Cutting through the Noise and Seeing Your Way to the Sale

Auditories, Davis added, constitute less than 15% of prospects; those like Frances are rare. As a group, they tend to repeat back information conveyed to them. They pay close attention to the tone and pitch of the speaker's voice. And, as in Frances' case, they love music and a good story.

Visuals, by contrast, translate words into pictures. They like bar charts and, when watching a presentation, tend to look up and to the right when creating a mental image of the information, then to the left and down, respectively, when recalling and processing the data. They are more focused when conversations are studded with visual words ? look, clear, see, picture, view, vision, and so on.

When they have trouble understanding a point, one solution is to break out a yellow note pad and convey the point graphically ? then wait for the look of comprehension, which Davis dubbed the "thousand-yard stare."

"They look right at you ? or rather through you," said Davis. "That's when you know you've established deep rapport. Additionally, when giving visuals a paper-based presentation, you'll want to let them look at it before you talk. Also, talk with your hands and be animated."

Kinetics, who make up nearly half of the population, tend to feel "hot" or "cold" about experiences, are empathetic and emotional, and warm to kinetic words like touch, feel, grab, handle, smooth and sharp. An advisor, said Davis, might therefore ask prospects during a discovery interview to imagine how they "feel" about a desired outcome.

Other effective techniques said Davis, include "matching" or "mirroring" the kinetic's posture (by, for example, leaning forward in one's seat when the client does the same); and, with visuals, "sliding" by using visual cues to first recap points of agreement, then focus on the question at issue.

Davis additionally counseled advisors to voice support of competitors; discover clients' buying behaviors; induce clients to imagine they already own the proposed product or service; incorporate attractive colors into presentations; and make frequent use of 12 words: discover, easy, guarantee, health, love, money, new, proven, results, safety, save and you.

Davis closed his talk by urging advisors to "listen your way to a close."

"The cornerstone of my financial planning practice is that I spend from one to three hours just listening to clients during the discovery interview," said Davis. "It's very effective. By the end of the interview, they will have told me everything I need to know to sell to them."