Ways to distinguish yourself – #24 Influence the influencers

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 09 May 2005, 9:25 PM – Leave Comment

This post may seem like it is targeted at sales professionals but my

guess is that it is equally applicable to professionals at all levels.

Whenever we are making a point, getting our ideas across, we tend to

focus only on the decision makers. This may work but many times, the

better approach is to look for the influencers in the group. There will

always be one or two key influencers in the group. The group will

typically look forward to the opinion of these key influencers before

they make up their own opinion of what we are talking about.

I learnt this concept from leadership guru – John Maxwell.

John has a great way of explaining how to identify the influencer

within a group. When you are taking to the group and you make a

statement on which the group has to take a stand observe what the

members of the group typically do. Most often, they look for the

non-verbal queues of the influencer. For example, if the influencer is

nodding, many folks in the group will agree with what was said and if

the influencer is shaking his head, many members in the group will

disagree with what is being said.

Wish you the very best and hope you influence lots and lots of influencers!!

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