When interacting with our affluent prospects and clients we need to exude confidence and self assuredness. We need to really show them what we're made of. There's a point, however, where confidence becomes over confident and assuredness becomes arrogance. These are not good qualities in a sales professional. Competence, self assurance, and confidence are excellent things to be full of.

Persuasion relies on our prospects perceptions of us. The reputation of people who sell isn't always flattering or accurate. In past articles I've written about how we can overcome objections and what the biggest block is in sales, partially fueled by an old-fashioned, slick, exaggerated parody of what a sales person is.

We are not slick sales robots. Those sales people take traditional sales training. . . we are learning the art of persuasion. They regurgitate features and benefits. . . we, connect our products and services uniquely to our client's and prospect's deepest core values and criteria.

Our path of persuasion excellence is replacing the tactics of old fashioned sales techniques and reframing what we do to be our truth about persuasion allowing us to really shine.

Think about this for a moment. . . How are you being perceived?

Are you exaggerating your products or services in any way? If so, people will figure this out, if not immediately, they will be underwhelmed once they get the product or service. In persuasion an incredibly powerful technique to use is over delivering, not underwhelming. Give an overview or outline of what you're going to give them and then give more.

Are you sabotaging yourself with sloppy, untrustworthy language? 'Honestly', 'seriously', 'truth be told'. . . .These diminish credibility and create incongruities and inconsistency. Linguistic precision is a huge component of persuasion. Cleaning up our own language incongruities gives us a huge boost.

Bragging too much or talking badly about others is another common pitfall some sales people use. These things don't make you look better, but reflect quite poorly.

How about scapegoating? Have you ever come across someone in sales who constantly sloughs off responsibility? Being responsible is a huge factor in people perceiving you as trustworthy. With that said, there are benefits to scapegoating if used properly and this tactic is used all the time in advertising and politics.

And last, but not least, learn when not to talk. A huge percentage of persuasion and getting what we want in life, in business, in the world in general, is about LISTENING. Know when to keep your mouth shut. The other side of that is, learn to ask the right questions. Through practice and study these distinctions will become second nature.

In order to come across as not full of it, we need to be not full of it.