This is the way that I make my living in my business. I sell toy model rockets to my customers, and solve the problems that they have. It sounds strange, but they tell me all sorts of problems, and I help them alleviate those issues by selling them a toy. On some days, I wonder why it works so easily. But then, this is the principle of “Being Fruitful” – and God has promised a reward for it. In my case, I’m just trying to be obedient to his word because I know that the rewards are guaranteed to follow

Listening for Wealth: Method 2

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The second way of making money by listening, is to listen to wise men that can help you to make better choices. In this way too, I’ve been blessed. I’ve had some great coaches that have helped me to see the consequences of the choices I’ve needed to make.

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. – Proverbs 15:22
 (NIV)

You know this of course. This is also common sense. So why do I even mention it?

Because most Christians don’t want to hear the advice of others. They know it will involve  a four-letter word: “work.”

Something is Different Here…

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Every day, I’m amazed at the number of people that stumble across this web site. Literally, I am astonished. I have come to the conclusion that YOU have been led to this web site by the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, I cannot explain it. The Holy Spirit has guided the clicks of your computer mouse to get you to this page.

Yes. I believe this. You aren’t here by accident, because what I’ve written here is highly specific. It isn’t the message of “the pot of gold is waiting for you to grab it.” In fact, it is the opposite.

The message that I feel that the Holy Spirit has laid on my heart is one that is hard to tell people. It is a message that you have to work to reap a financial reward.

I’m telling you… Most Christians that I meet, HATE hearing this message. They want to hear the message that God controls everything, and therefore, he will cause the fish to flow into your nets, so that you don’t have to work. They want the “lottery god.”

They don’t want to hear the part of the fishermen that toiled ALL NIGHT and didn’t catch a thing (John 21:3). They don’t even want to hear the “instruction” that tells them where to find the catch of fish (John 21:6a). But it was following the seemingly silly instruction that changed there fortune.

But all most Christians want to hear is the part about the catch of fish being so large, that they couldn’t haul it in (John 21:6b).

Which Type of Person Are You?

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Obviously, I know which type of Christian you are. You wouldn’t be reading this if you were afraid of work. You’ve been researching how to earn money using biblical principles.

That is 100% correct, and that is why the Holy Spirit has guided your actions and caused you to end up here.

Today’s Instruction

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I hesitate to say this instruction that I have for you today is from the Holy Spirit. It is presumptuous to speak for God. So pray, and ask the Father if this is what he wants you to hear. If he wants you to hear it, then act quickly. Don’t hesitate.

The instruction comes from Proverbs 4:7. Here it says:

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding. – Proverbs 4:7 (NIV)

That instruction sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? – “Get wisdom.”

But that isn’t the part you need to follow, because you’ve already been trying to get wisdom. It is the second part of the verse that I believe the Holy Spirit wants you to notice today:

“Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

How much have you spent out of your wallet to get understanding? Be honest with yourself. God knows the truth. That is why I’ve been burdened to speak this message to you today. I feel like he is guiding me to say it to you: “You haven’t spent enough. You haven’t taken that step of faith that he wants you to take.”

This message isn’t for everyone, but it is for “you.” I feel that he has special plans for you, and he needs to prepare you for that goal he has in mind for your future. But he needs to get you prepared, and quickly. By buying the wisdom and understanding of others, you’ll get on the fast track to getting you prepared for the future he has in store for you.

But the wisdom he wants you to get is stored up in someone else. But you have to go out and “buy it.” That is the specific instruction.

The Story of A Buyer of Information

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In Acts 10, you’ll read the story of Cornelius. He was a Roman centurion stationed in the port city of Caesarea. God gave him a similar message – “send away for the person that has the message I want you to hear.”

This was costly for Cornelius. To do it, he had to send two of his personal servants that were on his payroll, and also a soldier to guard them on their journey. He was told to get Peter to come up and deliver a message of God to him.

Think about this… It was a minimum of a two day project. In today’s dollars, how much would you have to spend to send three people on a two day journey to another city? That’s all he’s asking you to be willing to spend.

At the same time, Peter had a similar message from God; to carry his message to people like Cornelius. It was a double instruction from the Holy Spirit, where both people were required to act.

Cornelius did spend his money as instructed. Just listen to what he says to Peter:

Cornelius answered.. “So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” Acts 10:33 (NIV)

Find out what God has to say to you about your future. Be receptive as Cornelius was.

God has instructed someone else to deliver that message of wisdom to you. But you have to be obedient and spend your money to get that person to deliver the message to you. Go after the person today. God has put them on your heart for a reason. They have the message that you need to hear, that will help prepare you for your grand and glorious future.

