Whole Brain Thinking – A Wrap Up

(This series began on October 19th. You can read all of the entries in our archives under Communication)

We’ve taken quite a trip around your brain. Here’s what I’m hoping you garnered from the last several blogs

• We all have a ‘Whole Brain’, but have definite preferences and differences in how we see the world and ‘hear’ information.
• The power in knowing your preferences and those of your client is that you can flex into your client’s preferred quadrants and have a better chance of being heard.

But, this begs the question, “What if I don’t know the preference of my client?” or “What if I’m presenting to a varied group?” To solve for this we provide information from all four quadrants. Here’s one way that this might look in presentation:

1. Give the big picture view of why this proposal is important to the client (Yellow)
2. Provide step by step information as to how you’ll deliver your solution (Green)
3. Talk about who will be on your team to support the client (Red)
4. Give the metrics for how you’ll determine the ROI on your solution (Blue)

At the end of the day, if we are serious about connecting with our clients and deepening current client relationships, we need to go a step deeper than our standard sales process. We must find a way to speak in a language that our client will hear.

On October 20th I posted a link to an AMA article called Making the Speech of Your Life. The author spoke about  Ethos, Logos and Pathos. Ethos, the creation of trust – Logos , making your appeal with facts and numbers and Pathos, your emotional appeal. While this is a great beginning to a Whole Brain approach, it is missing some elements.

Ethos – Trust means something different to each preference. A Blue thinker for example, will trust you because it makes sense (logical), while a Green thinker will trust you because it feels safe to do so. Are you creating a Whole Brain reason for your audience to trust you?

Logos – Making your appeal with facts and figures is an outstanding way to reach the Blue quadrant thinkers in your audience.

Pathos – Making an emotional appeal will definitely get a response from the Red quadrant thinkers in your audience.

But, this strategy doesn’t address the Green quadrant. And a Green quadrant thinker wants to know HOW you are going do what you propose.

A Whole Brain approach always has a better chance of speaking to your audience. By speaking to preferences you’ll be connecting specifically with your client which will deepen your relationship with them and create more opportunities for you. We’ve recently helped increase validated opportunities by 23% at their largest tradeshow with this very approach.

I’d love to hear how it works for you.

If you like this blog, forward it to a friend.

 

Whole Brain™ thinking is owned by Herrmann International

 

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Archives:

  Connecting to the Blue Brain - November 16, 2011

  Connecting to the Green Brain - November 9, 2011

  Connecting to the Red Brain - November 2, 2011

  Connecting to the Yellow Brain - October 26, 2011

  My Aha! And, Whole Brain Thinking. - October 19, 2011

  Sales Archaeology - September 28, 2011

  What’s Your Story? - September 21, 2011

  Babel or Babble? - September 7, 2011

  The Art of “the Close” - August 31, 2011