Speaker 1 0:19

To the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. My name is Mike Merarki. I'm your host. I'm really happy you're with us today, because today we're going to be talking about communications Really appreciate all of the kind words and support that I've gotten for the podcast. I'm really grateful for everyone who's listened to it and who has gained something valuable from it. It's the reason why I'm doing this. Any feedback you have is always appreciated and if you are getting value out of the podcast, please like and subscribe to get valuable updates as well as to help spread the word. We are talking about communications today. How we communicate is going to really determine our success or failure in life. The better we communicate, the more likely we are to be successful.

Speaker 1 1:07

I'm going to start with a story about when my mom and dad were living. My dad went out to the store. On his way out the door, my mom asked my dad for a lemon pie. My dad goes to the store and doesn't remember what my mom asked for, so he's going through his head trying to figure out what this could possibly be that she was wanting, and so he came up with a candy bar. So he comes home, gives my mom the candy bar and my mom's like why did you give me a candy bar? I asked for a lemon pie. Why did that happen? My mom told him she wanted a lemon pie. What caused him to get her a candy bar? And it's not as simple as you think. You may think. Well, he just wasn't listening. Well, that might be part of it, but there's more to the story. So we're really going to learn about why my dad got a candy bar instead of the lemon pie that my mom asked for.

Speaker 1 1:58

So let's start with the definition of communications. Communications is the response you get. In my mom and dad's case. My mom asked for a lemon pie and she got a candy bar. Did she communicate a candy bar? No, but somehow that's what came out of it.

Speaker 1 2:15

Sometimes, when you're trying to communicate something to someone and you're not getting the response, you may need to rethink how you're communicating to that person. So let's look at the ways we communicate so we can better understand how to communicate more effectively. There's three primary ways that we communicate. We communicate by our words, and that's 7% of the total communications. So words would include emails and texting.

Speaker 1 2:43

If you've ever been in a situation which I'm sure you have where you're emailing or texting back and forth and there's a huge misunderstanding. That is why because you're only communicating at 7%. So what do you do next? You pick up the phone and you call that person and you say, hey, I didn't mean what you're thinking. You're taking what I'm saying the wrong way. And the other person says, oh, okay, the reason why is because when you bring your voice into it, or your tonality, that is another 38% of communications. Between your words and between your voice, that's 45% of total communication. So now you're almost halfway there to communicating fully.

Speaker 1 3:23

55% of communications is your body language. So that's when you're seeing someone in person, you're able to see their facial expressions, you're able to see their body language. You can get a full picture of communications based on their words, based on their tonality and based on their body language. Teams and Zoom is a good example of this. It doesn't get you the full 55%, but it does give you the facial expressions and it does give you a much better way of communicating versus just the phone and certainly versus emails and texting. Understanding the best way to communicate with someone is obviously in person. The second best would be Teams or Zoom, and then on the phone and then emails and texting. You could be a much more effective salesperson if you pick up the phone versus email and texting. Now, most salespeople today rely on email and texting more than they do getting on the phone. If you really want to increase your chances for success, using the phone is going to obviously do that.

Speaker 1 4:31

Let's look at how people process information. People process information in three basic ways either visually, auditory or physically. Let's talk about each of those. People have processed information by seeing. Visual processors are generally neat and orderly. So if you see somebody who is really well put together neat as a pen, shoes, shined, everything's in order that's usually a visual person. They're very observant to detail. They're appearance-oriented. They also, if you get up in the morning and you put yourself together, you're going to look in the mirror before you leave the door.

Speaker 1 5:07

This is a visual type of person. They buy by seeing, so they buy with their eyes. In other words, if I'm looking for a car, for example, the car's got to look right. If the car doesn't look right, I'm not going to buy it. The wheels have to look good, the color's got to be right, the shape of the car has to be good. Everything about it has to be right visually for me to buy it. If it's not right visually, no matter how good of a deal it is, I'm not going to buy it.