Now pray! Ask God if this is the instruction he wants you to follow today, and to give you the name of the person that has the message for you.

It is how to “make money, God’s way.”

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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

I almost feel like today’s topic is a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t you respect someone else’s property rights?

But unfortunately, in today’s political climate, the phrase “fairness” is often used to step on someone’s property rights. It seems to give them the moral authority to take what they want and give it to their political allies.

But the Bible has something different to say about this.

In the book of Acts (chapter10), you’ll read about a Roman military officer named Cornelius. An angel appeared to him, and told him to send for Peter, who was in a town about 30 miles away.

Cornelius, since he was a military officer, had the power to take what he wanted from the people. But he was a smart leader. He knew how to persuade people without having to revert to force.

One of the techniques he used was to respect for other people’s privacy and property. Here’s what he did.

Since he couldn’t leave his post, he sent two of his personal servants and one of his soldiers (under his charge) to look for Peter. Now they could have easily pounded on doors and hauled Peter away.

But instead, they didn’t even go near the house where Peter was, until they were invited in. They stayed off the property, outside of the gate:

The men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. Acts 10:17-18

This is powerful tactic that gets the attention of others. So often, people in authority want to flex their muscles and use the power that their position has access to. But smart leaders know that letting others feel respected, they will actually have a greater chance of persuading them to do what they want done.

In the case of Peter, the Holy Spirit told him to go with the men. But the angel didn’t say to invite them in as his guest. Right? And that is exactly what Peter did.

If you want to persuade others to do your bidding, start by treating them and their property with respect.

It is how to “make money, God’s way.”

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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

A couple of weeks ago, I was going about my business when I got a call at my office. On the phone was an assistant producer of a TV show.

Now to be honest, I have gotten phone calls from TV producers before. They typically call to request free stuff for their show. I understand they are on tight budgets, and so they are trying to minimize expenses.

In these typical conversations, they say that they will put you in the credits on the show in exchange for the merchandise. Sounds cool huh? Not really. Just ask yourself when was the last time you actually watched the credits on any TV show or movie? Even when you want to, the TV stations minimize the size of the credits, and they scroll them at warp speed to save time for something more valuable, like commercials. In effect, no one see’s your credit, and you’re out the cost of the merchandise you’ve sent them.

What my standard response is when they call now, is to tell them that I’ll give them the merchandise that they want, but that I want a 4-second crawler on the bottom of the screen when my product is used/displayed on the screen. If they can go for that, then I’d be happy to give them what they wanted. Of course, none of the producers have accepted my offer yet.

That what was going through my mind when I got the call. But this one was different.

They were looking for an on-camera expert, and they had heard about me, and checked out my web site.

This reminded me of the verse in Proverbs:

Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men. Proverbs 22:29 (NIV)

When you become skilled in what you do, people hear about you. And it is “important” people; the kind that you want to do business with. That’s God’s promise.

But notice two things… Nowhere in the verse does it tells you how long you have to serve. In the Bible, Joseph served two years in prison before he got his opportunity to serve before the king (Genesis 41). To be honest, you could serve in anonymity for decades and decades if you don’t take some extra steps to get noticed.

The second thing to notice is that you are still required to be a servant.

So once I accepted the offer to be a actor on the TV show, I still had to remember that I was not the star – my job was still to serve the person that hired me.

My Service As An Actor

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When the day of the filming arrived, I was early. I was there long before the camera crew or the other actors arrived. But that wasn’t the start of my servanthood though. For about two weeks I was in constant conversation with the producer, offering him technical advice on how to make the show better – like telling him what to expect, and where he’d get the best shots with his cameras. It was all advice, and in fact, before I gave him advice, I asked his permission to give it.

And on the day of the filming, I stuck to the director and the producer like glue. I didn’t want them to have to find me for when it was my turn to be on camera. I was always in ear-shot, ready to serve them with what they wanted.

Whatever they asked, I gave them. Even though I was the technical expert, I was there to help them fulfill their vision (not mine).

In the end, that is what happened. The email I got from the producer last night said:

“Our director, Dave, thought it was visually the most exciting segment that he’s worked on for this show (he’s done 35 or so episodes of the show). That you for working with us and perhaps we can do something again!”

You can’t hurt your career opportunities by helping other people achieve their goals.

How Can You Shorten The Duration of Servanthood?

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As mentioned above, the length of anonymous servanthood can be very long, unless you take steps to shorten it. Most people are waiting for God to shorten it for you. But I believe that you have an active role in this task too.

