In this special Throwback Thursday episode of Negotiations Ninja, you’ll get a refresher on how to pitch anything. Oren Klaff—the Director of Capital Markets at Intersection Capital—digs deep into the concept of building power and leverage. If you want to be a more effective and efficient negotiator—operating at THE highest level—give it a listen!
Tim David started his career as a magician. He was traveling and doing up to 350 shows a year. But being a traveling magician and parenting a child wasn’t a great mix. So he sought a career change that could bring about some life balance. But he’d never had a real job—so how could he help people in their real jobs?
He realized that the lessons that he’d learned from a life on stage could be transformed into an occupation. His lesson is simple: it’s all about human connection. It’s not about the magic tricks or the skills—it’s about connecting with people. Learn all about this magical skill in this episode of Negotiations Ninja.
Tim’s biggest takeaway from magic was one thing: the ability to see another person’s perspective. You practice magic in front of a mirror so you can see what other people see. Tim requires anyone he’s coaching to record themselves so they can see what the audience sees. Magicians obsess over this. 90% of all tricks he learned, people said “watch your angles.” You have to consider what every person in that auditorium is looking at. It’s a game-changer.
His book “Magic Words” came from seeking to understand what is happening in the brain of the listener. How can you understand that more and intentionally push the buttons? When you are communicating—whether you like it or not—you are manipulating or persuading. So why not do it more intentionally and understand what’s happening in the brains of the people around you?
So many people believe that you can learn by reading something in a book and that’s just not true. You have to practice it. Joan Rivers said, “You need to have a place where you can go and be bad for a while.” In other words, you don’t become great by reading books and studying. This is an interpersonal skill. Skills like that aren’t downloaded into the brain.
To get great you have to get practice in. Create a connection and see where it goes. Then you learn where you can improve. The difficulty of influence is the resistance to try. It feels scary and awkward. Those moments only break down when you have repetition. Tim’s favorite thing to tell magicians is “Get good, get gigs, get great.”
What is Tim’s T.R.U.E. hierarchy? Listen to hear him explain how it influences the sales process!
Julian Treasure—who Tim interviewed for one of his books—gave one of the top 10 most viewed Ted Talks of all time: How to Speak So People Will Want to Listen. His phrase that Tim loves is “You always speak into a listening.” In a sales context, you should do 80–85% listening and 15–20% talking. When you talk, it should include three levels of asking questions:
That third line of questions is when you’re digging deep into the emotional benefits that truly drive buying behavior. You ask, you listen, and then you ask a level deeper. Great salespeople are great askers of questions. If you get to that third level, that’s where you find the goal.
Most salespeople don’t get to the emotional level. When you can connect the emotion to what you’re selling, that’s when conversion rates go up. Are salespeople just lazy? Why do they seem to glaze over the most important part of the process?
Tim’s first reaction is that it can’t be laziness. After all, if you know the right way to do it will result in the outcome you want, you’d do it. But that’s the logical part of Tim’s brain. The truth? He has no idea why salespeople don’t reach that emotional level with prospects.
He notes that the brain is divided into two areas. One small area is your level of consciousness and what you’re aware of. The second larger part of your brain is what happens on an unconscious level. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that your brain doesn’t tell you about. You can’t access the part of your brain that makes decisions and creates behaviors.
When Tim did a show, he would ask an audience member to think of a number. They would always think of the number 7. How? With influence strategy. He got them to say the number 7 almost 90% of the time. He’d always ask them why they thought of 7 and they’d come up with some BS reason like, “Oh, 7 is my lucky number.” Tim emphasizes that “We make all of our decisions with emotion, but then we justify them with logic.”
Tim believes that if you care about the people that you’re serving, you’ll find the best option for them. “If your goal is persuasion, then your outcome will be manipulation. However, if your goal is connection, if your goal is service, then influence follows.” There has to be a goal of making a connection first, then everything follows. Influence—at its core—is communication between two or more people.
Many salespeople don’t engage on that level because it isn’t cut and dry, black and white, or logical. Tim shares that humans are starved for true connection. But when you input genuine connection, magical things happen. Focus on serving first and selling second. Learn more about the science of influence and human connection in this episode of Negotiations Ninja.
In this Throwback Thursday episode of the Negotiations Ninja podcast, we return to episode 131 with Banachek—a famed magician and mentalist. Banachek talks about keeping promises, building connection and trust, and what you can learn from TV Evangelists. Banachek thinks outside the box—listen to learn how you can too.
Negotiation Strategies Straight From [Famous Mentalist] Banachek, Ep #131
How do you develop the ability to close deals? According to Cody Lowry, it’s by developing good “schmooze” techniques. It isn’t about your creative strategy. It isn’t about how you can save someone millions of dollars. It all comes down to your ability to do THREE things. What are they? Find out in this episode of Negotiation Ninja!
Cody Lowry AKA “Mr. Schmooze” is a Tampa Bay native and the President of Intermark Automotive, based in Birmingham, AL. He recently released his book, “Schmooze: What They Should Teach at Harvard Business School.” Cody takes storytelling to a whole new level in this engaging episode—don’t miss it!
The term “schmooze” is often given a negative connotation and looked at as manipulative. But Cody has redefined the term and applied his own meaning. There are 25 different attributes that Cody associates with schmoozing.
Schmoozing certainly encompasses engaging in friendly conversation with others. It can definitely be persuasive. But Cody points out that you can’t schmooze without strong relationships and a winning smile. It includes looking out for the little guy and mentoring others. It’s about building trust and laughing at yourself. It means staying relevant. You need to be well-spoken and quick on your feet.
Cody got a baseball signed by the pope. He carried a torch in the Olympics. He was the recipient of a Super Bowl ring from an NFL coach—and didn’t even have to negotiate for it. He got the opportunity to audition for Saturday Night Live. All because of his ability to schmooze. Cody has been negotiating since the age of 11 to now, anything from five cents to multi-million dollar contracts. How did he realize it was his superpower?
Cody came from a broken home with no father, a single mom, and three other siblings. Before his dad left, his mom had never had to work a day in her life. They came to Florida when he was just 5-years-old. Throughout his childhood, they moved 32 times. At age 11, he started selling papers for the Miami News. He learned some important life lessons from that first job—like no doesn’t necessarily mean no.
If someone walked by without buying a paper, he’d say “Would you buy a paper if I told you where you got your shoes, what state you were born in, and how many birthdays you’ve had?” Nearly everyone bit. So he’d proceed to say “You got your shoes on your feet, you were born in the state of infancy, and you’ve only had one birth day—the day you were born.”
What is the true secret sauce to mastering negotiations?
The automotive field is very competitive. There are three levels: manufacturers, associations, and tier-three dealers. If you aren’t continuously taking them to the next level, another agency will get their ear. Cody has had tier 3 accounts on the books for 30+ years. Just to put that into perspective—a 5-year run is considered pretty good.
How do you build a 30-year relationship? How do you differentiate yourself from the competition? Listen to the whole episode to hear Cody’s success story. Plus, Cody shares a story about a business relationship that changed his life. Don’t miss this one!
In this throwback edition of the Negotiations Ninja podcast, we jump back in time to episode #144 with Tim Kintz. We talk all things sales negotiation, including why car salesmen get a bad rap. We talk about negotiating from a place of inspiration—not desperation. Tim also shares how to avoid letting your emotions cloud the process, why you should lower your customer’s guard, and how to build-in removable objections. Don’t miss out on Tim’s genius negotiation tactics!
Genius Negotiation Tactics You Can Learn From a Car Salesman with Tim Kintz, Ep #144
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