delegated an important speaking assignment representing the President of a huge organization. At the time I was very busy. Life was hectic, the schedule packed with pressing issues, several inexperienced individuals demanded my personal and emotional attention and before I knew it I was being introduced as the main speaker and on my way up to the stand. On a normal day I would have taken a few notes and spent some time thinking about what I was about to say. However, my trust rested with the notes I had received the preceding day. I had heard the speech before. My task was simple - I thought - I just needed to copy the success of the author, the President himself. After all, the power is in the message, I thought, as I made my final steps to face the waiting crowd.

Boy, was I mistaken! The average listener probably got the idea, it came out all right, but it was such a disappointing experience for me. There was no passion or energy. I wasn't behind what was being said. The words were from someone else. Though interesting and important they didn't carry the same power or effect in that big room. Loud speakers didn't help a thing. Actually, the sound system only reinforced my failure to spark that vibrant resonance - those vibes we all know so well.

Only two of those present had heard the same speech by the president himself, and I knew they were disappointed. They knew the difference. I knew the difference. There and then, I decided to never let down my audience again by speaking without passion.

Passion is not equal to enthusiasm. Not at all. When we have passion it's possible to speak quite "normally" without having to make big gestures, speak too loud or appear "psyched up". With passion we can even whisper and the vibes are still there! Before any public speaking assignment I'm always deep into the Operational dialog with myself. People may not see it, but it almost automatically happens. I do so because THAT's what inspires and frees that needed form of energy. If I take notes, it only serves to help me strengthen the passion that's already there, but notes remain secondary. Without passion, notes are worthless.

Every successful communicator knows about the Operational dialog - the conversation (either internally with self or others) that gives birth to the buying desire - the first of three steps to foster real commitment in others. It needs to be applied in every setting where we aim for a commitment of some kind. The Operational dialog is the commitment of self that precedes the commitment of others.

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The highest level and strongest way in which we tie someone to a promise is Emotional Commitment (EC), the result of energation. Most of the time, people instantly think they understand and therefore perceive this as being "fairly straightforward", and I wish it would be! However, to get this kind of dedicated promise from someone we need to understand energation - the means by which we reach this level of dedication in others.

Emotional Commitment (EC) doesn't just happen by chance - it needs energation as its "engine" to drive it forward. Energation itself hinges on two basic capacities:

1. Sensitivity
2. Energy

To be specific, this means:

1. how sensitive we are a) to self, b) to others and c) to external impressions
2. the energy driving a) our behaviour, b) our relationships and c) revealed problem solving

When sensitivity and energy are balanced we move communication in the direction of energation, or rather, we "energate". This means we move the dialog, balancing energy and sensitivity, in a growing degree of mutual dedication through three levels:

The first level of (customer) dedication is the Born Buying Desire (BBD). The second level of (customer) dedication is the Subjective Linkage (SL). The third level of (customer) dedication is the Emotional Commitment (EC).

Today I'd like to share a quick story to illustrate how BBD and SL precede Emotional Commitment (EC), which is the third and crowning fruit of energation:

I was once involved in providing a major ERP solution to an industrial corporation. They had accepted my invitation to come visit and present what we had to offer (a BBD had been triggered). As the meeting progressed we began to discuss and share how several of the key people in the project were heavily affected by weaknesses in the current information systems. They spent way too much time at the office and were unable to put work behind them when they came home. Their family life was suffering and many other personal matters were also put out in the open (SL was beginning to take effect). At this point we moved into a discussion of how the new solutions should be applied to solve these problems. A stack of suggestions triggered new thinking and ideas from the client that even I had never thought about or seen as possible. These discoveries on the client side caused ownership to grow minute by minute. At the end I was asked to fulfill a number of commitments and any action I needed from them was eagerly accepted. It had become their project and in their interest more than mine (EC).

The Emotional Commitment is where follow up is turned around. Before we get to follow up the customer by the specified deadlines, the customer calls us to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to, making sure we stay on a steady course to contract and delivery. This is what we want! It's commitment on an emotional level.

Finally, a warning. Whenever energy and sensitivity is not balanced, i.e. when either energy or sensitivity is too high or too low, negative energy immediately surfaces. The outward expression or evidence of this is some kind of rejection - what I call "malfunctioning dialog". For a visual illustration of this absolutely critical balance see the diagram below, taken from "The 3 Energies Behind Sales Success".

When most people decide on goals or targets, what usually happens is they move directly from goals to action. Why do they do so? Do you?