In the case of Joseph, he waited in prison two years. But he wasn’t passive. He also served where he was, in prison – and rose to the ranks of where he was in charge of all the prisoners (Genesis 39:22-23). When he interpreted the dreams of the baker and the cup-bearer while in prison, he told them to be walking advertisements for his talents (Genesis 40:14) .

After serving and advertising yourself, the next step is to have the right attitude for when you do have an opportunity.

One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will have the king for a friend. Proverbs 22:11 (NIV)

In this passage from Proverbs, we learn that speaking correctly will win you friendship with people in high places. I firmly believe this is a huge key to success. In fact, I devote my other web site specifically to this single topic.

We all need to learn how to speak to other people, in a way that they want to hear it. It isn’t your opinion that counts, but the opinion of the receiver. You have to know what they want to hear. And it is a skill you can learn that will help you be successful. If you want to learn this skill, come to my other web site at http://CustomerSecrets.com. In fact I’m going to finish this article there, because I’ll show you what techniques I used to get the job as an actor on the TV show.

Note: Until the episode airs (projected to be Summer 2012), I can’t tell you what show, or what it is about. But stay tuned to this web site, and at CustomerSecrets.com for more details.

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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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The question is the ultimate, because it comes out of the bible. I believe that God’s way of doing things is always the best method, which is why I have this web site about making money God’s way. So now you’re going to learn the ultimate question to ask a prospect to get them to listen to your sales presentation.

In the New Testament book of Acts, Philip uses this question as a conversation starter with a high-ranking Ethiopian eunuch, who was the Chief Financial Officer for his country.

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. (Acts 8:30 NIV)

There it is, the ultimate persuasion question. It starts out as four simple words: “Do You Understand What… ?”

Go Ahead, Test This Question Out On The Next Person You Meet

Imagine a customer walks into your store, and she picks up a small trinket. You walk up to her and ask this question: “Do you understand what it is that you’re holding in your hands?”

Think about that question. What does it imply? This is rich, because there is so much power contained in this one simple question.

1. It elevates your status. You’re the one that knows the answer to the question. And for the prospect to get the information, they have to ask you. Whenever the prospect asks a question of you, that puts you in a position of authority.

2. The question implies that there is a secret about the item. It is almost like there is a mystery or magic about it. Don’t believe me? Say, for example, someone put the original Declaration of Independence in your hand, and you’ve never heard of it before. Then they asked you: “Do you know what you’re holding in your hand?” It is not just an ordinary piece of paper with some words written on it. That document contains magic, doesn’t it? People died for what was contained in the document.

3. The question builds value. Not only is there a secret, or some magic in the item, but now you believe that the item is more valuable.

4. The question implies power is transferred to the person holding it. Like a Aladdin’s Lamp, the item transfer’s its secret power to the person holding it. That makes them more important. You’ve probably heard people, after shaking hands with a famous person, say something like: “I’ll never wash my hand again.” Or, seeing a friend shake the hand of a famous person, you might say: “You lucky dog, you got to shake his hand.” They feel more powerful, just by holding it for a few seconds, and having someone else recognize the transference.

5. It forces a dialog between you and the prospect, which is initiated by the prospect. It is much better than asking them: “Do you need any help?” To which the common phrase is: “No thanks, I’m just looking.” With this question, they have to respond back to you.

Listen to what the Ethiopian says in the bible when asked this question:

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Acts 8:31 (NIV)

In conclusion, there are only two possible answers to that question: yes or no – not: “no thanks, I’m just looking.”

If they say yes, they didn’t get the question. So follow it up with: “Do you REALLY understand what it is that you’re holding?” When you emphasize the word “really,” you have them in your hand.

So it doesn’t matter if you’re sharing the gospel with someone, or trying to get them to listen to your sales pitch, try out the ultimate persuasion question.

By the way, did you notice that I used it in the headline of this article? It made you read the whole thing, didn’t it?

For more tips on making money, please also visit my other web site: http://CustomerSecrets.com

Until next time, Be Fruitful.
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Say you considered yourself a couch potato, and you wanted to lose weight. The first thing you should do is to change your metaphor so that you stop reminding yourself that you’re a couch potato. How about changing your metaphor to a lightning bolt?

I made this video for my other web site, called CustomerSecrets.com. In it, I explain how metaphors work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But did you know that this is a biblical technique?

