Close Close
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
ThinkAdvisor

Regulation and Compliance > State Regulation

Creating congruency by ?walking my talk'

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

We have all had the experience of having days where we are on a roll. We are in the flow and people just can’t help but want to do business with us. We have also all had the experience of feeling like we couldn’t sell a machine gun in a prison riot.

The ever-elusive “zone” is the holy grail of selling. If we are in the zone, everything seems to flow naturally and things fall into place. Is it possible to make our access to the zone more consistent and predictable? How can we access the zone when we have difficult days or are dealing with especially difficult people?

The most powerful part of our communication is unconscious. When we are in the zone, there is an alignment between our conscious and unconscious, which is why we feel such a sense of flow. Think of a time when you casually threw a piece of paper at a wastebasket and it went in. You threw the paper without thought – there was no voice in your head, no conscious conversation with yourself about getting the paper in the basket. If you then tried to repeat the same thing, telling yourself how to do it, odds are that wad of paper ended up on the floor. So much for the effectiveness of your “inner coach.”

When you are in the zone, there is no separate conscious voice. In fact, we often have our deepest experiences with a sense of oneness or completeness when we are in this state. Why are we not in this state more often? Why can’t we predictably access it? There are many reasons, but one of the most important is the conflict between our conscious and unconscious minds when we are trying to perform. We are often and largely incongruent.

And people are incongruent because they are not sold on what they are selling – they are not buying what they are telling others to buy. Simply put, they are not walking their talk.

On a scale of 1-10, rate your answer to the question, “To what degree am I a living example of the advice I give?” If you’re a perfect 10 please contact me immediately so I can get some advice. If you are like me, you will find that on some level you fall short of perfection. This is not a problem, it is in fact a sign that you are in a challenging career, and that you are pushing beyond what is easy or comfortable for you.

Then ask yourself the next question: “What is the single biggest thing I can do to jump my score?” In essence you are asking what you could do to become more congruent.

Here’s a final question for now, no matter what your score is. “What is the single most important thing you can do to significantly increase your level of congruence?”

You will need a high level of alignment/congruence for what I am going to cover in our next conversation. But with this foundation in place we can begin to build something truly exceptional.


NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.