skills 360 – selling your ideas (part 2)

7/30/2019 Skills 360 Selling your Ideas (Part 2)

1/5

2011 All rights reserved: www.businessenglishpod.com

1

Business Skills 360 Selling your Ideas (Part 2)

Discussion Questions

1. What type of personality or attitude are you naturally drawn to?

2. What types of attitude or behavior will make you less likely to believe

someone?

3. When someone appears very surprised by your ideas, how do you feel?

Vocabulary

To adopt to decide to start using a particular idea, plan, or attitude; It isimportant to adopt a confident attitude when doing a sales presentation.

Positivity the attitude that positive things do and will happen; if someone is

positive, it means he or she is optimistic and focuses on the good rather than the

bad; Brads positivity makes everyone else in the office feel happy about comingto work.

To gravitate to move naturally toward; to be attracted by; People gravitate

toward strong leaders and shy away from weak ones.

On board - if someone is on board with a plan or idea, it means he or she accepts

it and will work toward its goals; The manager held a meeting to try and geteveryone on board with the revised sales targets.

Empathy true understanding of another persons emotions or situation;

Because Sal had also been fired, he could feel empathy for my circumstances.

Red tape official forms, processes, and routines that may seem unnecessary;

You wouldnt believe all the red tape we had to cut through just to get a businesslicense.

Side whenever there are two opposing teams or ideas, we can call them sides;

if someone is on your side, it means they are on your team, so to speak; I

found it very difficult to choose a side in the argument because I disagreed with

both viewpoints.

To get it to understand; After the trainer explained for a fourth time what wewere supposed to do, I finally got it.

Inclusion inclusion is the noun form of include; in social situations, inclusion is

the idea of people feeling they are part of a group; The company held a barbecue

and family day to give the new employees a feeling of inclusion.

Tack an approach, method, or way of doing something; Television advertising

didnt seem to be working for us, so we decided to try a different tack.


2/5


2

Shock a feeling of great surprise or disbelief; My reaction to the announcementthat our company had just been sold was one of complete shock.

Absurd completely without logic, sense, or truth; Cameron laughed and called

the accusations against him completely absurd.

Jaw drops If your jaw drops, it means you are completely surprised, either

positively or negatively; My jaw dropped when I found out that our CFO earns$500,000 a year.

Up to scratch meeting a minimum standard; usually we say that something is

not up to scratch to say that it is not good enough; The project leader said the

designs werent up to scratch and asked for them to be redone.

Punchline in a joke, the punchline is the final funny statement, but in anargument, the punchline is the final important point; After spending an hour

describing the economic situation, the speaker gave his punchline about reducing

costs.

Transcript

Hello and welcome back to Business Skills 360. Im Tim Simmons, and Im glad you

could join me today for more tips and techniques for selling your ideas.

Now, you know your ideas are good, but how do others? You need to make them

think or even just feel that they are good. Last week, we looked at some techniques

you can use. In this show, well look at attitudes that you can adopt. This isnt

exactly about what you say, its about how you say it and the feelings orimpressions your delivery creates.

The first attitude is positivity. People naturally gravitate to positive people and tend

to avoid negative people. So, make a habit of doing simple things like saying helloto people in the hall and at the water cooler. Keep discussions upbeat. Show

excitement about your ideas and keep smiling. Theres a lot of power in a smile,

and you should use yours to cultivate an atmosphere of positivity and warmth.

People will be drawn to you, and, as a result, to your ideas.

Another attitude that will bring people on board with your idea is empathy. This isabout showing people that you understand how they feel. Not just that you know

what theyre talking about, but that you have felt it too. If that person is feeling

frustrated by red tape, describe an experience in which you also felt frustrated by

red tape. They will feel youre on the same side. Show people that you get it, andtheyll be more likely to believe and follow you.

Empathy creates a feeling of inclusion, or belonging. And there are other ways ofdoing this. Have a welcoming attitude. Your great idea is more than just an idea.

Its an idea plus all of the people who believe in it. In this sense, your idea has its

own little club, and everyone who believes in it belongs to that club. So talk aboutwe rather than I and make people feel like accepting your idea admits them to a

group. People want inclusion and fellowship. You can make them feel this with a

welcoming attitude.


3/5


3

Okay, now there are other tacks you can take when youre trying to sell someoneon your ideas. One of them is shock and disbelief. This is a very useful tool for

making people feel that another idea, maybe one that disagrees with yours, is

useless or absurd. It goes something like this: Did you hear what the consultantsaid? He actually thinks we should spend more on marketing. Myjaw dropped when

I heard that. People who might have thought the idea was good will have doubts.

After all, ifyou think the idea is crazy, then other people probably do too.

One more attitude or impression is something called the last resort. The last

resort is the only option. It may not be a perfect option, but its the only one

remaining. Your idea might actually be one of many, but if you talk about it asthough its the only one left, people will stop considering other ideas. Well, weve

looked at all the alternatives and none of them are up to scratch, then you can hit

them with the punchline, So I guess we really dont have any other choice Yousee how this works? People will get the impression that all the other options have

been explored already.

So, remember that bringing people on side doesnt just mean giving them reasons

to believe you. It also means adopting certain attitudes to create an emotional

response.

Thats all for today. If youd like to test yourself on what weve just covered, have a

look at the myBEonline.com website. There youll find a quiz about todays show as

well as a complete PDF transcript.

So long, and see you again soon.


4/5


4

Review

1. Which of the following are attitudes that can help you sell your ideas?

A. empathy

B. frustration

C. shockD. thoughtfulness

E. positivity

F. welcoming

G. superiority

2. According to Tim, Theres a lot of power in a ___________, and you should

use yours to cultivate an atmosphere of positivity and warmth.

3. Why might you tell a story about being frustrated?

A. to show people you understand how they feel

B. to complain about something

C. to show that you are not positive about everything

D. to exclude them from a group

4. What does Tim say is the purpose of shock?

A. It makes people laugh.

B. It makes people feel welcome.

C. It makes people feel your ideas are fantastic.

D. It makes people feel another idea is crazy.

5. To make people feel included in a group, Tim suggests using

A. you rather than we

B. them rather than us

C. we rather than I

D. it rather than them

6. What does the attitude of last resort show people?

A. that your idea is better than others

B. that your idea is the only one remaining

C. that your idea is logicalD. that your idea is inexpensive


5/5


5

Review Answers

1. Which of the following are attitudes that Tim suggests can help you sell your ideas?

A. empathy

C. shock

E. positivityF. welcoming

2. According to Tim, Theres a lot of power in a ___________, and you should

use yours to cultivate an atmosphere of positivity and warmth.

Smile

3. Why might you tell a story about being frustrated?

A. to show people you understand how they feel

4. What does Tim say is the purpose of shock?

D. It makes people feel another idea is crazy.

5. To make people feel included in a group, Tim suggests using

C. we rather than I

6. What does the attitude of last resort show people?

B. that your idea is the only one remaining

Online Practice

Click the Launch button to open the online practice:

skills 360 – selling your ideas (part 2)

Documents