In the book of Judges, we hear the story of Gideon. He had an inferiority complex, and God knew it. When the Angle of the Lord came to him, he was immediately given a new metaphor to change his attitude, which resulted in a change of behavior:

Judges 6:11-16 (NIV)

¹¹ The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹² When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

¹³ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴ The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶ The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

This is a powerful tool that you can use to help your customers overcome their fears of buying what you’re selling. Give them a new picture of what their future life will be.

Until next time, Be Fruitful.
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Today, I want to look at something that doesn’t seem like a money-making tip. That is to “forgive” those that wrong you, and then to bless them.

Huh?

I want you to think about this from the perspective of making money. I know that this is hard, and you’re probably not seeing the reward for forgiving others and blessing them. So I’ll tell you how it works for making more money. This is an investment!

When you make an investment, what you’re doing is paying now, and reaping the results sometime in the future. Obviously, we want the results as soon as possible, but many times, you don’t see the fruition for a long long time. That is part one of the formula.

The second part is that the person you forgive is probably not the one that is going to be the one that provides the reward for your investment.

Here is how I see this investment working. Imagine you are watching a mom and her son at the breakfast table. The son spills his milk.

The mom says to the boy: “I forgive you Tommy, but please try to be more careful in the future.”

Now, imagine you are witnessing a verbal tussle between a parent and her teenage daughter. It might go something like this:

The teenager feels he was wronged, and tells the parent so: “You told me you were going to pick me up at exactly 4:30, and you didn’t get there until almost 5. Now I’m late for … grrrrr”

The parent looks at the daughter and says: “I’m so sorry. I was stuck in traffic. Will you forgive me?”

“No. You should have known there was going to be traffic and left home earlier. “ says the daughter.

As a bystander, can you tell which person is the adult in each of these situations?

That’s right. It is easy to tell them apart. The person that forgives and the person that asks for forgiveness “is” the adult.

Now image you were a customer. Which person in each of these situations would you rather do business with?

This is a no-brainer decision. You always want to do business with the person that is more “adult.” Right?

That is why it makes business sense to forgive people, and to ask for forgiveness when you’ve wronged someone. SOMEONE is ALWAYS watching your actions. And it is usually a prospect that you want to do business with.

You have to get this driven into your head. The act of forgiving and the act of asking for forgiveness are two powerful ways to advertise yourself to future customers. You demonstrate in advance that you are an adult, and that you take responsibility for your side of the transaction. You don’t blame others, and you don’t act like a victim. This is a powerful way to prove that your different to your potential customers.

It is therefore an investment in future business the acts of forgiving and asking for forgiveness.

Whenever someone hurts us, our natural inclination is to get even. In other words, to take retribution on them.

This is a common advertising theme, and I’ve written out it extensively in my booklet “Emotional Copywriting Revealed” (which you can get today for just 99 cents on Amazon). What I don’t tell you in the booklet is that this is one of the most powerful tools advertisers have to get you to buy their products – today – not tomorrow. It is a fast acting trigger, which is why it is used so extensively.

But the desire to get retribution has an Achilles heel. As soon as someone asks for forgiveness for the wrong that they’ve committed, the desire to get retribution is completely extinguished.

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of examples of this in your own life. You’ve gone to return a defective item to a store, and you’re spitting mad. But then the customer service representative for the store makes a genuine apology. Immediately, you feel like all the hot-air has come out of the situation.

In a way, you feel let down. You wanted retribution so bad, and now you don’t get to take it.

I’m sure you’ve even watched this same situation happen to other people too. Once the apology has been made, and the customer continues to be angry, what do you think of them?

“Dude… the store manager apologized. Give them a break,” you might say to them. Right?

Think about this… What happened? You, as the outside observer, have now taken sides with the merchant. You are more likely to do business with them, aren’t you? That’s pretty powerful, isn’t it?

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” — Luke 6:37 (NIV)

How to shorten the time lag between making the investment, and reaping the rewards?

The first way is to make your apology public. Make sure as many people hear it as possible. Obviously, it has to be genuine.

As soon as you do, people notice, and will now take your side.

You go from being the goat, to being an underdog. And American’s love to root for the underdog.

The second thing you can do to shorten the time lag of your investment, is also found in the Bible. Bless your enemy.

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12: 19-21 (NIV)

This morning, I was trying to help a customer in Europe find a local supplier for their rocketry needs. My company, Apogee Components, cannot ship rocket motors outside of the USA. So I found a supplier in Europe that had the items the customer was looking for.

What I discovered though, was that the European supplier has stolen some images off of my web site. We did not give him permission to use the images, because we are not the manufacturer of the items and we can’t resell them to other dealers. What he did was downright dishonest.

