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Knowing When To Keep Your Mouth Shut

This is crazy. . . It's a few weeks old, but very interesting in terms of when to talk and when not to talk.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII

This clip is of Laura Caitlin Upton. She was a contestant in Miss Teen America and the clip is her response to the question: "Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?"

Seeing it written out word for word is almost scarier:

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps. And I believe that our education, like, such as in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere, like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children."

I'm thinking she might have gotten left behind.

I thought the clip with the subtitles was hilarious and when I saw it, it made me (of course) want to relate it back to persuasion and sales. This comes under the title of "Why talking too much loses the sale".

Our persuasion lives are, for the most part, in front of one person or small groups of people. We're not persuading in front of thousands, tens of thousands of people, and it must be incredibly stressful. And yet, none of the other forty nine girls blathered nonsense for their answers.

Ms. Upton was trying to persuade a handful of judges. When we persuade, we need to keep in mind that our objective is not to fill the air with lots and lots of words. Our objective is to aim our message at exactly what our clients or prospects desire.

This contestant was clearly an attractive girl and the fact that she came in third shows that this was obviously a beauty contest and not a smarts contest.

If you take anything of persuasion from Ms. Upton's answer, it should be this:

Unless you're truly blessed with the gift of gab and can talk your way out of anything, then it's just possible that less is better. Say what you need and be open to the possibility that listening is the fastest way to persuasion.

Article Source: http://www.dummiesguideto.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

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