Speaker 1 5:33

When you think about this from a selling standpoint and you're talking to a visual buyer, how are you going to sell to that person? That person looks at the case, that person looks at the POS. That person is buying through their eyes, through sight. So you have to make sure that when you're selling to that person, you have good literature and good website, for example, will really speak to someone who's visual. If your website is terrible, that visual person is going to look at it and go. I don't know if I want to do business with this company because visually it doesn't make sense. When you manage a visual person, you want to make sure that you're doing checklists and charts and things that they could see visually. If you give them visual instructions, they're much more likely to be able to retain the information much more likely to be able to retain the information. That's one of the reasons why, when my mom asked for a lemon pie, she got a candy bar because she didn't put it down on paper. If she would have wrote it on paper, she would have had a much better chance of getting what she asked for.

Speaker 1 6:34

The next type of person is an auditory processor. Auditory processors process by hearing. How would you know if somebody is an auditory person? These are people who talk to themselves. While they're working. They're easily distracted by noise. For example, if they're navigating somewhere and they're driving their car and the music's on, they need to turn down the music in order to think about where they're going, in order to be able to focus. A visual learner, for example. I can listen to music and work without any problem as a visual learner. Music, if anything, helps me focus more, it doesn't really affect my ability to focus when an auditory person. If they have noise coming into their ear, that's how they process information, so it really messes with them. They have trouble focusing. They also they buy by hearing.

Speaker 1 7:24

If you're selling to an auditory seller, you want to give them stories.

Speaker 1 7:29

You want to give them testimonials about how the product worked.

Speaker 1 7:33

When you're managing an audible person, you'll want to give them audible instructions. You can tell them something. They'll be likely to remember it versus writing it down on paper. And then you have your kinesthetic learners Kinesthetic learners or physical learners. These are people who buy with their hands. These are hands-on learners. How do you know a kinesthetic person? They may touch you while they're talking to you. They may pat you on the back when you have a conversation with them. They're going to stand close to you, like in your face. If you've ever experienced that where you're in a conversation with someone who's in your face and you're kind of moving around the room trying to get them out of your space and they continue to be in your face, this is a kinesthetic type of person. They move and gesture a lot.

Speaker 1 8:18

Kinesthetic people tend to be soft in appearance, so they're not necessarily into the look. They want to be comfortable, comfortable shoes. They don't necessarily have to be shined. They're not going to look sharp in appearance necessarily. They're going to look soft and round, maybe a little bit. They love to work with their hands. When you manage a ken aesthetic learner, you want to give them a demo. You want to have them do it physically to try it. You want to show them how to do it and allow them to do it with their hands. That way they'll be able to learn it more effectively. If you want to sell effectively, you want to sell to all three of these modalities right. You want to have the POS, you want to have a good website, you want to tell good stories about your product, and you also want to have samples. If you do those three things, you're going to be much more effective in your way you sell, because you're hitting all three of those ways that people process information, which is going to make you much more effective.

Speaker 1 9:14

The thing about kinesthetics, though, is in a school setting, these are the people who, a lot of times, are marginalized because they don't learn the same way as the others learn, as visual and audible processors. School is taught mostly in visual and audible formats, and so the kinesthetics are just waiting for Jim Woodshop Votek. These are the kids that tend to go to Votek. Sometimes, kinesthetic kids aren't looked at as being as smart as the others. It doesn't have anything to do with that. It has to do with how they process information. Some of the smartest people I know are kinesthetics, and they're just as smart as anyone else. It's just that in school, they don't learn the same way as the other kids, so sometimes they're marginalized and made to feel dumb, even though they're not.

Speaker 1 10:02

Bill Allen has a saying the more interested you are, the more interesting you'll be. Any conversation is about the other person. If you want to be a great conversationalist, you will use the 80-20 rule 80% focused on them, 20% on you. If you want to have a great conversation with anybody, ask them about their family, ask them what they do for a living, ask them anything about themselves, and then you'll be able to start a great conversation. And then you just continue to ask questions based off of what they're saying and the other person will think it's the best conversation in the world and you will too, because it is a great conversation when you're able to learn about other people and about their stories.

Speaker 1 10:47

That's really what makes great conversations, not telling them all about you. If you understand these concepts, you'll be a much better communicator and you'll be more likable in general. Self-awareness is the key here to being focused on the other person, which will help you communicate more effectively. That's all I've got for today. If this was valuable, remember to like and subscribe to the podcast Until next time. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? Selling toilet paper. That's what we do. Thanks a lot and have a great day.