I was all charged-up for retribution, and then I remembered I was writing on this particular topic here on this web site.

I’m supposed to forgive him, and bless him. So I did. But I will remind him not to do it again as I tell him that I forgave him.

And as far as the blessing goes, I’m still giving him the customer referral that started this whole thing.

I fully expect to reap the rewards of this situation. I’m just hoping that it comes sooner rather than later.

Until we meet again, “Be Fruitful.”

P.S. If you’d like to learn more secrets of making money, take a look at my recent DVD series: The Personality Marketing Manual. It will show you how to recognize the buying styles of different people, so that you can craft a specific message that they want to hear.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

This was a great little article, and I thought it was useful. But I don’t always agree with everything that they say. The reason is that a lot of these rules apply to big companies, and not to “small businesses,” like the one that I run.

First of all, a lot of what is said in this article is targeted at companies that sell to businesses. To be honest, I don’t think it is useful to have the mindset that you are selling to a business. You’re selling to a person in the business. This is important, because your sales pitch has to be targeted to the person with the final authority to make the purchase. Businesses don’t make purchasing decisions, people do.

1. Who they are: Demographics

This is the stuff that everyone tells you to collect, such as: gender, age, race, where they live, how many children they have. Unfortunately, for small businesses, it is difficult to record, store, and analyze this information. And in my case, being that I’m in the age of global internet sales, knowing where someone lives is not really useful.

And in reality, the only real purpose of this information is to target your marketing efforts. For example, if you wanted to buy a magazine advertisement, you would probably use this information to target which one to pick to hit the people that are similar to your best customers.

If you have time and money available, you should probably record this stuff. But if you’re running a small company, save your money and invest it in software that can be expanded later to include this type of stuff.

2. What they do

What is their occupation? This would be good to know if you were selling a really specialized item, like medical equipment. Then obviously, you’d want to know that your customer was a doctor. But if you’re selling a generic item, this isn’t as useful.

However, there is one really important thing that a person’s occupation does tell you. Or at least it is a very strong indicator of something extremely important. And that is a person’s personality. People choose their occupation based on how well it fits there personality. For example, an active person would probably want to work in a job that constantly changed from day to day. Maybe working with animals or outdoors where the scenery changed (construction). By knowing their occupation, you can often work backwards and find out what type of personality they have. We’ll talk about this more further on in this article.

3. Why they buy

This is important, as when you know why they buy, you can more easily match them to the right product or service that meets their needs.

For at least a decade, I’ve been asking customers why they bought from me. And really, I’ve narrowed it down to just a few core reasons (at least for the products that I’m selling). However, there is a quicker way to determine why they buy than doing a survey that is costly and time consuming and is just as accurate. That way is through personality marketing. In reality, people buy things to match their personality; so if you know what personality they have, you should be able to figure out why they are buying your product. This is probably the most important thing you can know and record, so I recommend that you do it.

4. When they buy

Most products and services have a season. Even doctors have a busy season – You’ve probably heard about it. It’s called the Flu season. You have to know your products season, and this is pretty easy to determine. Just look at your monthly sales reports. Unless of course, you aren’t very good at accounting. In that case, you’ve got bigger problems that knowing this much detail about your customers. You need to get that accounting problem fixed before you can go on to this level of marketing.

5. How they buy

The article mentioned that some people prefer to buy face-to-face, while others prefer to go online. I sell strictly online, which is why I don’t have this one high on my list of important things to know about my customers. But you may be in an industry where you have to send out salesmen to actually do face-to-face selling (such as the MLM cosmetic’s industry).

I also look at how people pay. I prefer cash. But that is so inconvenient to most people. So my next preference is that they pay by credit card. There are other alternatives too (besides checks). Some people will pay by paypal. The reason is that they consider these alternatives as “fun money.” They got the money by selling something on ebay or one of the other auction sites, and they don’t count on it for paying their monthly bills. So they will be more impulsive in how they spend it.

6. How much money they have

Think about this one… Do you really care how much money someone has as long as they can pay for what they ordered? And how do you really track this anyway?

To me, this is a waste of time to record. And beside, so many people are so far into debt and yet they still have the appearance of having a lot of money. But they are actually already broke. And yet, that doesn’t keep them from buying your products and services. As long as they pay, I don’t really care what their bank account looks like. That is their business, not mine.

But of course, if you are selling financial services, such as how to get out of debt, then this may be very important to you. So I left this in my list, just in case this might apply to you.

