Hey there my friend, 

This is Paul Hutchings and I am excited to deliver to you today another step in the 12 step series on Influence & sales.

Today, I am going to deliver step 4 in the magical 12 step Influence process. 

I’m excited!

Today’s step 4.

Now if you’ve been following this blog series, you know that:

Step 1 is get attention

Step 2 is get rapport / likeability.

And step 3 is get credibility.

Now we’re on to step 4.

And I encourage you my friend, as you going through these posts, I encourage you to memorize these steps. 

Because these are the steps that you can use throughout the rest of your life whenever it is that you’re going to need to get some influence with somebody.

Whenever you’re going to sell something, these are the steps that can help you do it in the most effective way possible.

So get attention, get rapport, and get credibility.

And the fourth step is to target a problem.

It’s been said that business people, people that make a lot of money,

…they’re very good at solving people’s problems.

And if you want to get influence with somebody, you’ve got to identify a problem that they have.

Actually, I noticed this when I started to get good at phone prospecting.

I would get on the phone, I would make a friend and would get their attention.

In most cases, I already had credibility with them because they had come through a video or a blog post. 

(That’s a big advantage of generating leads online)

All I had to do was get a little rapport & get the conversation flowing.

Then, I would start to ask questions.

And when I asked questions, I was looking for something specific.

I was looking for a need.

I was looking for a problem that the person had.

Because I knew that if they have a problem and I had a solution for that problem or a potential solution, then they would be much more open to taking a look at the solution that I had for them.  

(in most cases the solution was my products and/or my business opportunity.

 

And so you want to learn how to targets people’s problems.

In order to do that effectively, if you’re doing it one on one, you can ask questions.

You can listen and you can hear. 

When people get comfortable with you, they’ll tell you their problems.

They’ll tell you their dreams.

They’ll tell you where they’re struggling.

If you just get good at getting rapport and asking questions.

What if you’re wanting to target a problem in a group situation?

It’s helpful to know who you’re talking to, that’s what is called a target audience.

And once you know your target audience, typically the problems are pretty common among your target audience.

One of the best ways to target problems is to tell stories.

I’ve actually got some great stories of problems that I used to have that have been really effective in helping me to help others identify their problems and see that we have similar problems.

Before I got to network marketing,

….I worked at a job 48 hours a week.

I would leave my home early in the morning, come back late at night.

Didn’t make much money.

I was making about $3,000 a month.

They would ship me out on company work trips. 

On the weekend, I’d have to leave my family.

That was a problem for me.

And if you can, when you’re targeting these problems, if you can tell a story that has some emotions with it, that’s going to help a ton.

The Corporate Grind

Back to my working days, I remember one time, I was working on this job and they came in and they said,

….“Paul we need you to fly down to Phoenix this weekend on a company trip. Can you do that?”

And I said, “Well it’s my first year Wedding Anniversary this weekend. Do you mind if I check with my wife first?”

And my boss said, “Yes go ahead go ahead go talk to your wife .”

And I said, “Thank you.”

And I called my wife and I said, “Honey they want me to go out of town, I know it’s our first year Wedding Anniversary, what do you think?”

And she said “Well it’s your job, you probably better do it.”

My first year Wedding Anniversary, I spent away from my wife, in a hotel room in Phoenix Arizona, and worked all day.

And that night, I remember sitting in a steak house, picking up my cell phone, dialing the numbers and calling to wish my wife Happy Anniversary.

Not being able to be there with her for that first year Wedding Anniversary.

It felt awful! 

Then a couple of months later, I was in an interview.

My boss said, “Paul, we think you’re doing pretty good but we’ve got one problem.”

And I said, “What’s that?”

And he said, “Your loyalty.”

And I said “What do you mean my loyalty Boss?”

And he said “Well, remember when we asked you fly to Phoenix?” and I said “Yes.”

and he said “Remember when you hesitated. 

You hesitated like we asked you to do it and you didn’t give us a fast answer.”

And I said, “It was my Wedding Anniversary.”

And he said, “Yes but you know, You have to be loyal to the company.”

And I remember walking out to that office, thinking that’s the most ridiculous thing that I’ve ever experienced in my life.

My Boss, telling me, that I wasn’t loyal to the company because I wanted to check with my wife to miss our first year wedding anniversary.

And that’s when I decided that I wanted something different for my life.

That’s when I decided that no matter what it took, I was going to do it.

I was going to win my freedom. 

That’s targeting a problem.

Targeting a problem that a lot of people have.

Working at jobs that they don’t like.

Be forced to endure just ridiculous silliness by bosses and stuff like that!

That’s a problem. 

When you tell stories like that, it helps people know that you’ve experienced their problems.

And if they feel like you’ve been where they’re at — they’re going to be open to the next step on the formula which I’m going to tell you on the next blog post.

So this is an example of telling a story that targets a problem.

One of the things that we do on the internet is we target Network Marketers.

What are the types of problems that Network Marketers have?

Well, the first one that comes to mind is — I remember when I was building my business offline.

Making lists of friends and family.

I remember I literally called everyone I could think of and asked for referrals.

I would get my new team member to meet with me and give me their lists.

And I would call their lists for them.

And I remember going through this. 

Lists after lists after lists after lists.

I sponsored some people.

Built a team.

I was making about a thousand bucks a month.

And I remember one time sitting in my office, staring down at my desk – stacks of contact lists while scratching my head. 

Asking myself, am I really going to call this person again?

Because I called through them all once, sometimes twice and I’m like,

….“is this really how I want to do my business for the rest of my life?”

And all of a sudden, as I was looking down at my contact lists,

…I got this sick feeling in my stomach.

And it was just like, “No!

There’s got to be a better way.”

And that’s when I got on the internet and started looking for ways to generate leads for my Network Marketing business.

And that’s another example of a story that targets a problem that network marketers have.

So my friend, that is step number 4 in the Influence Formula.

You’ve got to target a problem if you’re going to have influence with the people you’re marketing to.  

So let’s recap again:

Step # 1 get attention

Step # 2 get rapport

Step # 3 get credibility

Step # 4 target a problem

And please memorize these with me my friend as we’re going through them.

Tomorrow… 

We are going to jump step # 5 of the Influence Formula.

Has this post helped you at all?

I’d love to hear your feedback down below.

If you’ve got some examples or maybe problems you’re having right now. 

So share with me down below if there are some things that I can help you which I’d love to.

I’d love to hear your experience.