Are You Searching for the Six Degrees of Likeability?
Likeability is one of the most important principles of influence.
I have been to several trainings where I was taught to be likeable by “Making Other People Feel Important”, or MOPFI for short. I don’t disagree with making other people feel important, yet often this technique leads to giving potential clients fake compliments. Think of saying to someone, “Nice broach!” #gag
I don’t know if you have ever been in the same position before, but I have discovered that there is a better way to gain likeability.
Have you ever played the game Six Degrees of Seperation? Or perhaps you are more familiar with the other version of the same game called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The idea of these games is that if you try hard enough, you can connect any two people in world in six connection points or less. Similiarily, you can connect Kevin Bacon to anyone in the world in six connections or less. (It’s actually true.)
When it comes to connecting to your customer I encourage you to use the same mindset. In other words, look for commonalities.
Recently I was in Nashville working with a team of 70 sales professionals. In the seminar, the topic of likeability came up when one of the gentlemen, named Jacob, asked, “If compliments don’t always work, then how do you truly connect with people?”
It’s a fair question considering it isn’t taught very much these days. My answer was very simple: “Be more interested not interesting.”
He said, What does that look like?” Here is how the rest of the conversation went:
Me: “So no one is from Nashville originally. Where are you from?”
Jacob: “Atlanta.”
Me: “How long have you been in Nashville?”
Jacob: “About a year.”
Me: “Cool. How are you liking it?”
Jacob: “I love it…but I don’t like where I’m living?
Me: “Why is that?”
Jacob: “I just got a dog and my apartment is not ideal for him.”
Me: “Ok. What kind of dog did you get?”
Jacob: “A Mastiff.”
Me: “Wow. That’s a big dog. What’s his name?”
Jacob: “Odie.”
Let me pause here for a moment and encourage you to go over to my personal Instagram page. @RyanTaft. What you will notice is about every third picture is of my dog. His name? You guessed it…Odie.
And that’s all it took to connect us. The next thing you know, Jacob and I are showing pictures of our Odies to each other. #Connection
I had no idea where that conversation was going but I have learned that when you are genuinely interested in other people, uncovering common connections is easy.
The question is, are you willing to change your focus from yourself to your customer. If so, likeability is in your reach, and therefore, so is a sale.