7. What makes them feel good about buying

This is critically important, because people buy more for emotional reasons than they do for logical ones. But how do you really track this one? In my mind, this one is very similar to #3 listed above. You really have to understand how to use personality marketing to make this work. And then you’ll see some really big increases in sales, because you’ll be able to sell to the prospect in the way that they want to be sold.

8. What they expect of you

I don’t know why you’d even bother to track this, or why it was in the article about “things to know about your customers.” Obviously every customer wants you to feel empathetic towards them and to offer great and speedy service. Duh!

9. What they think about you

Again, this is a weird thing to track. If they don’t like you, they’re probably not buying from you.

And why wouldn’t they like you? Probably because you don’t understand them completely. This is a big personality marketing strategy as well. You want to feed them the stuff that they want to hear, so that they will feel that you have similar values to what they have.

10. What they think about your competitors

This is not something that I’d associate with a particular customer. In other words, it probably isn’t likely that you’d put it into the customer’s database file. You’d put it in your competitor’s file.

Personality Marketing? What is that?

I made quite a few references to Personality Marketing, and I feel I owe you an explanation. It is a unique and different approach to marketing and selling that starts with that one step that others jump right over. That step is to KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS.

And that is more than just the 10 things that are listed in this article. I mean to truly know your customer like you know your close friends and your family members.

This sounds really hard, doesn’t it. But in actuality, all we really need to know is their core values. With that, we can predict how they will react in different buying situations. Just think of the advantages this would give your business. You can close more sales in a quicker amount of time, because you truly understand what motivates them.

If this sounds intriguing to you, check out my other web site, called http://CustomerSecrets.com. It is taking shape, and I’m getting close to finally releasing the product that I’ve named: The Personality Marketing Manual. It will guide you through the process of understanding what makes your customers tick, and then how to set up situations where they trust you and want to buy from you.

I’m really interested in your thoughts on this, so please leave a comment on this blog entry now.

In our last blog, we talked about the first three levels of rapport building. They are the non-verbal techniques like projecting body language (such as how you shake hands), and then about mirroring your prospect (their breathing rate, how they talk, the tone of their voice, and the types of words they use).

The fourth level of rapport is sharing values and beliefs. It is at this level that you establish friendships that are deep and meaningful. It is also at this level that making sales becomes easy because your prospects trust you.

Where we left off in the last blog was looking at the one type of person that gets to the fourth level of rapport quickly. That person is the “con-artist.”

Can we learn something from them? Obviously, we want to do what they do, but in an ethical way.

What a con-artist often does to gain trust is to “tell a secret” to their prospect. Not an ordinary secret, but a reveling secret that exposes their soft underbelly. Something that they would be ridiculed for if the wrong people found out about this fact. At that point, the prospect sees how vulnerable they are, and wants to help them protect their secret.

Why? Because the prospect has their own skeletons that haunt them, and they are seeking relief by exposing them to someone that will help them protect them. That “someone” has to be a person that shares something similar.

In other words, both the con-artist and the prospect have the same type of skeleton-in-the-closet secret. And it is of the same magnitude.

What Skeletons Are In Your Closet?

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There is something similar to a deep-dark — “skeleton-in-the-closet” — secret. What is it? Well, to be honest, this will sound so simple. But it is actually very profound. In fact, so profound that many people do not realize it.

The other thing that is a secret and that influences others are those “values” or “ideals” that we hold dear to. Often times, these are like a secret, because if they were exposed, we would open ourselves up to ridicule.

For example, how often do you see a businessman openly display his political party affiliation in his business? Right. Almost never. And you probably haven’t been shouting out your party affiliation on your business’ website either, right?

But what if that other salesman secretly told you in private? And you discovered that you and he shared the same political affiliation. At that point, you have some instant trust with him.

Let’s change the situation a little bit. What if his political affiliation became public knowledge? Does anything change? The effect is probably exactly the same, because you haven’t shared your own political affiliation with anyone.

Here is a real-life example. In 2010, when the Obamacare debate was going on, the CEO of Whole Foods came out against the proposed law. The effect was almost immediate. Many of his previous supporters were shocked at his views. But many people on the other side of the aisle were over-joyed to hear him come out and support their opposition to Obamacare. With those people, he gained instant credibility, and instant trust. I myself felt this type of trust for the man. Why? Because he was able to shout out what I had been feeling myself, but never expressed publicly.

The formula for Instant Customer Rapport

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Therefore, the one formula for gaining rapport (instantly) is to share a deep secret, which is a “value” or an “ideal” that you hold near and dear. But to be effective in gaining rapport, the person you’re reveling this information to must have the same belief, and it must not have been openly and previously expressed.