Do we really believe that a good action plan rests on goals? Do we think that goals is what leads to action? Why should or shouldn't we think so? These are the questions that precede why enthusiasm is dead - ready to be replaced with the more meaningful word 'passion'. I promised to share this in my next post.

You see, goals are nothing but cold definitions of what needs to be achieved. There are no emotions nor feelings in them - take a look at these examples;

• 24% return on investment by the 31st of Dec
• USD 10 Million revenue through partners in year XX
• X amount of <something> by <date> etc

How on earth are you going to produce enthusiastic actions based on lifeless measures like this?! Maybe, if the 24% ROI goes right into your own pocket, it might generate some enthusiasm... If USD 10 mill revenue means something more than just money it might trigger a feeling or two. In general, however, there needs to be an emotional link between targets and actions. Producing action plans based on goals is like commanding someone to laugh heartily before telling the joke, to demand instant fear without being scary or to call for palpitation without the event that naturally triggers it. Come on!

Enthusiasm is a lot like this. A lot of times it's not real, and mostly based on goals not worthy of excitement, because there is no qualitative link to the heart. When this happens, enthusiasm communicates deception, not passion. In those cases - better leave it be. Be yourself, that's a lot more effective. Then, when you feel the REAL emotions of excitement, make sure to not hold back - if the timing is right.

You may be thinking: Then how am I to get excited and enthused - so that I can share a convincing message with a spark that triggers the same in others? Yes, you're right. That's what's needed, as always. Absolutely!

There is a way - thee way; we first need to be convinced ourselves. Really convinced. Inner conviction - or passion - is what we need. And to get passion; that will require an effort! The effort needed is what I refer to as the Operational dialog. (For an online multimedia presentation on the subject, click here.)

We've now posted a webcast introducing the source of "the 3 Energies" - how dialog (O®O) is linked to energy (3E). This is the result of 7 years of research. Watch it now!

Enthusiasm falls on stony ground if passion is not in it. But it's even worse than that - without passion enthusiasm is a DEAD seed! It never had the potential to grow nor did it have life in the first place.

How can this be?

Well, I keep saying: "Most of us perceive enthusiasm to be equal to passion, but in the real world there's a major difference between the two. A lot of people are "enthused" without passion. That's not real enthusiasm!"

Passion is a mental state of heart and mind and goes very deep. Unfortunately, most people perceive enthusiasm (which is often limited and superfluous) to be a form of activity on "public display" or some kind of a theatrical performance. Real enthusiasm with substance does not only reveal itself in extreme extravaganza and extrovert ecstatic demeanor. It's sad that this stereotype has been established so widely among so many. Real enthusiasm, which from now on I will replace with 'passion', channels energy in such a way that every activity is empowered to move the world around you in the desired direction. This is why successful people have success. It's not so much what they do, but what's behind what they do. THIS is what turns it into success, because success is the sum of all, not one or two isolated activities alone. Whereas enthusiasm often seems to be a fleeting trait, passion stays with us regardless of where we are, who we are with and what we do. Passion is power even when we are alone!

In my next post I'll share more on why enthusiasm is dead - now ready to be replaced with the more meaningful and pregnant word 'passion'.

When releasing the 3 Energies on Thursday end of October next year we're finally and officially launching the concept of "energation", too. It's something I've been looking forward to for a very long time.

From a simplified perspective energation is the combination of communication and energy - almost "energetic communication", if you will. But it's so much more than this. Research preceding this new word has suggested the following official definition - and it's taken 4 years to agree on this very "pregnant" summary:

To interact closely through passion, connection and innovation, reaching understanding and commitment beyond natural ability.

Of course it's hard to explain the full meaning of energation in a brief blog post like this, but here's what I'd like to point out as a bare minimum; energation reaches others on a higher level. (In fact, on a "third level", but that's an entirely different discussion). Energation makes it possible "to be sold" in stead of having to sell. How would you like to position yourself by communicating in such a way that your customer is asking for your help? This is the essence of energation. It leverages three specific fruits:

• Born Buying Desire (BBD)
• Subjective Linkage (SL)
• Emotional Commitment (EC)

I'll have to say more about these three elements at a later stage, I guess. The main thing is; in sum energation results in three fruits representing the solution to "all" those typical problems sales people so often struggle with today; finding new prospects, spending time and strength on the right opportunities, too long sales cycles because their unable to close the business, quote and win stretch business*, accurate predictions about pipeline probability and building faithful client relationships, to just name a very few.

Can you see why I'm so excited about finally getting the 3 Energies to market?! There's so much in basic core sales that needs solid clarification. Now it's all coming folks ;-)

* Contracts of significantly bigger size than what has been closed in the past.