Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a magic formula, a golden key that would open the door to super powers for sales? Like a bright light, these powers would shine and everyone they touched – everyone who walked in the door of the business, or called on the phone, or spoke to the company personnel – would be warmed, and trance-like, want to buy your products?

Well, with a little bit of training, you can have a secret Magic 8-Ball that paves the way for these things to happen. Or a Magic 8-Ball cake! Okay, maybe this sounds like I’ve been hitting the Rapid Remover too hard, but bear with me.

"There’s no use trying," said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” -- Lewis Carroll

What follows is a snippet, really, of one of my workshops developed in 2008 (and is, in fact, a piece of my keynote address scheduled this June for the International Sign Association’s Supplier Distributor Conference in Chicago.). See Blog by Lance Clark, Signposts, right, for details-->>

First Ingredient: Understanding that there are, in general terms, two primary types of people in the world, based on the way they take in information: There are those who are visual, synthesizing “all” at a glance; and there are those who are auditory, proceeding along a more linear and verbal path.


These are referred to by researchers as Visuals and Auditories. (Yes, I know, spell check does not like that A word, but who is to argue with science?) As it turns out, Visuals are Right-Brain Dominant, and Auditories are Left-Brain Dominant. (Hence the communication problems often experienced between graphic designer and sales consultant. Opposite ends of the brain…)

Now, secondly, we add some insight. As is reported in our LobbyPOP program literature and by other research organizations, the average person sees over 3,000 advertisements each day! Newspapers, radio, flyers, magazines, mobile phones, banners, posters, and give-a-ways surround us and each one exerts its influence. With so many competing interests, which ones rise above the rest? What do we engage with enough to remember? The best answers in life are elegantly simple. This one can be summed up in a single word: Experience!

We will only remember the advertisements or activities that touch us and create an actual "Experience".

Can you just taste the cake? Probably need to beat some sense into the mix. Literally. This is our final ingredient, to produce the perfect batter…

Follow me here: The only way we can have an actual experience of something, is via our five senses. Aha? Are you with me? Did we circle back to Visuals and Auditories?

Yes, indeed. IF you want to stand out in a crowd, hit the ball out of the park, grasp the hand of a new client and shake on that big sale, hear the smile on the other end of the phone, taste sweet success, then you need to USE WORDS THAT PAINT A PICTURE TO TOUCH THE RIGHT BRAIN. You are already using words, so you have led the client’s left brain to the end of your sentence. But it’s their right brain that already chose whether or not this was going to be a good relationship. The right brain took information that was not part of the verbal coating, and bit into the creamy center to decide if your offer was tasty.

Speak words that paint a picture – hopefully a nice, artistic expression of your good intentions. Nice by-product: You can suddenly communicate with your Super-Auditory (you know, the person who can’t follow your sentence, but they are nonetheless brilliant.)

So, take heart and get there through the Right Brain! Next step would be to craft the Right Brain Mission Statement which becomes the touchstone for your every company breath... but that is for another day!

"The main theme to emerge... is that there appear to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal, represented rather separately in left and right hemispheres respectively and that our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere." -Roger Sperry (1973)

If you want to know more, or how to create a compelling, super-charged, group-hug-right-brain mission statement, drop me a line, anytime. I leave you with two things: A quote for your left brain, and a picture for your right brain... Best to you always, T

“Paradoxically, the enduring competitive advantages in a global economy lie increasingly in local things—knowledge, relationships, and motivations that distant rivals cannot match.” —Michael E. Porter Harvard Business School