Write that formula down, because it will make you a million bucks by jumping to Level 4 in the rapport building process. You’ll close your sales quicker and with less effort. I probably shouldn’t have told you that formula, but I did because I think you’re a lot like me, and I want to see you succeed.

Let me give you an example of this rapport building tactic, just so you know absolutely what I’m talking about.

Say I tell you I despise people that waste my time and show up late for appointments, which is one of my values, since I place a high value on my time. And say that you value this same trait, but that you’ve never expressed it to anyone for fear that you might be ridiculed by other people. So if we ever met each other, you would probably have a fondness for me based solely on this value. For you, it is like looking at yourself in the mirror. You like the “values” that are being reflected back at you.

But if you had expressed this same view in public before we had met, you probably wouldn’t view me with the same fondness. There is some small amount of liking, but not with the same intensity you would have if you never told anyone your preference. Why is that? Because maybe I had done some detective work and found out you had this same value. So telling you some publicly available information is not the same as telling you one of your private secrets. Right?

This is almost like mind reading, isn’t it?

The technique of sharing your secret values to gain instant trust – and I do mean “instant” – seems to be something that few people know about. Except of course, the con-artists. Maybe other people do know about it. But sharing your secret comes with a huge risk. Immense, in fact. As the CEO of Whole Foods found out, his core customers were shocked to here that he didn’t support Obamacare, so they immediately said that they were going to boycott his business.

That kind of risk, of alienating your regular customers, is too much for most businessmen to take a chance on. They are barely getting by in the weak economy, so they don’t want to take the chance of losing what they’ve already got.

But there is another option. For example, consider this…

What if you could eliminate your risk of telling your secret “values” to the wrong person? That way, you’re only telling it to someone that will keep the secret safe.

In that case, you are gaining the positive benefit of sharing it with someone that also holds this value dear to their heart. And the goons that would cause you grief, are not told your secret. Could anything be better than this situation?

How do you know who to tell your secret to, and who to ignore? Don’t you have to know in advance that the person you want to tell your secret to will agree with you? Obviously, yes. You have be able to read the values of your prospect before you spill the beans on them

And this is totally possible. The values that people hold near-and-dear are dependant on their type of personality. And they leak out, and are easily visible for everyone to see.

Fortunately for us, these values have been cataloged for the last 50 years by psychologists. They wanted to help people with specific personal problems, but the same information can be used to pre-screen them to see if they will be agreeable to our technique of gaining trust. In effect, it takes nearly all the risk out of telling the wrong type of person our secret values.

Is this manipulation? Nope. We’re only screening people. The ones that don’t fit the profile are ignored. Why ignore them? Because there are so many people that do agree with you, that you really don’t need to take this information and manipulate people. You can sleep well at night knowing that you are truly helping the people that desire to be helped. This information just allows you to find them faster, and to jump right to Level 4 in the rapport building strategy, skipping levels 1 through 3.

Where can you find this information? Just go to http://customerSecrets.com. That is my marketing site that will help you to sell faster and quicker, and in a way that you’ll feel good about doing. And it is not manipulation; it is a quick filtering strategy so you can get to the perfect customers for your products and services.

Review: How to Get To Level 4 In Customer Rapport Building?

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To review, this article gave you the “secret” to building rapport quickly and easily. You don’t need to go through the first three levels of building rapport, where you match the prospect’s body language, tone of voice, and then mirror the words that they use. That is very time consuming, and hard to do because it requires you to have two goals at once (mirroring, and selling).

Instead, you can go right to sharing values with them, which is the forth and deepest level of rapport that you can reach. This is the same level of rapport that you have with your family and your close personal friends.

The “secret” to doing this is to share your secrets with your prospects. These are things like what are your values or ideals that are not already known to your prospect. But this can be risky, especially if the person you share them with doesn’t agree with your values and ideals for how they live their life. The solution to this is to “pre-screen” the prospect to find out what values you have in common. This sounds hard, but “values reading” is actually much easier to accomplish than reading body language. And in most cases, it can be done within about 30 seconds of coming into contact with them. The cool thing is that you can use this same technique on the internet where you don’t actually physical meet the prospect.

In conclusion, to learn more about how to read a person’s values, so that you can sell your products faster and easier, visit http://CustomerSecrets.com.

This YouTube video defines the four levels of rapport, but doesn't tell you how to get to the deepest level that you need for selling.

Psychologists have identified 4 levels of rapport that you can establish between you and your prospects. They go from Level 1, which is non-verbal rapport, to Level 4, where you share the same beliefs and values. Sort of like going from very slight pleasantries to being deep in the mind of the other person. The deeper the level of rapport, the easier it is to make a sale. I’m sure that you’d agree with that, right?

That is why it is easy-peasy to sell to your family and friends than it is to sell to total strangers.

How do you get to that deep level-4 stage of rapport? This is the $1 million dollar question, that no is really willing to answer. Until now, that is. I’m going to share with you a technique that works exceptionally well.

As I was researching what others were saying about this topic, I came away with the conclusion that they were really concentrating on the first three levels of building rapport; and there was this belief that you had to do them in the correct sequence.

The first level was to build non-verbal rapport. This stage concentrates on sending the right body language cues to the other person you’re trying to influence (i.e., to sell to). For example, most prospect meetings start out with giving a prospect a hand-shake. And I’m sure you have been given a lot of tips on how to do that. One tip that I learned was to turn your body sideways when presenting your outstretched hand, so that you appear non-aggressive. The hope is that the other person will feel more at ease when talking to you.

Before I go too much further, I’d like to point out that most of the people that concentrate their study on this topic are NLP practitioners. The end result of their rapport building strategies is to get their prospect to a trance-like state (as in hypnosis). You’ll often see them gravitate to hypnotherapy careers, which I find interesting. And that I’ll come back to this later, as that tells me a lot about the personalities of a majority of the NLP practitioners.

The NLP practitioners build rapport in the Level 2 and Level 3 stages through a technique called “mirroring.” This is where you first start matching your voice tone to what the prospect is using. If they are in a sad mood, then you change your body posture and the tone of your voice to match that feeling. You may even establish the same breathing rate and pattern that they are using. Then you start dropping in the same phrases and the words that they are using.

Are you comfortable around that guy in the mirror?

The reason for all of this is to get the prospect to feel comfortable and to lower their defensive mechanisms. It is like trying to get them to feel as if they were looking into a mirror at themselves, where no one else is in the room except for them. Then, if you are looking into a mirror, you will begin to open up and let out your deepest secrets. In effect, the practitioner has got you to the point where the prospect has exposed their soft underbelly. See how close this is to hypnosis?

Does it work? Yes. After all, these are the same techniques that are used in hypnosis to put someone in a relaxed state and then into a trance.

For the prospect, they do feel safe enough in their vulnerability, that they will establish a significant level of report. In that sense, it is well worth it to investigate NLP techniques further.

However, it has two disadvantages. First, how do you use NLP tactics in a non face-to-face situation, such as selling on a web site?

Mirroring is hard to do when you can’t see the other person. But the NLP people will say that in this situation, you have to use powerful hypnotic stories. That works to some extent, but you have to be real good at crafting a story that someone else will be willing to read online. But to me, this is really “copywriting.” And in that sense, I am all for learning as much as I can about copywriting.

The other problem I see with the NLP technique of mirroring is that I’ve only seen a small percentage of people that are capable of multi-tasking at this high level of proficiency. It is really hard for most people to do two tasks at the same time: trying to sell their product and trying to mirror someone. My own observation is that it takes a specific type of personality that has this ability, and my guess it is less than 25% of the population. I’m not one of them, unfortunately. My mind is easily distracted, usually trying to do problem identification, than trying to do mirroring.

But if you’re capable of doing mirroring to get to level 3 in rapport building, then I say go for it. You don’t have anything to lose.

The fourth level of Rapport

But does going through the first three levels of rapport building guarantee that you’ll get to the fourth level?

The fourth level of rapport does exist. We know we have deep rapport with family and close friends. Right? That level occurs when we know about someone on a very personal level.

Some marketers say you have to be this close with your prospects. But again, that is hard for people like me (an introvert). And it is also next to impossible to do in the internet without consuming a lot of your time trying to establish life-long relationships. But I could be wrong about this. A large majority of marketers say you have to be on facebook and other social media outlets to build rapport to this level with prospects.

But my question remains. Can we get to the level 4 depth in rapport building without trying to be friends with every single prospect on the planet?

I believe that there is a way to get that deep quickly. And as evidence, I offer up con-artists as proof that it can be done. Does that make sense to you? They are quickly able to build trust and get to deep rapport, and they are able to get people to give them money.

How do they do it? And can it be done in an ethical way?

Next time, we’ll answer these questions.

In the mean time, if you want to learn more, see CustomerSecrets.com for the techniques that will get you to level 4 in rapport quickly and effortlessly.

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